West Ham’s four-game unbeaten run came to an end at Brighton on Friday night.
Brighton, who are emerging as West Ham’s bogey team, beat the visitors 1-0 on the south coast.
Glenn Murray, who is also fast establishing himself as a West Ham nemesis, was the scorer on the night.
But it was a frustrating night for Manuel Pellegrini’s men, who failed to break down a rigid Seagulls back line.
And this unfortunately has highlighted a limitation to Pellegrini’s 4-3-3 system. It just doesn’t seem to work as well when the opposition sits back.
4-3-3 and its strengths
After a run of four consecutive league defeats, Pellegrini took action and changed to a 4-3-3 formation.
This worked wonders, earning West Ham wins over Everton and Manchester United, as well as a draw against Chelsea.
There is one major strength to this formation and that is the added protection in midfield.
Declan Rice operates in a holding midfield role and despite still being a teenager, he is an excellent player.
The 19-year-old sweeps up in front of the back four, using both his aerial presence and talent with the ball at his feet.
In front of Rice, you find Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang. These two midfielders provide West Ham with relentless running and pack the midfield, making the Hammers hard to break down.
Consequently, West Ham can soak up the pressure of any attacks and the front trio of Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko and Marko Arnautovic is always going to be a threat on the counter-attack.
4-3-3 and its lack of creativity
Unfortunately, this system also has its drawbacks. These were not highlighted until West Ham travelled to Brighton, who sat deep and invited pressure.
In Noble and Obiang, you have two dependable central midfielders but neither has the creative spark to unlock a solid defence.
Both players are more suited to simple passes, making tackles and providing an engine in midfield.
With the Brighton defence sitting back, they were able to focus their attempts on limiting the influence of Anderson, Yarmolenko and Arnautovic.
West Ham were therefore unable to break through Brighton’s wall and ended up losing 1-0.
Possible solutions
How does Pellegrini counter this problem? Well, there are a couple of options available for the Chilean.
Either he could stick with his formation and change the personnel or alternatively, he could change the system.
If Manuel Lanzini was fit (or even Jack Wilshere), West Ham could line him up alongside Noble or Obiang and hope for a piece of magic.
But until Lanzini and Wilshere return, West Ham will probably need to change the formation against lesser opposition.
It will be too easy to man-mark Anderson, Arnautovic and Yarmolenko and try to hit the Hammers on the counter-attack.
A 4-2-3-1 formation would be much better for breaking down Brighton-esque sides.
Introducing someone like Lucas Perez or Robert Snodgrass instead of Noble or Obiang would give West Ham that extra attacking impetus needed to deal with deep-lying defences.
The original change from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3 showed Pellegrini’s tactical nous. Can he impress us once again by adapting to this latest development?
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