West Ham United will play with two strikers and a back four at times this season.
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That’s the bold claim from Hammers boss David Moyes following back-to-back 1-0 wins over Fulham and Sheffield United.
West Ham have made their best start to a season for five years.
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The Hammers look strong, organised, solid, energetic, committed and dangerous going forward.
Much of that has been put down to Moyes’s switch to a wingback formation with three at the back.
Michail Antonio has been praised for making West Ham tick in that new formation as a lone striker.
But the Hammers have won two of their three games without him as Sebastien Haller has slowly improved in the setup.
The £45m forward scored a cracking winner at Bramall Lane. And he admitted afterwards his confidence is growing.
Moyes makes bold statement about playing with two strikers and a back four when needed
That might take another knock, though, as Antonio is expected to come straight back into the side when fully fit – possibly against Aston Villa this weekend.
But there is hope yet that Haller and Antonio could play together again.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Sport, Moyes said he does not pin West Ham’s excellent form on the formation change.
And the Scot insists he will play with two strikers and a back four this season when needed.
“We’re keeping out feet on the ground, we know exactly where we are,” Moyes told BBC Sport.
“We know we’re improving, we know we’re doing a lot of good things. And we want to try and keep that going.
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“Yea (the system suits us) but I think sometimes we get caught up in systems. You know it’s what players you have available and at the time it suits, you know there might be periods of the season where we have to change and alter it again but at this moment in time it’s working.
“We’ve not really seen a great deal of need to alter it too much but I don’t want it to be something where we think ‘this is what we do and we don’t do anything else’.
“I want to be flexible and play with a back four when we need to and play with two centre forwards when the right time is correct as well.”
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