View: West Ham’s pressing game exposed big problem for Everton boss Ancelotti
The home defeat to West Ham was a performance that Everton supporters will want to forget in a hurry, but Carlo Ancelotti’s men must learn from the disappointing evening at Goodison.
In what could have been a great opportunity to kick on in the Premier League, David Moyes’ side were the team to come away with all three points.
Everton were a team that looked tired and lacking any real intensity against the Hammers, who were the complete opposite.
West Ham served up the ideal recipe for teams to disrupt Everton and their pressing against the Toffees was commendable.
Below, we see from the opening minutes that West Ham set out to press Everton high and not allow them any opportunities to play out from the back.
Both Seamus Coleman and Ben Godfrey struggled on the night and the lack of options out wide hurt Jordan Pickford in this scenario, with the Everton keeper forced to go long.
West Ham, where possible, tried to double up on any Everton player in possession of the ball and it was telling that the home side lost the ball 122 times during the game, as per Wyscout – their second-highest amount of times they have done so this season.
The lack of movement or any kind of support for Bernard is a worrying one and something that Ancelotti will need to address.
Across the pitch, West Ham appeared to have a man advantage in key areas and that stopped Everton putting any kind of momentum together when in possession of the ball.
West Ham’s pressure high up the pitch forced Everton into areas they were visibly uncomfortable and it resulted in incidents like the one below where Bernard was unable to progressive the ball as a result of those around and had to turn back into his own half.
Sigurdsson, another of Everton’s poor performers against the Hammers, simply could not find the room as a result of West Ham’s pressure, as highlighted below.
In what is already a compact and truncated season, buckling under pressure is a worrying trend that Ancelotti will not want to see continue.
The hope for Everton is that as we approach the FA Cup weekend, Ancelotti can make several changes and rotate his squad.
What West Ham did was give opposing teams a formula of how to disrupt Everton and stop them before they get started.
In a season where pressing statistics are generally down across the board throughout the Premier League, West Ham upped their game and got the better of Everton with relative ease.
Ancelotti will need to find a quick solution to this if he wants the Toffees to maintain their push for European football.
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