Fantasy Football: Pablo Fornal (£6.5m) + West Ham attacking assets generally
(For reference, I was at the game against Athletic and watched the other friendlies. I didn’t go to the Fulham match, but from what I’ve heard and read, it was more in-line with the Hertha/Athletic games than the earlier friendlies. All the usual caveats about this just being pre-season should be included, but this is meant to be an overview of the shape and how various players have been pieced together so far. It seems fair to think things will continue in this vein during the early stages of the season as players gel.)
We’ve started the last couple of games in a 4–4–2 shape, with Fornals playing as a second striker alongside Haller, and with Lanzini on the left and Felipe Anderson on the right. Although the second striker has been dropping off the link with the midfield in the early phases of build-up, when the ball is worked out wide, they’ve been moving into the box to provide extra presence in the penalty area, rather than drifting out to combine with the wide players. There’s been a lot of rotation and fluidity between Lanzini/Fornals/Anderson, with Lanzini swapping with Fornals to have spells as the second central forward, and all 3 players taking turns to play from the left and the right.
The inclusion of extra creative players seems to have had a bit of a knock-on effect on Anderson — he’s been dropping deeper to pick up the ball and help us drive forward in transition with his dribbling. As a result, he’s been less involved in the final third in the last couple of games beyond throwing in a few crosses and has spent much less time playing alongside Haller compared to the other two, which perhaps makes him less viable for FPL.
Obviously it’s very early days for Haller, but the initial signs are that we’ve not figured out how to create shots for him yet (he scored a header from a free-kick vs Hertha and his only one vs Athletic was a overhead kick off a deflected pass). Our best attacking moments have come when Haller has moved out wide and helped to create chances for others. He’s looked unselfish with the ball and active out of possession — all of which is a continuation of the way he played for Eintracht Frankfurt last season where Rebic and Jovic both benefited from his selflessness, albeit in a side with a more direct approach to possession. Until things settle, I think his returns will be too sporadic to justify his price, but his presence in the side will make the players around him better and therefore much more attractive FPL options.
Another feature from the game this weekend that is worth mentioning is the positions Jack Wilshere was taking up. After passing the ball out wide, Wilshere regularly made runs ahead of the ball and ended up loitering on the edge of the box, leaving the shape resembling effectively a wide diamond. It lead to him scoring, but it leaves us extremely vulnerable on the counter. If he continues to do that, we’ll be ripped to shreds by any team half decent in transition, and we already looked shaky in behind our full-backs before we started completely abandoning central midfield. Avoid any of our defenders like the plague other than Fabianski. He’ll potentially be even busier than last season.
It’s easy to get carried away with Lanzini scoring 3 in 3, but a long ranger against Fulham, a shot in off the post in acres of space against Hertha’s second string, and a tap-in from a move originating with a defensive blunder are a bit misleading. He’s never really been much of a shooter and has generally looked better playing from the left where he can pick up the ball in space and carry it forward off the dribble. Fornals has been more effective through the middle and looks promising when it comes to providing the final pass or shooting himself. For what it’s worth, Lanzini has also been taking corners even with Cresswell and Anderson both on the pitch.
Chances are we’ll revert to the 4–3–3 against City because if we play as openly against them as we have been in the last few games, we’ll get massacred. But moving forward from that, it’ll be in a 4–4–2; it’s something Pellegrini tried at the start of last season with Arnautović and Hernández, but he eventually gave up on it as that pairing didn’t have the mobility or link-up play to make the system work. I’d exercise a bit of caution picking our players from the beginning and warn against reading too much into the effectiveness of our attacking in pre-season though. I don’t think we’ll be as good as we look on paper, especially for the first few months of the season.
But it’s a little clearer now how Pellegrini intends to knit these players together. Lanzini and Fornals are both options with great potential as they’re effectively playing OOP as strikers. Lanzini’s a known quantity and a safer bet, with added set piece threat. Fornals is the player I’ll be looking to work into my team at some point though as he’s been the one to start through the middle and has spent the majority of his time there. He came off at half-time at the weekend, so it’s worth checking for an update on that, but he’s not essential for week 1 anyway.
TL;DR — playing 4–4–2, not 4–3–3 with Fornals and Lanzini taking turns to play OOP as a striker; Haller more of a supplier than a goalscorer; Anderson operating from deeper; defence a catastrophe; Lanzini on corners.
