Manuel Pellegrini went direct to get first West Ham win

Manuel Pellegrini made a tactical adjustment to go direct and get a first win as West Ham manager.

Manuel Pellegrini said he wouldn’t change his methods after beginning his tenure as West Ham manager with four-straight losses in the Premier League. Turns out it was subterfuge from the veteran Chilean, who made a subtle tweak to his tactics to help the Hammers beat Everton 3-1 on Sunday.

Pellegrini’s teams have usually been defined by elaborate and stylish short passing. He’s built around cerebral playmakers in spells at Villarreal, Real Madrid, Malaga and Manchester City.

The same blueprint travelled with Pellegrini when he moved from China to east London in the summer. He added Arsenal schemer Jack Wilshere to signal a shift to a passing style.

What followed was slow and narrow build-up from a team lacking enough pace and power.

Pellegrini made sure he added both those things for the trip to Goodison Park. He did it by reshuffling his starting XI to include two key players:

Including Andriy Yarmolenko in the forward line and putting Pedro Obiang into midfield crucially altered West Ham’s style and approach. Simply put, both players made the Hammers more direct.

Two-goal hero Yarmolenko did it by adding pace and a ton of runs from the wing. He made more runs beyond center-forward Marko Arnautovic.

Knowing Yarmolenko wanted to run in behind meant there was no more navel-gazing in the West Ham midfield. Players weren’t looking for a short pass because they had an obvious outlet by releasing the Ukraine international’s pace over the top.

It also helped to have Obiang making runs from deep. Unlike the static like Wilshere, who likes to survey the pitch and picks his passes, Obiang’s strength is his athleticism. He has the strength and long strides to break from the middle and blur the lines between midfield and the final third.

The combination of Obiang’s desire to get forward and Yarmolenko’s relentless appetite for moving ahead of Arnautovic created the opening goal.

Obiang started the move with a foray forward. He combined brilliantly with Arnautovic, exchanging a one-two then lifting the ball over the top for the Austrian striker.

Yarmolenko was already on the move, but as soon as he saw Obiang play one over the top he hit the afterburners. Arnautovic saw the run and rolled the ball across for Yarmolenko to tap in.

The goal was swift, simple and direct. Three things the Hammers hadn’t been before Sunday.

One of the keys to the move was Obiang’s ball over the top. Normally, a West Ham midfielder would have been content to play a short one into feet and exchange intricate passes inside a phone booth.

Obiang looking longer showed the difference in Pellegrini’s approach. His team was more willing to exploit pace, a willingness highlighted by Arnautovic spinning in behind instead of staying short.

Arnautovic played a vital role all game by acting as a selfless target man. He was content to operate with his back to goal, take a beating but hold up play and release those around him.

A supporting brief worked for Arnautovic because he knew he had Yarmolenko always looking to run beyond him. The latter made the more direct threat he added count by sweeping in the second goal for a more efficient attack:

Yarmolenko thrived because he knew how to play off the flicks and touches Arnautovic made.

Having a natural focal point up top meant West Ham could break quickly at any time. It simply required lumping the ball up to Arnautovic and racing forward to play off the man in the middle.

Pellegrini knows the value of a bullish target man for a more direct style of play. He stayed tethered to the formula when Arnautovic was substituted just after the hour mark, replacing him with Michail Antonio. He’s another frontman with the power to hold off defenders and the pace to barge a direct path to goal.

Just by making a simple riff to his familiar formula, Pellegrini was able to get West Ham winning and back among the goals on his birthday:

The 65-year-old will still want a progressive, bold team. It doesn’t mean the Hammers have to kill opponents with 1,000 passes, though.

Instead, West Ham can take a more straightforward route to climbing the table on Pellegrini’s watch.