West Ham vs Stoke: How Bilic’s set up allowed his wide players to thrive

West Ham’s goalless draw with Stoke at the weekend wasn’t a particularly bad result. Stoke have been on form, playing well and not conceding goals. West Ham are without five or six key players, so it was always going to be a tough fixture for the Hammers. Whilst many fans may comment on the scoreline, it was in fact one of the better goalless games with plenty of attacking play and chances.

Slaven Bilic brought back James Collins, who did what he does best and won the ball in the air. This allowed the defensively minded James Tomkins to play at right back in an attempt to thwart in form attacker Mauro Arnautovic. It also meant that the confidence-shot, attack minded Carl Jenkinson wasn’t throw back in at the deep end against a player that had scored in his last two appearances against West Ham.

Slaven Bilic set his team up with a solid midfield three. Allowing the energetic Cheikhou Kouyate to roam across the midfield in both defence and attack. The freedom he gave to Kouyate was also given to the wide players Mauro Zarate and Michail Antonio. While Antonio started on the left with Zarate predominantly on the right of midfield, as the game went on both players drifted and switched which stopped the Stoke defence from getting comfortable. It was old fashion wing play at times, with both players playing with freedom and giving license to beat players and create chances.

Starting with Zarate, a promising performance by the Argentinian. According to FourFourTwo’s Statszone, Zarate created eight chances against Stoke. Compared to the two that Arnautovic and Ibrahim Afellay managed between them for The Potters, that is very impressive. The Irons need Zarate to step up his creativity and consistency when wearing the claret and blue, and he definitely did that on Saturday, whilst he didn’t score or assist he was a constant menace. He hit the post with a chance he created by himself by pure persistence and didn’t go missing like he has done in games earlier in the season.

Michail Antonio was announced as West Ham’s man of the match at The Boleyn Ground on Saturday, making his first start. The winger showed pace and athleticism on either flank, created two chances and could have scored had it not been for a terrific Butland save. His Statszone page for the Stoke game believes that Antonio only made six successful passes, which is poor. However, West Ham fans saw a player with ability on and off the ball, who created chances whilst being a genuine threat. To get man of the match whilst only completing a handful of passes is both unusual but also impressive, meaning that when he did have the ball it looked like something would happen.

Confidence looks like its growing again at The Boleyn Ground. Stoke had chances, which you would expect with the defensive reshuffle that we saw at the weekend. But Adrian made some good saves, and there were some big defensive blocks. The clean sheet is vital, and with West Ham having over 20 shots and creating a lot more opportunities than in recent home games, this is without doubt a positive 0-0.

Bilic gave Antonio and Zarate freedom to play with the shackles off, and it reaped rewards with both players turning in top performances. Despite the negative injury news through the week, there was genuine threat in a line up missing Payet, Lanzini, Moses and Sakho. It was nice to see Valencia get some minutes as well, he had a decent cameo and had Butland scrambling from about 40 yards. Just need Bilic to get Andy Carroll scoring again!