I’ve been working on developing Statshack 2.0, but I have to confess that I left myself with more to do than I realised and despite a late night last night, it’s still not ready. Also, I’m not sure why, but the average position map data doesn’t seem to be working, so I’m using my own interpretation of the general positions the players took up for now.

System wise, it was more of a 4-4-1-1 than a 4-2-3-1, although they may look similar, it’s the role of central pair, Petrov and Milner, both pretty much attacking today, that defines the system. Ash did a fantastic job in the “hole”, a role he’s played for much of the pre-season and this was easily the best I’ve seen him play so far this term.

Actually, it’s obviously the best we’ve seen all of the team play in the last few games, but some of the bright signs we saw against Valencia and Feyenoord in particular came together with a real intent to get the goals and keep looking for them, even when we were ahead. That’s encouraging.

I don’t want to take anything away from the performance, every player was brilliant, no question, but West Ham fans will have good reason to feel their side didn’t really put in a shift. They weren’t good, not good at all. A lot of that, of course, is down to Villa’s approach, John Carew was frequently spotted encouraging his team mates to press up, defend from the front and West Ham were left with little space to play in. They didn’t help their cause with the unforced errors when they did have the ball though.

I don’t want to take anything away from Kevin MacDonald either, it was a brave call to start James Milner – although that would surely have required sanctioning from the top, I can’t believe he’d be allowed to risk our £26m man without permission – but from reading some of the reactions around the web, you’d think he just revolutionized the system and team selection.

Let’s not mess around, the nature of Martin O’Neill’s exit has surely soiled his reputation, but apart from Milner, this was essentially the team and system he played through pre-season, let’s not get sucked into any revisionism. Kevin’s only had five days in the hot seat, I would expect nothing less than an extension of what they were doing anyway. He did a fine job, but nothing really changed, we played some great football against Valencia, just at a more relaxed pace and without the same bite in the final third. Let’s not forget it was pre-season.

That said, the hunger in front of goal was palpable and reminded me very much of the side we were treated to in 2007/08 that scored 71 goals. And Kevin’s use of substitutes was a masterstroke, a textbook example of giving the players and the fans the opportunity to feel good about themselves. If the players are playing with a fresh, brighter outlook, then great. If a cloud has indeed been lifted, great too.

This was just one game though, we’ll hopefully have at least another 50 to play, so I’m not going to get carried away just yet.

It was a bit good though, wasn’t it?

Here’s the numbers, no real surprises:-

3	Aston Villa	August 14th 2010	West Ham	0
	57%	Possession %	43%
	28	Shots	14
	5	On Target	1
	16	Corners	7
	1	Offsides	1
15′ Downing, 40′ Petrov, 66′ Milner		Scorers
Albrighton		Booked	Tomkins, Faubert
		Sent Off
	304	Good Passes	222
	58%	CPS %	42%
	62	Bad Passes	72
	83%	Completion %	76%
	23	Interceptions	11
	42	Tackles Won	31
	28	Tackles Lost	26
	60%	Success %	54%
	3	Blocks	9
	17	Free Kicks	17
Starting XI: 1. Friedel 2. Young 25. Warnock 47. Clark 5. Dunne 19. Petrov 8. Milner 14. Albrighton 6. Downing 7. Young 10. Carew Subs: 18. Heskey 20. Reo-Coker 22. Guzan 23. Beye 44. Lichaj 46. Bannan 42. Weimann
Formation

You can find Statshacks from other games here.

[Original data and graphics courtesy of ESPN and The Guardian]