West Ham United fans will be desperate to see the back of the October international
West Ham United fans will be desperate to see the back of the October international break and get back to Premier League action.
The Hammers have had a mixed start to their domestic campaign this term but finally appeared to get into their stride just before the break as they thrashed Ipswich Town 4-1 to pick up their first home league win of the campaign.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka was the man to start at right-back against the Tractor Boys last time out, but with his display in the Czech Republic’s win over Albania on Friday (11 October) Vladimir Coufal gave Lopetegui some food for thought.
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The 32-year-old played the full 90 minutes and picked up an assist for one of Thomas Chory’s two goals as his side ran out 2-0 winners in the UEFA Nations League.
According to fotmob, no player on either side created as many scoring chances as the Hammers defender who laid on three opportunities for his teammates and produced an expected assist rate of 0.28.
Coufal attempted to find teammates in the penalty area with six crosses over the course of the game and was successful with 67 per cent of them as he posed a constant threat from the right wing-back position.
When compared to other Premier League fullbacks last season, the West Ham man was one of the most dangerous in the division going forward.
According to Fbref, Coufal placed in the top 16 per cent of his positional peers for assists per 90 minutes with an average of 0.2 and the 71st percentile for expected assisted goals per game.
That means the 32-year-old would pick up an assist once every five games. If that was extrapolated over the course of a 38-match Premier League season, the right-back would lay on seven assists for his teammates.
For comparison, Trent Alexander-Arnold only bettered that tally by one assist when he played 37 Premier League games for Liverpool in the 2022/23 season.
This statistic also shows exactly why Lopetegui has to consider starting Coufal ahead of Wan-Bissaka in games where West Ham are expected to dominate possession of the ball.
Although the former Manchester United man is an excellent ball-carrier, placing in the top six per cent of his peers for progressive carries per game this term, he doesn’t have the end product in the final third that Coufal does.
So far this season, Wan-Bissaka places in the 48th percentile for expected assisted goals per game with an average of 0.06 every 90 minutes and in his six league appearances in claret and blue he’s yet to pick up an assist
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In the Czech Republic’s win on Friday, Coufal also showed that he can still be impactful out of possession as he won 75 per cent of his eight ground duels in the contest, while also winning 100 per cent of his two attempted tackles.
He isn’t the perfect defender, but the right-back certainly still has a role to play at the London Stadium this term.
His most recent display in the international break may well have just served as a reminder for Lopetegui.
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