In terms of attacking players, the overriding narrative over the course of last season surrounded the performance of the Eintracht Frankfurt striker Luka Jovic.
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The Serbian was prolific throughout the campaign and has since sealed a big-money move to Real Madrid.
While the focus was on the goals scored by Jovic there was another player who was key to the German side’s attacking play, forward Sebastien Haller.
With Haller joining his former strike partner in leaving the club, for a reported £45million fee to West Ham, it is a sign of his talent that Frankfurt may well miss Haller far more than they do Jovic this coming season.
The 25-year-old has had an interesting career path, to say the least. Originally a product of the prolific Auxerre academy in his native France the forward took the somewhat unorthodox path and moved to the Netherlands to join FC Utrecht, originally on loan before making the move permanent. It was during these two years that Haller really started to develop as a player.
It was also during this time that West Ham were said to have expressed an interest in taking the player to London. The transfer never materialised and Haller found himself moving to join Frankfurt in the German Bundesliga. This move turned out to be the making of the player as he nurtured a reputation as a fearsome opponent.
Equally comfortable receiving the ball in space or with a defensive player in close proximity Haller holds the ball up and manipulates it in tight space before bringing others into play. This was what made Haller and Jovic such a fearsome partnership.
The movement and incisive finishing of the Serbian matched with the selflessness of the Frenchman were a potent combination.
With that said, however, Haller has the ability to play as a lone forward and his own finishing ability should not be overlooked. Equally comfortable dropping in towards the midfield to link play or pushing back against the last defender and looking to receive the ball in behind, West Ham have signed a multi-faceted forward player.
We can see from the Haller’s heatmap over the course of last season he is a striker who likes to link with the midfield. He spent a lot of time showing in space to allow deeper teammates to progress the ball forward.
The Frenchman spends a lot of time identifying and moving into pockets of space. As we have already said though we should not discount the ability of Haller to get into the penalty area.
Over the course of last season, Haller scored 20 goals and registered 10 assists. His expected goals total for the season was 18.04. This shows that Haller was intent on taking high-value shots that were clustered around the centre of the penalty area.
You can see from his shot map that the vast majority of shots taken by Haller do in-fact come from in the penalty area.
In this tactical analysis, we will look at Haller in more depth to show West Ham fans just what they can expect from their new signing.
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Ability to break beyond the last line
One of the key strengths needed for modern strikers is the ability to take up positions and make runs that allow them to get past the last line of opposition defence. We will go into more detail later on his ability to drop deep and link the play. First of all, though, let’s look at the types of movement that West Ham fans can expect to see.
In the above image, we see the way that Haller is able to adjust his movement to stay onside to wait for the pass to be made. As Haller makes his initial run towards the defensive line the ball is shifted forward towards his teammate in the wide area.
Haller changes the angle of his run to stay onside and run across the defensive line. This means that when the pass is played over the top he is not only still onside but in a pocket of space between two opposition defenders. This means that as Haller makes the movement beyond the defensive line it is harder for the opposition to track him
A slightly different situation here as Haller is moving from a wide position to support a teammate running centrally in possession of the ball.
In these situations, it is easy for a forward player to neutralise themselves by getting the timing of their run wrong and being blocked by the isolated defensive player.
Haller, however, is intelligent enough to hold his run initially. This gives the ball carrier the option of passing out to the wide area. As the attention of the defensive player is fully turned towards the man with the ball though we then see Haller make his forward run. As this is now on the blindside of the defender the ball can be played through and Haller has a clear run on goal.
Intelligent Interplay
If Haller is a dangerous player when looking to get on the end of the final pass he is equally as important when making that final pass.
Haller stands at 6ft 2in but is the very embodiment of the term ‘good feet for a big man’ he moves well whether through space or in tight areas and is extremely good at finding angles to play through the opposition defence.
Here we see Haller in a dangerous position in the middle of the penalty area. As the ball is crossed over to him he takes the ball down with his first touch and then with the second he cushions the ball back across into a pocket of space that allows an advancing midfielder to break into the area. This pass results in a shot at goal for his team.
This time we see Haller taking possession of the ball deeper in the opposition half. This is a fairly common position for the French striker to find himself in.
He is excellent at timing his drops to pull opposition defenders with him and create gaps in the defensive line for others.
Here we see the forward take possession and control the ball instantly. He then holds off the pressing defender and waits for the other forward to make a run. As he does so Haller plays the ball perfectly over the top into the path of the runner.
Deep link up
It is likely that West Ham will line up with Sebastien Haller playing as a lone forward in either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 system. Haller will hold the ball up but and look to create space and opportunities for others.
This is especially beneficial for the likes of Pablo Fornals, Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini, all of whom will look to make runs to more advanced positions to take advantage of any space created.
When Haller drops off of the front line he also creates passing lanes and opportunities that his teammates can take advantage of to progress the ball.
We see an example of this here. As the Frankfurt defender is in possession of the ball and looking for a vertical passing lane we see Haller drop off of the front line to take up a deeper position.
This movement allows the defender to play a driven pass through to an advanced platform. From that point, Frankfurt were able to threaten the opposition defensive line.
A lot is made of defenders having the ability to play these types of passes but it is equally important that forward players are able to identify and find space to make these passes possible.
We see a similar example in this situation. This time Haller takes an advanced position in a pocket of space that is between four defensive players. This once again allows a driven pass into the feet of Haller.
As the French forward takes possession he only has a few seconds to use the ball. The four defensive players will quickly collapse on him to engage the ball. His touch is so good he receives the pass and then plays it wide before the defenders can react. This creates an opportunity for his team to access the penalty area.
Conclusion
In my mind, West Ham have pulled off a real coup in the signing of Haller.
He profiles in a similar way to Roberto Firmino at Liverpool and takes up similar positions to the Brazilian as he drops off into deeper areas.
He should prove to be a key player for a West Ham side with aspirations of breaking into the top 6. West Ham fans should also quickly take to the French forward.