------------------------De Gea-----------------------
Dalot---------Smalling-------Lindeloff---------Shaw
------------------------Matic------------------------
----------Pogba------------------Fred--------------
------------------------Mata------------------------
-------------Martial--------Lukaku----------------
One thing I would like to see us do is a half field press. I don't like a full press. When you are in a full press you and you win the ball back in their area they have all their players back. I would rather concede possession and allow West Ham to come into our half. But once they are in our half, everybody works hard to win the ball back. This way, when we do win the ball back, there is a ton of space behind their defenders for us to counter attack. However, in order for this to work, we also need two strikers. One central and the other taking up a position on the wing. This can be alternated depending on which side of the field we are attacking from. If the ball is on the left side then Lukaku pushes over and Martial stays central. If the ball is on the right side, Lukaku stays central and Martial makes a run to the right. When they get the ball wide, their goal isn't to score. It's to go hard down the line and to try and beat their man on the outside with the intention of giving an assist to the central player. The way I see it now, we have way too much possession and our build up play is too slow. Forget having a left footer on the right and a right footer on the left. When we are set up like that, the players want to cut in too much to get onto their stronger foot and look for the shot. If you are tackled going inside the ball goes back up the field and chances are we lose possession. If you attack wide and get tackled, the ball either goes out for a throw or a corner and possession isn't conceded. However, with this formation we can also play triangles all over the park when we are in possession. Rashford and Lukaku can get more central and offer two targets in the box. Dalot and Shaw can provide the width with assistance from Fred and Pogba. In the #10, I prefer Mata. We could also play Sanchez or Lingard there, but in my mind Mata is the smartest player we have, and has an eye for a good defense splitting pass. Doubt we would ever see anything like this, but this is what I would do...