“His best position? On the pitch. But it depends. He can play different positions, on the right, as a striker, number 10 too. Good players can always adapt. The smart players even more.”
Julen Lopetegui’s comments on Jarrod Bowen in a September 13 interview with the Evening Standard prompted questions over whether a new role was in the offing for West Ham United’s newly-elected captain. A week prior to that interview, Bowen had twice featured as a centre-forward off the bench for England, replacing Harry Kane in the second half of 2-0 wins over the Republic of Ireland and Finland.
West Ham’s first game after that saw Bowen return to the right wing and assist for Danny Ings’ stoppage-time equaliser at Fulham. He then played as a centre-forward when Chelsea visited the London Stadium and was one of their only bright spots in a 3-0 defeat. Bowen has since returned to the right flank, even delivering a stellar display in West Ham’s best performance of the season — a 4-1 win against Ipswich on October 5.
While the 27-year-old has displayed an ability to do well centrally, Lopetegui’s West Ham may benefit most from playing him out wide then they host Manchester United tomorrow.
How has Bowen’s role changed under Lopetegui?
Under David Moyes last season, Bowen was allowed far more freedom to drift inside onto his strong left foot and roam all over the pitch. Flexibility may rarely be associated with Moyes’ management style but having personnel who could interchange positions with Bowen in Mohammed Kudus, Lucas Paqueta and to a degree, Michail Antonio, allowed Bowen this freedom.
Lopetegui, meanwhile, has struggled so far to generate the same fluidity from this team. Paqueta and Kudus have suffered drops in form, while the need to replace Antonio seems more evident than ever. Niclas Fullkrug’s arrival may have also dictated Lopetegui’s tactical demands from Bowen, who has become West Ham’s chief creator from out wide rather than the inside goalscorer he was last season.
A quick glance at his attacking touch-maps from this league season and the last suggest the same. Bowen has been tasked with getting to the byline more often rather than cut inside and is using his right foot a lot more to dig out crosses and cutbacks.
He has attempted six ground crosses from open play in eight games after recording just 14 in 34 outings in 2023-24. Bowen is also averaging 3.8 take-ons per 90 minutes with a 41 per cent success rate, up from 2.9 and 35 per cent respectively last season.
Under Lopetegui, West Ham have averaged 45 per cent possession, a four per cent increase on Moyes’ 2023-24 team. This has resulted in more touches for Bowen, but as the table shows, the share of his touches in the opposition penalty area and attacking touches down the middle have reduced.
| Metric | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|
|
Touches per 90
|
32.6
|
36.6
|
|
Share of touches in middle 3rd
|
32%
|
37%
|
|
Share of touches in final 3rd
|
52%
|
55%
|
|
Share of touches in opposition box
|
16%
|
14%
|
|
Share of attacking touches on the right
|
59%
|
70%
|
|
Share of attacking touches down the middle
|
25%
|
21%
|
Apart from Lopetegui’s own tactical demands — possibly with the idea of having Fullkrug consistently available as a box threat — this seems partially forced by necessity.
Much of West Ham’s creative burden has been taken on by Bowen, whose 20 chances created is the joint fifth highest among all Premier League players and comfortably higher than any of his team-mates. Paqueta and Tomas Soucek are next with nine each.
It is more than half of the 32 Bowen managed in 34 matches last season. James Ward-Prowse, now on loan at Nottingham Forest, led the charts with 64, while Paqueta and Vladimir Coufal followed with 43 and 33, respectively. Coufal has been replaced by Aaron Wan-Bissaka and while the Englishman has gone forward enthusiastically, he has created just seven chances in seven games.
While a part of this individual increase is down to Bowen being tasked with taking corners by Lopetegui, a comparison of his open-play chance creation maps from 2023-24 and 2024-25 suggests it is a strategy too.
This combination of a change in tactics, drops in form and different personnel have resulted in Bowen becoming the creative fulcrum of this team and his goalscoring looks set to suffer as a result. While he has scored twice this season, Bowen is averaging fewer shots per game and the ones he is having are further away from goal and lower in quality.
| Metric (per 90 unless suggested otherwise) | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|
|
Shots
|
2.5
|
2.1
|
|
Shots on target
|
1.1
|
0.9
|
|
Average shot distance (in yards)
|
14.2
|
20.0
|
|
Non-penalty xG per shot
|
0.14
|
0.06
|
|
Goals per shot on target
|
0.4
|
0.1
|
Whether that is ideal for West Ham’s season going forward is a question mark. Their 11 league goals scored is four short of the 15 they managed in their first eight matches in 2023-24, but their xG is not too far behind (11.7 this season vs 12.5 in 2023-24).
Some of this is down to collective poor finishing as they have directed just 31 per cent of their shots on target with a conversion rate of nine per cent, both of which are significantly lower than the 42 and 17 per cent respectively that they managed last season.
Why Bowen playing on the right against Manchester United makes sense
West Ham will be without Kudus on Sunday, which could see Crysencio Summerville receive his second league start of the season, but the rest of the team will likely remain the same, with Paqueta in the No 10 role, Antonio upfront and Bowen playing on the right.
West Ham have had Manchester United’s number at the London Stadium in recent Premier League seasons. Kudus and Bowen scored in this fixture last season to give the hosts a 2-0 win, while Said Benrahma scored the only goal in a May 2023 meeting.
It’s not only West Ham who have struggled in attack this season. Erik ten Hag’s side have scored just seven league goals with only the bottom three of Southampton, Ipswich Town (six each) and Crystal Palace (five) scoring less frequently. Three of those goals came against Southampton on September 14 and they have scored just twice in four league games since.
As a result, one moment of brilliance might well be enough to secure all three points for either team on Sunday. West Ham have several players to generate that moment, but only Bowen has done so with any semblance of consistency this season.
Additionally, playing him on the right-wing would put him face-to-face with one of the major problem areas in this Manchester United team.
Left-backs Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia are unavailable, which has led to Lisandro Martinez operating in that position in recent weeks. As The Athletic’s Carl Anka explained, Martinez did well to nullify Brentford’s Bryan Mbuemo last week by getting touch-tight with him on every opportunity he got. However, the Argentina international has understandably shown deficiencies against wingers who beat him with a burst of pace or trickery to get outside of him in what is an unfamiliar role.
Bowen has shown that he can do exactly this on multiple occasions this season, most notably in matches against Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.
Manchester United could alternately deploy Diogo Dalot or Noussair Mazraoui at left-back, which would make things more challenging for Bowen. But when this happens United’s opponents invariably attack the left side of their defence, as both Dalot and Mazraoui tend to be aggressive in their bid to win the ball and leave space in behind.
Bowen being “on the pitch” will give West Ham a chance. Him putting in a good performance on the right wing might just make the difference for them too.
(Top photo: Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)
