West Ham 23/24 Fantasy Flashback
- Draft Society
- Jul 14, 2024
- 6 min read
Before we look ahead to this season's prospects, let's first digest West Ham's takeaways from the previous season in our 23/24 Fantasy Flashback series. In this year's 24/25 Draft Kit, we are featuring both a Fantasy Flashback and a Fantasy Forecast for every single Premier League team. The flashbacks will be available on Draft Kit launch day, while the forecasts will drop closer to draft day. Check the 24/25 Draft Kit main page often, as it's updated constantly!
In addition to reviewing top Draft PL fantasy contributors, West Ham's Fantasy Flashback will highlight a breakout player and a fantasy flop, analyze the impact of any injuries suffered by West Ham players, and review the team's performance as a whole. Then, be sure to check out the West Ham 24/25 Fantasy Forecast to find out whether last season was a fluke or if we predict more of the same.
Check out our 24/25 Draft Kit for all the pre-season information you could ever need: Draft Rankings, Team Previews, Mock Drafts, Strategy, Draft 101. We've got it all!
West Ham 23/24 Fantasy Flashback
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23/24 West Ham Player Performance
Let's review how West Ham players fared in 23/24, with an emphasis on their Draft Premier League fantasy assets. We'll also discuss any pertinent info regarding rotation, managerial tactics, and injuries below. What can we learn from their performance in the last campaign?
Note: The following table is interactive. Desktop users can apply the Filter, Group, and Sort buttons to arrange the data to their preferences. Mobile users can tap on a player card to view all data points. The table can be reset to its default state by refreshing the page.
It is telling, that even with our generous selection criteria, at least 7.0 PPS and 6 starts, only midfielders and goalkeepers make our Flashback table. Moyes's West Ham, with the expectation of Post lockdown Antonio (most likely powered by AstraZeneca), have never managed to breed an impressive striker/forward performer. Last season, it was Scamacca who flopped, this season, they opted to go without a replacement, and Antonio ended up leading the line for most of the season notching up 6 goals in 26 games. It was however the attacking midfielders, and especially Jarrod Bowen, who took over the mantle of scoring goals and doing almost everything. He finished the season with 16 goals and 6 assists. While many expected him to take over proceedings in the middle of the park as the spearhead of the attack, he largely remained on the right of the front three but was deadly from there nonetheless. After early season set piece dominance from Fantasy legend, James Ward-Prowse, Bowen ended up taking over most of the set-pieces by the season's end further boosting his fantasy potential. JWP started the season like a house on fire and it was already October when he had his first non-double-digit game if the season. He continued to impress throughout the season, but as the proceedings drew to a close, one could see cracks forming on his impressive fantasy resume, he lost his set piece monopoly and actually lost his starting spot at the end of the season, so it is anyone's guess how he will fare under Lopetegui in the 24/25 season.
Besides Bowen, the other standout performer was newcomer Mo Kudus. The tricky midfielder came with huge expectations and delivered and then some. Unsurprisingly, he ended up being in the 98th percentile for successful take-ons in all of Europe, and obliterating the EPL charts with 124 CoS, Doku came in a distant second with 87. He crowned his impressive underlying numbers with 9 goals and 8 assists and if Lopetegui gives him even more freedom to express himself than Moyes did, who knows what kind of numbers we can expect from him.
Honourable mention must go to Lucas Paqueta, whose potential lifetime ban dominated the news cycle lately, but his impressive play in the center of the field making this impressive West Ham attack tick must not go unnoticed.
The defenders and attackers can really and truly hang their heads in shame. We have already said enough about Antonio, but the defenders need their minute in the shame headlights too. Neither Coufal, Zouma, Emerson or Aguerd managed above 5 points per start is not very surprising as West Ham conceded the 4th most goals in the Premier League this season.
23/24 Breakout Player
Mohammed Kudus
Position: Midfielder
23/24 Points: 373 (26th OVR)
23/24 Points Per Start: 12.8 (27 starts)
The Ghanaian winger put in a truly impressive fantasy season in 23/24. He suffered (and in turn his managers in Fantasy) from Moyes's patented slow integration process as he managed to become the 26th highest scoring player overall without starting a game until the 29th October. If the season started there and then, Kudus would have ended up being the 9th highest scorer. Truly an impressive performance. Although a third of his fantasy points come from successful take-ons, he also finished the season in the 91st percentile, 95th percentile for crosses into the penalty area, 92nd for fouls drawn, 96th for shots that lead to goals and 99th for ball recoveries among EPL attacking mids/Wingers. All those stats underline what everyone sees in the eye-test. this kid is going places, he is an impressive attacker who is not afraid to put in the work in the press and his defensive duties. I doubt he will be at West Ham much longer.
23/24 Fantasy Flop
Kurt Zouma
Position: Defender
23/24 Points: 110 (246th overall)
23/24 Points Per Start: 3.5 (32 starts)
On paper, last season was one of his better seasons, as his three goals were the most since the 2020/21 campaign, and his 158 clearances were his best since the 2017/18 season. That is about as much as one could say in terms of positives about it, though. He had a measly 6 double digit games (besides the 3 he scored goals in) but had 8 games he scored minus points in. His usually impressive aerial strength disappeared mostly due to him getting a more aerially dominant partner in Mavropanos/Aguerd as a defensive partner and he only managed 58 aerials won for the whole season. His diminishing role, coupled with Max Kilman's arrival should once and for all put an end to anyone even considering streaming Zouma, let alone drafting him.
Injury Impact
West Ham ended up being the healthiest (least injured) team of the 23/24 season, which is especially impressive as they used the second least players (26) and have the second oldest squad in the Premier League. An impressive 9 outfield players managed to play 30+ games. Famously "made of glass" Antonio was the main injury loss as he sat out 12 games in the middle of the season.
West Ham Overall Team Performance
West Ham said goodbye to David Moyes after a hugely successive spell at the club. Even his last season can be characterized as a success. They reached the Quarter Finals of the Europa League (getting knocked out to this season's big dogs Leverkusen), they reached the League Cup QFs (losing to eventual winners Liverpool) and finished 9th in the premier league, but they remained in with a chance at qualifying for Europe again until the final gameweeks of the season.
The underlying numbers tell a somewhat different story, though. They conceded a whopping 74 goals, 4th worst in the EPL. Their xGD (Expected Goal Difference) puts them just above the relegation places, their xG has them firmly in the bottom half of the table and they finished in the relegation places for expected goals against. It is therefore not surprising that their expected points would have had them finish 16th, with only Man Utd and Aston Villa managing to outperform their XPTS tally by a bigger margin than the Irons.
More 23/24 Fantasy Flashbacks: Arsenal | Aston Villa | Bournemouth | Brentford | Brighton | Chelsea | Crystal Palace | Everton | Fulham | Ipswich Town | Leicester City | Liverpool | Man City | Man United | Newcastle | Nottingham Forest | Southampton | Tottenham | West Ham | Wolves
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