Tactical Musings and the example to follow

[orangecity23]

Under Sousa, we are trying to adopt an entirely new approach. One that differs quite considerably from our approach last season. Under our brave new dawn, the aim of the game is a short passing style, more epansive and attacking, and the system of choice appears to be a 451/433. So how should we go about mastering this new style to get out of the division? Well, if we cast an eye at the past, when has this kind of style ever succeeded in the Championship?

The answer? Last season, and more specifically, at West Brom. West Brom finished second last year, and in doing so never really looked uncomfortable or troubled by the Championship. On their way to the golden land of the Premier league, they comfortably beat us twice last season. So how did West Brom set themselves up? In general, West Brom used something along the lines of this:

GK Carson

LB Cech

CB Olsson

CB Tamas

RB Reid

DM Mulumbu

RW Thomas

CM Dorrans

CM Morrison

LW Brunt

ST Bednar

Obviously, there were variations, using a different striker, Mattock at left back etc, but the tatctical setup is similar. So why does this formation work? In my opinion, the key positions in this team were the defensive midfield, and the lone striker. Mulumbu is a very important player, he is big and strong, and he's decent technically. Sitting in front of the defence, he shields the back four, giving them defensive cover and stopping attacks coming down the centre of the pitch, and distributing the ball quickly to kick off counter attacks.

The lone striker is another important position. Roman Bednar is physically strong, not especially slow, and has decent technical ability. He provides a fulcrum point to hold up the ball, and allow the midfielders Dorrans and Morrison to push forwards and offer attacking support in the middle of the pitch.

So how do we take some lessons from this setup, and apply it to our own lineup? Firstly the DM. We need a player who can distribute the ball well, is strong in the tackle, and competitve physically (doesn't have to be as big as a centre back, but still big enough to impose himself on midfield) - the player we have best suited for this role? In my opinion, it's Moreno. As a centre back, he's not the biggest, but in midfield he's bigger and stronger than a lot of opposition midfielders. Technically sound, and has a good range of passing.

The bigger issue is the striker. None of our current options quite fit the bill. Howard isn't quick enough, but has the requisite strength (in abundance). Fryatt has enough pace, and good technique, but isn't great in the air and lacks strength. DJ has loads of pace, and always looks dangerous playing on the last shoulder of the last defender, but lacks the strength to hold up the ball to bring the midfield into play. So, unless we ditch a midfielder in favour of a conventional front two, none of our strikers fit this system. Perhaps this suggests Paolo needs to alter the approach.

But are we missing someone out? We need a striker with good pace, decent technical ability, good aerial ability and physical size and strength. There is a player in our squad who has all of these attributes. But he's not a striker. It's Danny N'Guesson. Danny is an enigma on the wing, veering wildly from unplayable to absolutely pointless with regularity. In general, the wing position requires one simple aim to create chances - beat the full back. A full backs general raison-d'etre is to deal with players running at them, and most at this level are quite adept at it. Lloyd Dyer is pretty succesful at beating his full back, using his pace and decent dribbling. Dyer lacks strength, height and heading ability, but all of this doesn't stop him from doing his job adequately. N'Guesson doesn't always impress as much as Dyer because of two reasons - 1 - he's not quite as fast. 2. His dribbling is not quite as good. The one thing we can say in favour of N'Guesson is that he did manage quite a few goals last season - but where did his goals come from?

If we look at some of Danny's goals, a theme soon emerges. Swansea (home) - scored from a corner. Watford (away) scored from a header after a Waghorn cross. Cardiff (away, cup), muscled his way through the middle of the pitch and scored. Swansea (home, cup) Header from free kick. A lot of N'Guesson's goals come from central areas, where more often the not, his opposition are centre backs. Centre backs are not as happy dealing with players with pace running at them. They generally handle strikers in 2 ways - small pacy strikers = outstrength them. Big strikers like Howard involve a physical battle to beat. If a centre back is stronger than Howard, the threat is nullified. For examples, see Bikey this week and Wheater last week. When the centre backs aren't stronger (Paddy McCarthy in the Palace game) Howard is a threat.

N'Guesson offers a threat with pace and strength. When N'Guesson runs at centre backs, he has the pace to worry them and the strength to avoid being shoved off the ball. He can compete in the air as well. I think that through the middle, he offers a real handful for centre backs.

So, back to the line up. Hows about something like this?

GK Weale

RB Lamey

CB Hobbs

CB Morrison / Vitor / Tunchev (delete as applicable due to fitness)

LB Berner

DM Moreno

RW Gallagher / Fryatt

CM King

CM Wellens (or perhaps Fryatt as a centre forward if playing more of a diamond 442)

LW Dyer / DJ

ST N'Guesson

Is a big ask of N'Guesson though. Heskey could also do the job if he arrived, a master of holding the ball up, which would allow King and Wellens to get forward to support. Either that, or we look elsewhere, to find a similar player. Forest found themselves this kind of player in Dexter Blackstock, and we may need to do the same also.

And breathe. Sorry for the wall o' text everyone. Any opinions?

[Edmund]

The reason why it worked for West Brom is because they had better quality players than we currently possess. They had just come down from the prem and had been playing that style of football for a few seasons under Mowbray.

[orangecity23]

You're obviously right in stating that West Brom's players were top notch in this division, I just feel that at the minute we aren't seeing much success beacuse the players we are using at DM (Oakley) and Striker (Howard) don't possess all the attributes to fit the system. So we either change the system to fit the players, or we have to pick players that are more suited to the system. I'm really only using West Brom as a successful example of the system at work, not suggesting that Wellens is as good as Dorrans etc.

[OriginalRobboFOX]

Yawn. Another pointless thread. There are 4 or 5 of these. Stop making new threads FFS.

[davieG]

Yawn. Another pointless thread. There are 4 or 5 of these. Stop making new threads FFS.

If you don't like them don't post in them as you're just keeping them live and current. If people are not interested it will die naturally.

[Lillehamring]

You're obviously right in stating that West Brom's players were top notch in this division, I just feel that at the minute we aren't seeing much success beacuse the players we are using at DM (Oakley) and Striker (Howard) don't possess all the attributes to fit the system. So we either change the system to fit the players, or we have to pick players that are more suited to the system. I'm really only using West Brom as a successful example of the system at work, not suggesting that Wellens is as good as Dorrans etc.

howard and oakley are too old and slow to play anything other than hoof ball.

as davieG has pointed out, we are positively pedestrian at breaking out from the defence.

from what everyone has said about moreno (good on the floor, not so much in the air) it seems to make sense that he shifts to DM role.

[chesterfox]

The strongest positive of having NP - and how we needed it at the time - was that he put round pegs in round holes. He had a clear picture of how he wanted to play and communicated that clearly and strongly to the players. He then picked players for certain games and this worked for us really well as it did with MON who didnt complicate matters and got more out of less.

With the greatest of respect to footballers they're not the most intelligent and they just need pointing in the right direction because what they need in the main for their profession they are born with. What PS is trying to do is to introduce a continental approach - 1st mistake in a league which requires not a small amount of muscle and quite a bit of guile. 2nd mistake is the piss poor communication which he clearly suffers from both from a language and human point of view. Add to this the very average newcomers confusing the players who last season had a clear picture of their role within the team and he breeds disunity and confusion.

[Tilley]

Sousa doesn't know his best formation or the best 11 players to put into a formation, this is where the problem is.

Trouble is, with new owners who will want success in no time and fans who expect us to not only replicate but better last season's success, I wonder how long Sousa will get to find his best system.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Mr Orange City - can you work out a team based on Portuguese players - that way I think Mr Sousa will pay more attention!

Edit: Add in some Thai and Japaness players as well, you get the new investors attention too. If you can also suggest a has been famous player to sign then every bodies happy in the board room.

[The MayneFox]

yes the Baggies had much qualtiy in their squad, but the line up looks good tbf, well done on the research

But N'Quessan is piss poor, maybe Crinic??

[Donut]

What was the need to change the tactical approach of the team?

Can a manager not be more aaptable to what he has at his disposal?

Cant remember teams like Stoke, Sunderland under Keane, Blackpool, Wigan, even Derby playing this 4-1-4-1 system and they all achieved success in their own ways.

Cant help but think the only way to go at this level is to go big, strong, physical, direct and ruthless. Two strong destroyer central midfielders in a 4-4-2 system with plenty of width and directness.

This isnt international football. the issue doesnt need to be overcomplicated by an intricate system. Even the so called technically better players we have cant fit into such a system.

It might not be pretty to watch but so what. lets have something pretty to watch and get nowhere