Tactical Review of our game on Saturday vs. Bristol Rovers -

#itfc #brfc

Over the course of the game we had good control of it but lacked tempo in the first half, in the second half we really upped the levels.
Despite the fortunate own goal we still deserved the 2 goal lead which really should’ve been more if chances were taken.

The majority of the game was played in the Bristol Rovers half due to both our control over the game and Rovers’ slow build up.
Rovers never threatened from open play, apart from one early Hanlan chance that looked offside, but were close on two occasions from deep free kicks.

Rovers lined up in their standard 3421 “box” formation but there was a slight adaption to this; Upson came in for Nicholson so Westbrooke moved further forward, this formed a hybrid 352/3421 at times with Westbrooke dropping but mainly stayed as a 3421.

The moving of Westbrooke forward gave Bristol Rovers more defensive solidity in the pivot as we threatened in the cup game constantly between the lines with our midfielders losing markers in midfield.

Ben Garner clearly made changes compared to the first game we played 2 weeks ago, it’s a wider structure than before and also Westbrooke is marking Dozzell who now had a problem that he had to solve in order to get on the ball more.

One way we adapted to this was movement from Nolan and Dozzell; Nolan occasionally dropped into a central role and Westbrooke then marked him, Dozzell went into the right side of the midfield which gave him space and he executed a good ball to Edwards between the lines.

Midfield rotation occurred even more when Downes was subbed on and due to his defensive strengths can easily cover for Dozzell who then could roam more to get a marker off him.
This gave more freedom to Nolan and was then controlling the game from a higher position.

One key thing which went unnoticed in the game was that Lambert switched the sides of Nolan and Bishop which enabled us to control the game more. Having Bishop and Edwards on the same side we looked to focus on we would’ve lacked a controller with no Judge.

When the ball is then switched from right to left there is space, due to attracting oppo to one side, which needs to be attacked. Bishop does this well as a good carrier of the ball whereas Nolan against Wigan looked to move it wide to Sears/Ward rather than driving with the ball

Generally Bishop was bypassed in the switching stage though, if ball was w/ Dozzell he would look to play it wide left and if played from right to left w/ CB’s Nsiala gave to Wilson who would play to Ward/Sears who held extremely wide positions.

Credit: @52_break

In build up despite the altercation from Rovers the space is still out wide when the ball is with the CB’s but we could’ve made more of a good situation in build up shown below:

When the FB’s were high in build up (in midfield line) we struggled to progress the ball from back ‘3’ to out wide and during the game misplaced passes from CB out to FB.
Rovers’ wider structure in the press shadow occasionally covered these balls unless a lofted ball was played.

During the game both teams looked to play balls in to the channels when playing out the back wasn’t an option.
Rovers targeted the left channel between Nsiala and Chambers, who held a very high position, but they coped with it very well considering windy conditions.

In particular we looked to play long balls into our left channel where Norwood likes to vacate and makes most of his touches, shown below in his heat map for this season.
With our focus on playing down the right more would Hawkins be a better fit structurally?

On goal kicks we looked to do play to the left channel to Norwood when the short option wasn’t viable shown in a pass map below:

Credit @52_break

Hawkins drops off and links play more which hopefully gets the front 3 into the game more as they all struggled to get a foothold. This also creates more space for runs beyond the oppo. defence from wide positions with an example of this again shown below:

Even when we progressed the ball from out the back we still looked to find through balls behind the high line of Rovers which we exposed here and in the Cup game so a clear weakness for Rovers.
Bishop completed 2 of these, Nolan, Sears and Lankester the others.

When Rovers’ played out from the back both teams’ structure was very flat, in particular we were v. narrow with the front 3 lining up against the back 3 to stop Rovers playing out and try force them long which worked well.

This narrow structure meant Rovers often then played from CB to WB where there was space but this then meant we could match up with them on the ball side whereas before Rovers were a man up in midfield.
This then forced them into channels where Wilson and Nsiala won their battles

In one instance though Rovers got through very easily shown below:

In this video Dozzell gets attracted to the ball leaving more space for Hanlan when he receives the ball. Dozzell did this a few times in the game where he pressed too much when he should’ve held his position more esp. considering the midfield overload Rovers had.

Lankester impact -

Lankester off the bench gave us more tempo in wide areas as he has that killer touch and quality Edwards didn’t show on Sat. Jack is more involved in controlling play in build up and naturally as a left footer is more comfortable coming inside.

On the right where we overload Lankester offers more composure on the ball than Gwion who is a lot more threatening on the left. The space on the left Gwion can drive into and likes to get in behind and in the box so that role definitely suits him a lot better.

End of thread, all likes and retweets appreciated.

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