Wycombe Wanderers vs Barnsley match analysis

KEY POINTS:

• Lack of wide triangles, this halted positive ball progression down the flanks when in settled possession.
• Reactive rather than pro-active, transition between zonal marking to man to man marking wasn’t good enough.
• Frequently 2nd best in duels.
• Abbott being a GIGANTIC miss for both in and out of possession reasons.
• The balance in the final 3rd wasn’t optimal, too many players wanting the ball to feet not enough 3rd man runs.
• The goals conceded.
• Positive mentality and team spirit to fight back.

IN POSSESSION:

Wycombe built in a 4-2-4 from goal kicks with Mullins dropping from the 8 to form a situational double pivot with Leahy, this for me is a major improvement on the previous game as throughout the game against Wimbledon we struggled to progress the ball out of the 1st phase.

This was mainly due to the 1st (defensive) and the 3rd (attacking) lines being to far apart vertically, combine that with a lack of double movements to drop deep from the 8’s and we were stuck.

Yesterday though. the idea was to drop Mullins in which dragged one of their 6’s out in their man to man press, leaving space higher up the pitch to play over their press for 1v1’s in the last line.

This is normally a good thing, problem was often the passes were overhit, and instead of going to the players on the last line they’d often go straight to the opposition’s goalkeeper.

There was also lack of balance in the final 3rd, every player high wanted the ball to feet leaving the dynamism and fluidity within the structure being poor, there wasn’t enough 3rd man runs (one player drops and drags a CB out, leaving space for the other split striker to run in behind in the vacated space.)

Another issue with this was when we did accurately play long to the striker, it was always going to Cauley Woodrow, this man has won 13 out of the 34 arial duels he’s gone up for since joining and yesterday won 1 out of a total 7.

It doesn’t suit his profile whatsoever and it led to us never winning the 1st contact. Bear in mind we have a 6’4 striker sitting on the bench who’s profile is much more suited to that gameplan.

Another issue with us yesterday was our lack of wide triangles when the ball was wide in settled possession, when the ball went to the wing back we never had someone in the half space and someone deep for ball circulation.

It makes the wing backs job a lot harder as he was getting little support, also bear in mind your only width in a back 5 is the wingbacks therefore you need them to be direct and have natural attacking profiles playing in those positions.

We can get away with Harvie due to his attacking mentality and willingness to overlap/underlap along with him and not being afraid to take players on, but Back I’m not so sure.

I get Fred was out, but even so we saw when he played wing back under Dodds, you’re really limiting his output due to him naturally starting deep in build up, combine that with the lack of fluidity (creating wide triangles) and you’re going to struggle.

We NEED to move away from playing a back 5. It’s not efficient whatsoever. We changed to a back 4 in the 2nd half and we were much better.

OUT OF POSSESSION:

Out of possession we started poorly but gradually got better.

Towards the start of the game when Barnsley played a backwards pass into their defensive 3rd we rarely transitioned higher up the pitch from a zonal press into a man to man, and when we did it was very slow.

Due to us rarely transitioning it led to them sustaining pressure and escaping the 1st phase too easily as they could frequently find the spare man with ease.

Combine those 2 things together and you can see why they had 59% of the ball in the 1st half. From opposition goal kicks we were man to man but that’s the bare minimum (unless you’re Bournemouth under Iraola).

We were also very reactive rather than pro-active, a man to man press/block defends the man… a zonal press/block defends the space… it almost feels like Wycombe didn’t do either at times in the game.

Let’s look at this sequence here, we leave them with a clear +1 in their build up and we do manage that, Bell has to manage the RB and RCB, Harvie is being pinned by the winger so he’s unable to step up as he’s too deep due to us playing wing backs and not wingers.

One bounce pass from in to out and they’ve already escaped the initial line of the press, Mullins isn’t tight enough to the man receiving the ball here, that’s why I say everything out of possession seems very reactive rather than pro-active.

Teams with technical players and a coach who focusses on patterns of play will exploit this like Barnsley did.

PHYSICALITY ISSUE:

How many games this season have we come away having worse duels numbers? The answer is too many.

I do sometimes feel the recruitment this summer has been too technical based with a lack of emphasis on making sure we’re still physical throughout the pitch.

You need balance between technical and physical players, but when Westergaard isn’t playing (possibly injury related I’m not sure), and when Fink sits on the bench and Abbott isn’t available, the team begins to really lack physicality and becomes way too lightweight. Abbott, Fink and Westergaard are NEEDED ASAP.

GEORGE ABBOTT ABSENCE:

If you’ve read my tweets you’ll know how much of a fan I am of Abbott, we really did miss him yesterday and I feel like we would have had a lot better balance between directness and ball retention if he was playing.

Against Wimbledon he individually solved the disconnection issues between the lines by making frequent double movements to get on the ball, and if he was available against Barnsley he would have given us a lot more control along with better press resistance in the centre of the park.

He’s also more physical than others so would have made us a little better in duels and 2nd balls. We need this man back ASAP.

THE GOALS CONCEDED:

Both goals were so preventable, the first one is an error which comes from something which we’ve already seen this season.

I mentioned it in a tweet back on the 17th August (bottom left of pic 1 and 2), that a CB receiving the ball either on the half turn or with their back to goal, completely goes against where a CB wants to receive the ball.

You see below in the screenshots from the game, Taylor receives with his back to goal, no idea about the press behind him and it leads to another goal conceded. CB’S AREN’T USED TO RECEIVING IN THIS POSITION.

For me, I’d have the CB’s split either side of the keeper that way they receive the ball FACING FORWARDS rather than their back to goal, and then lower the double pivot to maintain connection between the defensive and attacking lines, also if the CB’s split and are deeper, it gives the Barnsley players in the final 3rd more ground to cover to press.

Man United have this issue with De Ligt who keeps getting told to invert into midfield, it blocks passing lanes into the pivots and you have an unnatural player receiving were he quite frankly doesn’t want to.

The 2nd goal was quite frankly unnacceptable, Back thinks the ball is going out so doesn’t bother running for it, awful mentality.

Then loses the 1v1 leaving us in a very vulnerable position, we then don’t defend the edge of the box as Mullins JOGS to get back, if you go and watch that 2nd goal you’ll realise if Mullins sprints to get back he can intercept the cut back.

Awful mentality from him too. Duff won’t stand for those kind of effort levels. It then comes off the post and we produce some awful, awful defending allowing the most dangerous man on the pitch to receive through on goal.

OVERALL SUMMARY:

Overall it was poor, lack of creativity until Lowry came on, missed Abbott both in and out of possession.

Lack of consistent wide triangles to interchange the ball, press bypassed too easily at times, being too direct in deep build up without a target man to hit over their press and a real lack of physicality.

We NEED to permanently move away from this back 5. If we play a back 4 with Magnus, Anders, Abbott and Fink all starting I’m confident we’ll be a lot better and we can go from there, but that performance yesterday was NOT it.

Dom

Follow Dom on X – @DZI_WWFC