Analysing Wycombe Wanderers’ out of possession approach against Cardiff City

The first 30 minutes

Before the game I was very intrigued as to how Michael Duff would set up out of possession, from restarts would we see the diamond press where our eight is between their two sixes which allows us to have a +1 on the defensive or midfield line? (More passive that way), or would we go man to man high and be super aggressive (was hoping for the latter), thankfully we did go man to man!

Picture one is the set up of the entire team from Cardiff goal kicks. Close proximity to the Cardiff players leading to the distances to press being shorter. Picture two we see Anders Hagelskjaer’s very high positioning following the Cardiff man dropping deep, Anders followed to make sure they didn’t have an overload in build up, we were really intense off the ball which impressed me.

We continued to get good pressure on the ball even in the mid block transitioning from a compact 4-5-1 to a man to man high press with usually Mullins or sometimes one of the wingers jumping out to form a 4-4-2 which could become man to man. The transition speed was really quick, we didn’t get ‘caught’ between two different shapes and structures.

Duff’s change around 30 minutes:

Duff adapted around the 30-minute mark with him changing shape out of possession into a 5-3-2, this was primarily down to Junior Quitrna’s lack of defending and it led to their goal.

Within the first 10 minutes we saw Chris Willock overload Jack Grimmer at the back post from crosses coming from the Cardiff right hand side, often getting flicked on by Yousef Salech for Willock who was wide open due to Grimmer (when he was on) being dragged into defending the centre of the box.

You can see in the examples below of what I mean, Junior is a great player with the ball regarding ball carrying, but even as a winger you must defend, it’s why Noni Madueke for Arsenal sat on the bench for 3 games in a row despite scoring a brace in the UCL, Mikel Arteta doesn’t fully trust him yet defensively.

But the overall message I’m trying to get across is Junior mustdefend more. I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes back to the bench following the conclusion of the transfer window, Fred Onyedinma on the right, Sam Bell potentially back on the left and a new striker through the door. If Junior wants to start games regularly he has to defend more when playing as a winger.

Duff changed system to a 5-3-2 by dropping Junior into the defensive line and inverting Fred to play alongside Cauley Woodrow as seen below, he changed to the five so then Junior wouldn’t have lots of ground to cover to track back.

With him playing as a wing back out of possession it was almost impossible for him to neglect his defensive responsibilities, it made him less of a transitional threat going forward, as obviously if your starting position is deeper then it takes longer to get higher up the pitch for a counter attack, what it did do was make us more compact and less vulnerable to crosses ending up at the back post.

Overall I was extremely happy with how Duff set us up out of possession, we were compact and showed character to see out a point against in my opinion the best team in the league. This will do the group well mentally as the thumping at Luton Town and conceding last minute at Plymouth Argyle no doubt lowered the morale and confidence of the group. Crucial we continue to pick up points and fight for each other off the ball moving forward!