West Brom stifled in-form Middlesbrough with relative ease — How did Carlos Corberan do it?
With just 30% of possession and 435 touches of the ball, you’d be forgiven for thinking West Brom were penned in at mercy by Middlesbrough. In fact, Carlos Corberan’s side kept their opponents at arm's length throughout, using wit and a simple plan to defeat the Championship’s form side.
The narrative was a plain one heading into the game, Michael Carrick was appointed just 24 hours before Corberan was, with both guiding their respective sides into territory unheard of following their torrid beginnings to the campaign. The Baggies were rock bottom when the Spaniard took over and Carrick lifted his squad from just a place above back in October.
But the former Manchester United midfielder has, as Corberan said — taken his side to a much better place. “He is doing a better job than I am, because he has put Middlesbrough in a better position than I have, they are playing at a very good level and deserve to achieve what they have,” Corberan said.
However, you wouldn't have been able to tell this from the Baggies’ performance on Saturday as the Spaniard levelled the playing field between the two, demonstrating his unique tactical nouse in the process.
Defensive shape
How do you defend against a Middlesbrough side that has scored 12 goals in their last four matches? Defending well would be the simplest answer, but attention to detail would be a better way to gloss over it.
Corberan’s Albion set up in their usual 4–4–2 structure out of possession with the fluidity to break out into their starting 4–2–3–1 shape when finding themselves in an attacking transition.
This is no different to any other game, in fact it was a structure that was left so open against Watford in the previous match that you would’ve wondered how they’d kept so many clean sheets under Corberan.
But here, they opted to allow Middlesbrough to ‘horseshoe’ around them, leaving very little space between the lines. This meant that although Carrick’s side kept the ball and continued its recycling around the pitch, especially between the back four, they were unable to really penetrate Albion as much as they wanted to.
Of course, having a lead to cling onto helps and that’s where the management of game state comes into play. Albion of course scored twice in two minutes to provide Middlesbrough with a tricky situation to contend with, however, they held on well but without ever looking sinkable.
Their game management against Blackburn Rovers was unusually poor, but here was a terrific example of how Corberan can get it right.
Although a five-back example, a similar example of this system would be Morocco at the World Cup in Qatar, who allowed opponents space out wide and in deeper areas, but prevented space between the lines with tight positioning between banks. The win over Middlesbrough was rarely an open affair in the way the Watford defeat was, and keeping compact was essential to limiting the visitors to a small amount of clear-cut chances.
The Yokuslu job
Although positioned in his usual holding midfield role, it was the Turkish international’s job to contain the league’s highest goalscorer — Chuba Akpom. The former Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Brighton forward has been playing a second striker to Cameron Archer, often interchanging with him to create quick combinations in and around the box.
Occasionally, Archer is tasked with creating ‘dummy runs’ to drag defenders away from Akpom to allow him to exploit blank space left by the opposition defenders. This can be tricky for defenders to track, with Archer posing a real threat himself, along with the positional rotations from midfield and the high full-backs.
Okay Yoksulu was used cleverly to help centre-backs Dara O’Shea and Erik Pieters deal with the double threat of Boro’s strike force. During Corberan’s reign, he has been seen to drop back into the defensive line to cover the centre-back pairing and sweep up second balls inside the penalty area.
Usually, a formation involving two forwards helps a side to find their front-line easier, but in this case, they found little space to operate. This resulted in Archer and Akpom having the least touches of any of Boro’s starting players.
Swift unleashed
Back in his usual number 10 position, John Swift showed exactly what he’s capable of and played a part in both West Brom goals. He was played off the left against Watford but struggled to make an impact despite the game’s thirst for quick attacking transitions — an element of the game he appears to thrive upon.
The midfielder would struggle to play against Albion’s defence but had no issues picking the lock of Carrick’s side at ease on a few occasions. The role he played in their opener, just eight minutes into the game was succinct yet essential to helping his side break the Boro line.
An outside-of-the-foot pass helped Wallace surge into the penalty area which allowed him to roll the ball across the box into Dike for the first. This proves a worthy example of how fluid Corberan’s front line can be when attacking, there’s obvious rigidity in their defensive shape but in cases where they get forward — they can do so with freedom.
Swift spearheaded a rampant attack for the second too. His excellent reverse pass into Dike slotted him straight in on goal for his brace and his third Hawthorns goal.
There’s only one point that can be taken from his performance,iIt’s essential Swift stays in the number 10 to ensure Albion can unlock defences that struggle to defend in transitional phases.
Read more analysis from Louis Bent — https://medium.com/@louisbent51
