How Pompey have won without Poole & Bishop: Tactical analysis
Pompey suffered a humiliating first league defeat of the season as they were brushed aside 4–0 by Blackpool at Fratton Park, this was going to be a huge test of character, could they bounce back?
The answer is an emphatic yes, with successive wins over Burton & Northampton putting The Blues back at the top of the tree (pun intended) heading into the huge clash with Bolton.
Here’s a tactical analysis of how they’ve done it.
Solving build-up issues
First of all, it’s important to analyse the issues that were present beforehand.
Regan Poole’s injury was a major blow & not just because of his defensive capabilities but also his ball-playing ability, Pompey usually built from the back with Poole’s passing range & ball-progression a key factor in the build-up being a success.
His season-ending injury away to Chesterfield in the FA Cup meant that solutions now needed to be found, and perhaps understandably it wasn’t plain sailing at first as there was a big adjustment that needed to be made.
What we see above is Pompey’s deep build-up structure for the game against Blackpool, it’s our standard 2–4–4 shape with Abu Kamara (25) dropping between the lines forming a 3v2 advantage against Blackpool’s double-pivot, Dembele (11) joined the front line where he would look to press Conor Shaughnessy (18), Beesley would press Sean Raggett (20) while Rhodes (16) was tasked with cutting the passing lane between the CBs. If Pompey looked to play chipped balls to the FBs, the ball-side WB would jump out to press while the ball-side CB would fill the gap thus creating a 4–3–3 formation, both Pennington (5) & Husband (3) have experience of playing as a full-back so this would’ve been a natural transition for them, this meant that Blackpool had an answer for each possibility, with Pompey making little to no use of the numerical superiority in the midfield.
Pompey’s build-up approach in this game was flawed from the off as there was a reliance on direct balls beyond Colby Bishop (9) & hoping we could win 1st & 2nd contacts but this wasn’t the case, there was no structure, no cohesion & no proper thought process. Balls up to Husband was often the target but he had the height & jumping reach to be able to beat Bishop & Blackpool could pick up the second ball, it was too predictable & quite frankly awful to watch, this is further demonstrated by the fact that not a single goal-kick was taken short & Will Norris (1) played less short passes & more long passes than average.
It was clear something needed to be done.
Pompey have ultilised a 3–4–4 build-up over the last couple of matches with goalkeeper Will Norris playing a more active role due to his ball-playing capabilities, he’s able to play short passes through lines of pressure & has very good distances in his kicks giving Pompey the option to go short & long. Raggett is frequently tasked with taking the goal-kick, it’s essential that the RCB takes the goal-kick if the goalkeeper has a preferred left-foot, we’ve seen a trend where the CB plays short to the goalkeeper from the goal-kick, this is an attempt to bait the opposition press, play through lines of pressure & drag opposition players out of position, with the CBs split & the keeper being the extra man, this gives the opposition striker a 3v1 disadvantage as well as having too much ground to cover. From here, we have four main methods of progression.
The 1st method of progression is a chipped ball into the chest of Saydee who is our favored direct outlet, this is because he can hold the ball up & link the play with the ball-side winger, the advanced pivot or ball-side FB as well as using his strength & power to turn away from his opponent, outmuscle him & drive with the ball, allowing the team to progress further forward. The second goal against Burton is a prime example of this where he brushes off the challenge of Joe Powell meaning the attack are man-to-man with the opposition defence, with Norris playing the chipped ball to Saydee & putting him up against a weaker midfielder, Pompey can take up to six opposition players out of the game & work a possible goal-scoring opportunity.
Another key reason why our build-up has improved is the midfield of Pack & Robertson, both brilliant players when they have the ball at their feet, often we will see one of these two players drop deep for 3rd man combinations & they will receive before a bounce pass to one of the CBs allowing them to bring the ball out of defence, this does depend on Norris being able to bait the striker to press which will leave the space in front of the deeper pivot.
Pack has the composure, technical ability & reading of the game to switch the play directly into those wide areas particularly with his preferred right-angle pass to Kamara on the RW, his experience & know-how has given us an extra dimension when playing out from the back. Robertson is a different profile who loves to get the ball at his feet, with his main strengths being driving with the ball out of defence & linking up with the attackers with his combination of dribbling, mobility, composure & decision making allowing us to progress further up the pitch. He is what’s called a press-resistance player meaning he’s capable of playing through the opposition press.
What we’ll also see from the midfield is movement & rotations, for example if Robertson starts in the left half-space & runs with the ball over to the right half-space, Pack will then take up his position in the left half-space, this is to open up space for the ball-carrier to move into, Pack can also cover for Shaughnessy if the latter looks to bring the ball out from the middle-third. They both have different strengths with Pack arguably having the better passing range & Robertson being the better ball-carrier.
The penalty won for the 1st goal against Burton starts with Pompey playing out with Pack being the one to drop deep to link up with the CBs forcing the opposition from there 4–1–4–1 block into a 4–2–3–1 press as Oshilaja (4) is tasked with staying on Pack, this allows us to bypass the press & for Raggett to bring the ball out of defence as the rest of the Burton team stay in their mid-block shape. With Robertson & Saydee pinning the double-pivot of Burton, this allowed a 4v2 numerical advantage in the first phase of play.
The final method of progression is chipped balls up to Lane where he controls it with his chest before either turning from his man or switching the play over to the right as he lays it back to Robertson before the pass in the right half-space to Raggett, if Robertson receives, he can also link up with Saydee in the №10 role before making the run in behind, we saw this on a couple of occasions during the Northampton game.
What I would like to mention is both Burton & Northampton play a 4–1–4–1 with Pompey’s build-up forcing them to press in a 4–2–3–1, neither team are an intense pressing team either with both teams ranking in the bottom six for PPDA, this made life easier for Raggett & Shaughnessy to bring the ball out of defence when they received the bounce pass. Blackpool looked to press high in a 5–2–3 if Pompey looked to build short with all avenues covered, Bolton also press high in a 5–3–2 & rank in the top two for PPDA so more questions will be asked in the upcoming fixture with the side sitting just one place below The Blues.
Directness
This one isn’t so much to do with tactics but playing on the front foot & with confidence. Pompey have been a lot more direct in the last two games, meaning they’ve been able to run at the defence with the ball but also the wingers making runs in behind without the ball, this has been important to our recent success as our attacks are focused heavily on the flanks, particularly on the RW & having wingers with good dribbling ability who can beat a man & have the pace to get in behind the FB for through balls whilst having full-backs offer support by putting in deep crosses or making overlapping runs is very important.
Notice how for the 2nd goal against Northampton, Lane (circled in the image above) has already started making the run in behind as the ball bounces to Yengi, he is already in front of the RB meaning he only has Willis (15) to beat. It’s a well timed run from the Northern Ireland international as Yengi & Saydee link up before the latter is able to chip the ball in behind first time & Lane has the pace to beat Willis as well as the composure to put the ball in the back of the net despite the keeper’s best efforts to come out & close the gap.
Both goals against Burton also come from quick movement from the wide areas as the penalty for the 1st goal is won by Kamara making a run between the LCB & LB as Rafferty plays the ball on the outside of the LB, & for the 2nd goal we see an overlapping run from Rafferty who provides the cutback to Robertson, that brings me to my 3rd & final topic.
The Cowley comparison
You may be wondering why I’ve mentioned John Mousinho’s predecessor Danny Cowley in this article, & how the image above has relevance to this discussion, well there is an answer for both of those questions, but you can also click on the link below which will take you to the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLMVWU3K3MA
The image we see above is a game idea based on positional attack made by the Cowley brothers which they discussed on The Coaches Voice YouTube channel back in January 2021 & while watching this back, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between this game idea & the style of play implemented by John Mousinho, even if the on pitch execution & results comparison have been night & day between the two, the ideas are still very similar to one another apart from the lack of inswinging crosses on the right, this is due to the dynamic on the right side with Rafferty/Swanson often in support for outswingers.
Since I’ve already written about our build-up, the main thing to discuss are the creative & finishing phases, in particular direct switches of play & assist zones. We’ve seen numerous times already under Mousinho how Pompey often switch the play from one side to the other, the key is having the technical ability across the pitch but especially in the midfield to execute the switch, this is why Pack & Robertson are key to the system as they’ve demonstrated their ability to switch the play from one side to the other, watch the 3rd goal against Reading back to see Robertson’s direct switch to Sparkes for an example of this.
Here’s an example of the finishing phase with Pompey’s traditional 2–4–4 attacking shape with all five vertical channels covered, we have Rafferty in what is called the assist zone where Kamara provides the cutback allowing Rafferty to hit a first time floated cross onto the head of Yengi who has the height & jumping reach to beat the CB in the air to get on the end of it, an example of this is the move that led to the corner being given for the 1st goal at Northampton. It’s likely we will see a high volume of floated crosses over the coming weeks in Bishop’s absence to make the most of Yengi’s aerial ability, additionality, Rafferty can also make a half-space run into the box.
Robertson is the player tasked with providing individual brilliance if he receives the ball on the edge of the 18-yard box which he’s more than capable of providing, if gaps are limited, we can go back to Raggett & switch the play over to Sparkes who remains high & wide at all times.
Mousinho has used different methods for his Pompey side to get into the final-3rd & this is one example, it’s a 3–2–5 with Rafferty tucked in with the CBs in the defence which is beneficial when coming up against a team that press with a two which allows a numerical advantage, Sparkes joins the attacking line with Lane cutting into the left half-space. The wingers could join in to press the wide CBs but if they’re able to play through to the wide player, it means a 2v1 on the FB with the numerical advantage in the midfield, it gives space to play through the lines & progress to the finishing phase.
Movement & team cohesion must be fluid if Pompey are to move into their 2–4–4 shape & reap the rewards, this involves Rafferty moving forward to the assist zone with Raggett moving across to cover the gap, Robertson moves towards the edge of the box with Kamara just on the edge as Rafferty overlaps or is in the half-space for the cutback, Saydee, Lane & Yengi are all tasked with getting into the box to meet the cross or pick up the loose ball.
https://tactical-board.com/animation/945c542f2c6efb_bfuk
Outro
As I sat writing this piece, there were ideas that were scrapped along the way but ultimately I hope this article is a good read. I already have plans for my next three Medium articles which will be comparing this attacking game model to John Mousinho’s Portsmouth side, because I see a lot of similarities between the two in terms of the style of play & principles, this will be broken down into three different articles, one for each phases of play.
Make sure to follow me on Twitter & Medium if you haven’t already & I’m thankful for any shares & feedback this article receives.
Until next time!
