TPL
Nakhon Ratchasima 1-0 Chonburi
80th Birthday Stadium
Attendance: 21,764
Sunday 15th November, 2015
TACTICAL ANALYSIS
by Peter Reeves
This match would be my first opportunity to have a look closely at the Sharks.
I had seen them twice before this season, once producing a report on Nakhon Ratchasima and the second time as just an observer at Port.
Hard to know where to start talking about tonight. 70% possession. 4 clear cut chances before half time. Playing a team who are always there for the taking. Should have been a comfortable win. So, why not?
Well let's look at the formation first. They lined up 4-2-3-1. Well that's ok. Back four. Two holding midfielders with 3 in midfield and a lone striker. A very European system. BUT...you've got to know how it works. You just can't pick a team in that formation and expect it to operate fluidly if the players don't know their responsibilities. It is the 'link' play between defence and attack where it will go wrong. Clearly tonight they didn't understand and it did go wrong. So let's go through it.
A 4-2-3-1 system is very much a 'zonal' system with each player covering an area. There are 4 zones each linking constantly with each other. Zones interact and change shape and purpose depending on whether you have the ball or the opponent has it.I am not going to explain this zonal system here as it would take too long, though I will if it is of some interest to people in a further post. Let your webmaster know and I will be happy to do it. So the basics. The back four staying solid and the two holding midfield players cutting out advancing threats in front of the defensive line and protecting their back 4. It worked ok, except on a few isolated occasions when players were guilty of ball watching.
SwatCat offered little in attack at all and so really the job was easy.The goalkeeper up until the 92nd minute did ok. But it was the attacking midfield situations and the central striker where it all went wrong. The 'creative' zone. There was some nice approach play and combinations up until it reached the final 3rd and then you could see they just didn't know what to do. The striker was isolated with no midfield support and despite getting through on goal 3 times in the first 20 minutes, couldn't make it count. The game as a contest should have been over by half time.
If a team is set up in this formation, two of the midfield three have got to get forward to support the striker. And get close to him. If you don't do this then he is on his own with nowhere to go. It didn't happen.Too many runs were made straight at the defence instead of making diagonal runs across the box. Diagonal runs do two things. It may create space for yourself as the runner or it will create space behind you as your marker follows you for someone else to run into. It didn't happen at all.
The ball was often got wide quickly but the wide player himself lacked support and so his only option was to try and beat the full back instead of having a player close who he could play a quick 'give and go' with to get in behind him. If he did get past him there were few options in the middle other than cross and hope. Hence a lot of possession but where it counted very poor. As I said to play this formation it has to be coached. And by someone who knows it.
I don't know if Chonburi play this system every week but if they don't then I am afraid your coach committed tactical suicide tonight. How many times have you seen a team dominate and then lose in the last minute. It was on the cards as in the last 5 minutes they shuffled back and lost momentum. The goal? Well defensive mistake really but I still expected it to go flying over the bar.
Chonburi were the better side for 90 minutes. Not because of the formation but because the players were largely better as individuals.
Free kicks? I wrote a short report in to the club about SwatCat. One of the things I highlighted was that at central free kicks against them the defenders bunch on the edge of the area.The coach should have read it.
Every single time they bunched leaving the flanks empty for a runner to play the ball to who could then make a dangerous low cross. Seven free kicks. All wasted with high hopeful balls to the penalty spot while the wings were just empty and ignored. And so what should have been a more than comfortable win becomes a loss.
As I said before...if you don't understand this 4-2-3-1 system don't even try to play it. Defensively ok, but with very little pressure to worry about, but going forward if you don't know what you're doing it will fail. And tonight it failed dramatically.Having said all of this, there are some good players in that team. They could do well.
Often a team plays like an extension of the club itself. Without knowing your club at all I just saw a lack of ambition going forward. No plan. No understanding. You must have ambition on and off the pitch.
Without it a club will always be an also ran. Are they ambitious? I have seen it at close quarters in a bad way at QPR in London and in an exceptional way at Ajax in Amsterdam.
What was missing tonight? Just cohesion and understanding, and of course a striker who could have taken a couple of those gilt edged chances presented by Swatcat's very poor defence. At the moment the club are 3rd but not really challenging the top 2. Do you want to make that challenge? Some of the jigsaw is in place, but the missing pieces need to be added. And there are some missing pieces.
It's up to you, Chonburi.
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