Thread by @eason_thfc

I think I noticed something important. The answer to why we struggled against Wolves and dominated against Palace, who played an very similar system (3-4-3 low block). A tactical tweak that sounds simple but may be crucial to our long term success.

A THREAD 🧵

#COYS #THFC

You may recall that I've been calling for Ange to make some slight tactical changes to help us dominate games and defend against transitions. In particular, I talked about dropping the 6 deeper and occasionally building up in a back 3.

Guess what? Ange did just that vs Palace.

Let's talk about the 6: Bissouma. On the left is his heatmap vs Wolves, and on the right vs Palace. For some context, we had similar amounts of possesion in both games. What do you notice? It's obvious: he dropped deeper and was much more involved in the 1st phase of buildup.

This is reflected in the stats as well. Against Wolves, Biss had 87 touches (1.23/min), ranking 4th in the game. Against Palace, Biss had 129 (1.45/min), ranking 2nd. Moreover, he was positioned much closer to the CBs. This has allowed for easier ball progression and frees up

space in the midfield for others to do what they're good at instead of overly congesting it with little purpose. Playing Biss deeper also allows him to effectively sniff out dangerous passes and pick up runs, stopping counter attacks. This was evident against Palace, as they

created very few, if any, counter attacks. It's a very small change (a difference of perhaps 10 yards), but it was a big reason behind our improved performance vs Palace. I hope Ange will stick to this in the future, regardless of who plays as the 6.

On the subject of buildup, notice how Udogie almost functioned as an auxiliary CB/traditional LB when we were struggling in buildup vs Palace. The same cannot be said about Davies vs Wolves. I'm not blaming Davies, as this is more down to instructions, but here are the heat maps:

As you can see, Udogie was much more involved in deeper areas. Common theme, ehh? While Davies had 77 touches, placing 7th in the team, and Udogie had 92, playing 4th (!). The overall buildup was just so much better.

Another interesting aspect is that Udogie/Biss dropping to CB allows Romero/Vdv to attack crosses and corners. Guess who scored the winning goal from a cross during OPEN PLAY? Cristian Romero! That's wouldn't have been possible under 99% of systems.

All in all, I think the slight tweaks Ange made for this game were very smart. Oftentimes, it's the small things that matter the most.

Hope you enjoyed reading this thread, as I certainly enjoyed writing it! Any feedback would be appreciated.

#THFC #COYS

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