Brentford FC v Barnsley FC - Tactical Preview
Brentford Community Stadium - 1pm 14/02/21
After two thumping smash and grab wins on the road Brentford welcome Valerien Ismael’s Barnsley to the Brentford Community Stadium.
A quick check on our xPts table shows Barnsley behind their expected tally by around 4 points. Not a drastic amount by any means and an indication the squad are right where they belong battling it out for mid table positions.
On Thursday, Match of The Day pundits were left tongue tied, unable to verbalize how little old Barnsley could reduce Tuchel’s Chelsea to such obvious struggles. Barnsley ultimately ended up losing the cup game 1-0 but this didn’t feel like an elite Champions League team strolling through a small EFL minnow at will kinda matchup.
It felt evenly matched, as if something was going on tactically to make up for a huge talent deficit.
In a recent Athletic interview ahead of Barnsley’s FA Cup defeat BFC Head Coach Ismael revealed some of his principles and philosophies around intensity and pressing.
“For sure, pressing is a superficial term now, everybody knows what press means,” Ismael says. “But we have a different approach to pressing. If the opponent has a back four or back three, you have a lot of build-up possibilities and a lot of rotation. We have solutions for this. Whether it’s Press One or Press Two, Three or Four, every player here knows now our press and we just have to say one number. We’re on the same page and everybody knows how to work.”
Why is this interesting?
Using fivethirtyeight’s non-shot xG numbers we can see three (four begrudgingly including QPR) teams are allowing “less that the rest” non-shot xG’s against them.
This is a good time to further explain why fivethirtyeight’s non-shot model is both informative and extremely useful. At Bees Tactical, we can be as guilty as anyone by obsessing over shots. It’s easy to get caught up on the beautiful things because, well, goals on the most part come from shots and valuable shots are important to winning matches in the long term.
Standard xG is one useful tool because it places a value on said shots. But what about all of the other incredibly important things that happen in a football match? Due to its very nature xG can only tell part of the football data story.
How many times are teams able to get into your box to make dangerous attacking passes? You know the ones, cut backs from a narrow position inside the penalty for a centre forward to tap home right in front of goal. Well what if a team doesn't allow that kind of situation to happen as many times as all the other teams?
That might be a good thing, right?
What if the striker doesn’t connect with said previous goal gaping pass thus not registering a shot or anything on an expected goals tally? Non-shot expected goals to the rescue, then, because like possession value and how phases of play are likely to result in a goal, non-shot xG give this pass a value as well as a whole host of the other events outside of those overbearing shots we’re so infatuated with.
It shouldn't really be a surprise that two of the division's most intense pressing teams are consistently allowing against them less quality situations than the rest of the league.
Brentford, Rotherham and Barnsley lead the way for clarification but it’s fair to say they get there in different ways.
Ishmael in his interview goes on to say -
“I can’t tell all the secrets. But the first principle is intensity. Without intensity, we’ve no chance. That’s why we need intensity first. If you want to dominate – we don’t have Premier League quality – but we can dominate with our intensity. You have to show the players where we want to win the ball and what happens after. When you win the ball, you have a short time when the opponent is not organised. So you have to stay vertical, play direct with purpose. That’s a big difference from playing direct. Direct with purpose can be in behind, diagonal, quickly – use this short window to hurt the opponent. The other thing it does is keep the opponent away from our goal.”
Brentford keep xG and Non-shot xG down by protecting the middle of the pitch. A narrow 4-3-3 system out of possession pushes opposition possessions wide where if they can get close enough to goal they can cross the ball into the box.
Barnsley and Rotherham are regularly committing players higher up the field making it difficult for their opposition to build up from their own third. Both teams use 3 centre backs and in front of that a wingback system of 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1. If you want to get into their box you’re going to have to be exceptional on the ball taking on or two touches in the middle zones to break through or end up going forward long because the front 3 and midfield 5 behind are trying to pressure the ball and the next passing option.
Rotherham and Barnsley are employing systems that are tough to play against and with clear aims. Disrupt the opposition, keep the game at an uncomfortable intensity and move the ball forward with purpose.
Brentford have been on the wrong side of the Barnsley intensity before and although the team has grown since the final day misery, it is a threat that all teams, even Premier League sides, can find themselves on the wrong side of and reduced to mediocrity.
Last time out v Barnsley 0-1 Brentford
Great stuff as always. I thought the Barnsley article in The Athletic was interestingly timed, yeah?