Brentford FC v Sheffield Wednesday FC - Tactical Preview
Brentford Community Stadium - 7pm 24/02/21
One team has lost their last two matches, the other has lost their last three. Something must give here.
Earlier in the week, David Anderson and Peter Løhmann took an extensive look at the recent fortunes of both teams in this preview.
Due to the timing of the conversation, what didn’t come across was how severe Brentford’s injury list was quickly going to become.
From being a subject to keep an eye on it soon evolved into something staring everyone in the face.
Having a defined identity and an effective playing structure from back to front is a way to mitigate the loss of one or two players to the treatment table.
Losing several first teamer’s all at once presents deeper issues like how well the players selected understand the system and naturally how well they can be in the right position during different phases of play.
Brentford’s 4-3-3 system has multiple strengths as well as it’s fair share of weaknesses. Over the last two seasons it has particularly struggled against wing-back 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 systems..
In broad terms, the tactical struggles can be broken down into two facets.
When a team chooses to give up half of the pitch for much of the match condensing into a compact shape it can be difficult for even the world's best players to score.
Swansea are a great case study from this season for having season the 3-5-2 to great effect.
pulling their wing-backs deep beside a narrow back 3 to form a back 5
3 narrow midfielders in front of the 5
2 forwards at the top of the team, any combination of AM or CF
Out of possession, a shape like this can be hard to penetrate. How do we move towards the goal and score? Spaces are apparent out wide but only up to a point. A team playing Brentford’s 4-3-3 can be easy to marshall because of the superiority of the back 5. Through the centre of the field there are minimal spaces between the lines. Do we keep passing around the box in the dreaded U-shape or do we shoot from further out over or through a group of players? Do we even get close enough to make many passes around the box and when we do find ourselves in good positions, rush, due to how long we’ve spent away from goal?
What we’re not seeing against Swansea is dangerous transitional situations but instead a team settled deep waiting for odd transitional moments themselves. Swansea use their wing-backs to help allow them to spend long periods of time without the ball. Brentford can make passes in the middle and move it from side to side, up to point, progress any further and you hit a wall.. Swansea is tactically preventing opponents from taking high quality shots through a combination of defending deep and counter-attacking.
Barnsley again utilised a wing-back system but deployed it in a front footed 3-4-3 variation. Two forwards against a back four has minimal effect out of possession, hence why the rest of the Swansea team are so good without the ball. It’s fairly easy for good possession teams to progress up field out wide. However, three forwards spread wide can block progression and the picture when a full back receives the ball can be very different.
Barnsley were clever in how they limited Brentford moving upfield. In the graphic above it’s the forwards that spread across the front of the team to make balls into midfield difficult.
Condense the final third of the pitch at certain points in the game Barnsley defensively benefiting from a wing-back system at the top end of the pitch. Forced into defensive errors and making passes around their own goal saw Brentford make mistakes that were punished.
A similar story occurred in the defeat to Coventry. Similar to Swansea, Coventry have a front pairing and use a 3-5-2 system but conversely out of possession push their attacking midfielder high up and advanced of the midilder pair behind him.
In the clip above you can see him goal side of Janelt and a triangle form around Brentford’s most dangerous route out.
From Raya, the ball finds its way out to right to Roerslev and a heavy touch is pounced upon by a combination of Walker and the onrushing wing-back McCallem.
Janelt is tightly marked, Mbeumo is nowhere to be seen so if Roerslev cannot move the ball back to Pinnock first time he is at great risk of losing the ball deep in his own half.
Individual mistake have cost Brentford in these last three fixtures but has the systems faced forced these mistake upon the team and disrupted, flowing build up from back to front?
Injuries do not help and Brentford and Thomas Frank come into this game against Sheffield Wednesday with a long list to key players.
With his 4-3-3 system consecutively struggling against wing-back it is potentially time to shake things up. Or is it?
Sheffield Wednesday, too, use a wing-back system. 3-5-2 has been their most preferred shape this year and they play a hybrid of the three versions we’ve seen above.
Paterson alongside Windass make up a front two and are flanked by Adam Reach and Kadeem Harris.
Frank has the tough decision of picking a team and shape without his preferred spine and the most consistent and effective left-back of the last years at this level.
Is the next fixture time for Frank to accept that his out of sorts team has flaws exposed by wing-backs or will he persevere with his team playing out of their slump and the 4-3-3 that the players know best? We’ll know soon enough.
How Brentford could do with a repeat of the performance of the final game at Griffin Park with fans.