Derby County FC v Brentford FC Tactical Preview
Pride Park - 12.30pm 11/07/20
Cocu’s Derby County come into this fixture having lost 2-0 to Brentford’s automatic promotion chasing rivals West Brom, not doing the West Londoners a favour in the process.
If Cocu could foresee some of what this season would throw at him he maybe wouldn't have signed up. A disgraceful incident involving three of his players left us once again questioning the morals of the game. The stadium in which they play may land them in FFP trouble as the EFL continue to unweave their own ineptitude. Wayne Rooney was thrust upon him in a player/coach gambling sponsored move and most recently, one of his best defenders fell victim to a knife attack. Yet he has still remained calm and tried to continue a ball playing style following in the footsteps of the managerial unprivileged, Frank Lampard. It would be fair to call this a whirlwind introduction to English football.
He has favoured two main systems, a 3412 and 4231, the former, mostly built around the strengths of Krystian Bielik, and the latter what we have seen most of as the Polish signing from Arsenal was ruled out for the year.
Derby this season could be classed as pre-Rooney and with Rooney. Pre Rooney, Huddelstone did what Rooney does now but slower, post Rooney sees Rooney do what Huddlestone did as a similar deep lying playmaker but with more athleticism to move the ball around. Neither offer the team much in the way of off the ball defensive through the centre of midfield so we see similar problems. They can score because they have individual talent in the likes of Lawrence, Holmes and Sibley, and they concede because they have an average midfield that can’t prevent sides from counter attacking or playing through them.
Looking back at Derby during the WBA game in possession, Rooney began slightly further than usual in an advanced midfield role with Bird and Shinnie behind him in what was a 4231 shape.
Derby started with good possession principles in trying to retain the ball across the back line.
West Brom pressed high and made it difficult for Derby players to settle and take calming touches on the ball. Evans and Clarke formed a centre back pairing with the former stepping into a deeper role and away from his preferred midfield anchor position covering for the injured Wisdom.
During build up phases we saw Derby try to use Hammer in goal to spread play wide without the quality of Raya or other goalkeepers in the league. An early result of WBA forward pressure saw Clarke, with good left footed balance, play the ball out to Forsyth at left back who regularly makes himself available, try to play a first time pass inside to Shinnie but WBA read this move as Derby fail to play through WBA pressure and turnover the ball. Three quick passes later and Derby are conceding a shot on goal that goes narrowly wide from a Periera drag back. It’s a situation reminiscent of Brentford’s fixture against Derby without the counter attack goal. Cocu has his principles, Derby need to know when to move the ball long to safety or up their quality.
Sibley found it difficult to make an impact or receive the ball playing from the right as did Chris Martin as the central striker. Because Shinnie and Bird struggled for time on the ball, not helped by the marked Martin, WBA managed to apply more than enough pressure to prevent the ball moving into the feet of Rooney. WBA continually forced Derby backwards back in the first half and would have given up more possession had it not been for the ability of Clarke recycling the ball across the back line.
There was one or two moves of note in a poor Derby first half that saw Sibley and Rooney combine. A lucky bounce to Rooney enables him to spreads wide for a first time cross from Bogle, who makes a good run to offer wide support. Martin unfortunately struggles to get there in time and the ball sails across the goal.
Out of possession, the Shinnie & Bird double pivot struggled to get a foot in on Pereira as well as winger Diangana as he came inside off the right flank.
Grosicki did good work troubling Bogle defensively. Played good 1-2s and slipped a lovely ball through to Diangana for the opener from the left hand half space as the winger ran inside off the right flank to the left side of the goal, beating the offside trap to round the keeper and slot in from a difficult angle.
Derby look likely to struggle with similar Mbeumo movement as he comes in off his right flank after combining with Dalsgaard. We were particlarly disappointed with Martin. He didn’t offer much with regard to closing the ball down when WBA CBs were in possession. He ambled and moved right and left at the wrong times and was easily played out of the game. It felt like a guide in how not to lead the line in out of possession in 2020 and that was a big difference between the sides. WBA forward line made the forward passing lanes difficult to find for Derby defenders and midfielders, WBA waltzed into the middle third at will.
Here we see the ball move wide to Diangana and a snapshot of poor off the ball work from the front line.
Sawyers shows and moves right as a bounce option for Grady.
Rooney follows Sawyers and looks to apply pressure onto the first touch. He has been chasing around more erratically, filling in for Martin and trying to pressure the WBA back line and midfield into increasing the tempo of their passing. Martin is offering no backup or coordinated pressure just to the left out of this clip. He is regularly standing and watching. Rooney in his frustration follows the ball back to Dianghana
Grady knocks a simple ball back left to the waiting Ajayi.
Martin has reacted now because the ball and player have come to his space but it is half willed and he shows no real determination and is again easily played around.
A first time ball is fizzed to Sawyers from Ajayi and WBA have worked a good wide triangle for Sawyers to turn and run towards Derby back line.
The former Bees midfielder now has multiple unchallenged options here and this is an example of a frustrated Rooney trying to chase down a ball with a lack of cohesion around him.
Derby in attack did fleetingly show good width from Bogle from the right fullback position. Grosicki played left wing and his reluctance to track back and instead stay high up on the left, left Townsend working two thirds of their side and plenty of space to run into.
Also spotted in the Derby attack is something seen previously from Huddersfield’s Bacuna in how they use a wide freekick in the middle third. Rooney takes it and puts in a deep lofted cross which is easy to defend against and headed clear by Livermore on the edge of the box.
Rooney undoubtedly has strong delivery from set pieces and we saw Derby try to benefit from this on multiple occasions when the side win free kicks in the middle third. Rooney would take the set-price and launch a high ball towards the box. It was a strange tactic given WBAs aerial superiority and Derby selecting a front line of Holmes and Sibley. Martin was obviously one of the main targets, however the route to goal seemed counterintuitive and was dealt with ease. Pinnock, Jansson and Dalsgaard will have to be switched on from these situations. .
From open play it was mainly Bogle occasionally free on the right that troubled WBA. Brentford are strong down their left hand side, and Benrahma will do his defensive work helped by Josh Dasilva. Henry will compete with the league's fastest wingers for pace on the outside so it should take something extraordinary for Bogle to get the space WBA afforded him. As Benraham drifts inside to the right behind Watkins, that’s when you feel Derby could gain some territory along their own right wing.
Shinnie, playing in a holding role alongside Bird frustrated throughout and should have been punished more in possession. He would have time on the ball to progress and play a pass, instead he had his head down and mind fixed on knocking a simpler pass square and it was easily read. With this amount of time on the ball, it felt slack to turn this situation into a turnover and a WBA attack to spring from here felt like concern.
Tricky and energetic Duane Holmes was another attacker that WBA successfully stifled. Playing from the left wing, he made little impact. When the ball did come to him on his side he was outnumbered and never adjusted his feet quick enough to make the most of a ball into the box. He went off injured just before half time for Morgan Whittaker.
Defending corners, Derby go for a combination setup. They cover the near post and 6 yard zone plus man marking on runners from the edge of the box and penalty spot. In this instance, from an outswinging corner Bartley still gets a good contact right in centre of goal but can only direct his header wide.
The second goal came from a corner, not too long after more WBA counter attacks and Pereira becoming more dominant on the ball. A similar header that is met in the zone Ferguson scored against Brentford at The Hawthorns is smashed in at the near post by O’Shea instead of glanced. 2-0 felt fair and could have been more.
Overall, Derby never progressed the ball well enough as Shinnie and Bird struggled in possession and Rooney was wasted ahead of them closer to the forward line. This did get adjusted as the game went on but Cocu was probably dismissed by Bilic who knew his 4231 was better at what it does than Cocu’s. For the Dutchman to go man for man with his system allowing Rooney and Martin to lead the first line forward was a huge risk that never looked like working on paper or the pitch.
This really led to Derby failing to register a single shot on target and they have previous in this area. Rooney looks better when he himself is on the ball looking for the off ball options instead of being the off ball option himself. If the on the ball quality tasked with finding him improves, having him in advanced areas may work. A ban to Lawrence forced Cocu to shuffle his pack and he didn’t get it right. Playing Rooney deeper and losing Shinnie looks more profitable. It is one to think about for Cocu longer term when facing the top teams in the league. Having a pivot behind the former Manchester United man of Shinnie and Bird was at times difficult to watch. To make 200 more passes than the Midlanders and then WBA still go on to make more final third passes and treble the shots shows where things might be going wrong for Cocu in these higher calibre matches.
Brentford should go up north with a similar space controlling mid block out of possession and with their front 3 forward players pressuring the Derby backline, we could again see this type of display where Brentford stifle the best of what Derby have to offer.
Back in the August reverse at Griffin Park Thomas Franks’ 343 system finally clicked in attack and gave a powerful display to win 3-0. It was a case of maximizing the opportunities thrown at them as Derby made mistakes up field aplenty and were ruthlessly exposed in transition which was exactly what a Brentford team struggling to find their feet in front of goal needed.
That was Derby’s second 3-0 loss in a row in all competitions which again came down to an naivety in possession and a poor defensive structure. Still with similar defensive frailties, Huddlestone is now way out of the picture and Dowell has moved on. Bennet is no longer a part of the squad and Rooney has joined. Youth product Sibley has emerged as an important attacking threat bursting onto the scene with a hat-trick vs Millwall, and Wisdom, prior to a terrible off field incident looked to be establishing an improved back line partnership with Clarke.
In summary, their 4231 shape without the abstract movement or running of Lawrence in attack can look predictable and static. A late surge has seen them threaten the playoff positions although when you see Derby come up against WBA, their limitations defensively look like they may prevent them from getting over the line.
At 23, Matt Clarke has had so many defensive partners yet still gone about his business as a calming and commanding ball playing centre back. A clear season standout, he has played alongside Curtis Davis, Richard Keogh, on the left of a back three with the long term injured Bielik, beside Andre Wisdom and now George Evans.
This instability hasn’t always been able to be helped and it’s been this lack of defensive cohesion across Derby’s season that has made the impressive Clarkes’ and Philip Cocu’s life difficult as the Dutch manager quickly learns how unforgiving this league can be. Recent poor discipline won’t have helped and a referee error has come down hard on an already stretched squad.
Brentford, currently speak for themselves. They’re the form side in the division and the team terrifying the current top 2. The Bees are on a six game winning streak with an aggregate scoreline of 16-1. The squad is healthy and has good options able to change games from the bench. Thomas Franks’ side came back to win against Charlton in what was the toughest game since the restart and a rest from the start for some ever present.
He’ll likely go back to his strongest 11 on Saturday to try to keep the winning cycle going and put the maximum amount of pressure on those above. After conceding their first goal in over 4 hours of football, Tactical Thomas will be looking to start that type of run up again.