Wycombe Wanderers and Gareth Ainsworth welcome Thomas Frank and his Brentford side to Adams Park.
As we kiss international football goodbye for not long enough, we welcome the sweet nectar of The Championship back into out lives.
Heavy relegation favourites vs favourites for promotion. It is not unfair to describe the tie as a Goliath v David matchup in team strength terms.
Wycombe have made the most to pounce on miscommunications and a degree of complacency between defenders and their goalkeepers, but that aside have largely struggled with the power and precision of Championship midfielders and forwards. Alongside Coventry, we’re looking at one of the weakest sides ranked by the quality of chances conceded and created.
There’s a little saving grace when transferring that data into expected points rankings in our table above. The numbers are revealing that Wycombe, through eleven games, are right in a mix of seven struggling sides from dismal Derby up to QPR.
A concern with regards to their hopes of avoiding relegation is how quickly Sheffield Wednesday have clawed back their negative points total. A reduction from minus twelve points to minus six has heavily aided the positive swing so it is now up to Ainsworth to figure out a way to keep Wycombe in games for longer and reduce some of the burden that conceding an average of almost 2 goals a game brings.
Wycombe Tactical Woes
Against Norwich, Wycombe defended with a high line trying to play Pukki and Hugill offside regularly leaving a huge space between GK and Defence. It was a strange strategy to say the least as Norwich took advantage of the offside trap as soon as the 3rd minute. We are scratching our heads at what Wycombe must have seen in previous games against the Canaries as there was limited pressure on the ball throughout their many phases of possession, almost goading Beundia and Cantwell to play into the space behind.
Wycombe are also not dealing with or preventing crosses against the better teams particularly down their right hand side which could see Rico Henry benefit.
Norwich tend to flood the central areas, wait for teams to react by bringing players narrow to defend the route to goal and then allow their full-backs to support up field and provide the width unmarked.
Quintilla, here, has time to control the pass out to him, look up, settle and clip a ball in without Grimmer getting anywhere near him to prevent the cross. Pukki waits back post for an uncontested volley which luckily goes wide.
Here the Spaniard is again.
And we could show you many more clips.
Swansea also had free reign of the wings in their 2-1 win over Wycombe, particularly Bidwell, who picked up an assist while making unopposed crosses. Below, we can see a similar dominance to that in the Norwich defeat of crosses attempted from the left hand side.
As well as conceding from the deep Bidwell cross from the left shown below,
Ayew was able to get into the box and play short crossed ball across the goal for Lowe to score.
Gibbs-White caused way too much disruption at the front post and Ayew coming in around the back, losing his marker as he gambled on the ball not being defended to stretch well and get a strike into an empty net.
Shape
The shape we see from Ainsworth is a hybrid of 442, keeping the team compact as a defensive block and able to expand out from that by hitting two forwards quickly.As a system, it worked because of it’s direct qualities in the league below, but we’re not sure how much of an effect a direct style can have against teams who will deal with that type of attack. Especially without the defensive solidity behind it. Out of possession, Kashket and others are seen charge down situations in an isolated manner but we refrain from describing them as doing much more than that. They don’t seem to press too aggressively.
We are often left annoyed by teams mimicking Sheffield United’s 352 success yet Wycombe look like a team crying out for a change to this type of system.
It would give them better control of the defensive and middle thirds asking greater questions of the teams currently finding it easy to progress down the wings and put in unchallenged crosses.
Basic shape v Norwich
Basic shape v Brentford in the Cup match early September
Attacking and Build-up
We don't see many slow purposeful possessions from Wycombe. In fact, it’s the opposite. Goalkeeper Allsop almost exclusively goes long as his maps from Norwich and Swansea show below.
No short passes or attempts to suck in high pressure, the ball is hit wide or long to contest in an area well away from Allsop’s goal.
A large part of their progressive play is based around a couple of short passes before moving the ball out to Jacobson in the left back area. From here, Jacobson goes as early as he can from his left foot to the forward line or final third with relative success.
Jacobson passes in away match vs Norwich
Jacobson against Nottingham Forest
Dennis Adeniran is a standout player on the ball in the central zones and impressed in fleeting moments against Norwich. Strong enough to hold off pressure when facing his own goal, he’s able to change direction at pace when he appears in a tight space forcing teams that press high to react to him breaking away. Vacating the midfield when playing in a pair is risky and although the Wycombe forwards can drop into midfield upping central numbers, a switch to a regular and dedicated 3 man midfield would enhance the qualities of Adeniran.
Out wide, Onyedinma and Horgan are doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to progressive carrying. There’s plenty to like about Wycombe in terms of togetherness and unity but would be amiss of us to not discuss their current statistical plight.
How will Brentford look to counter Wycombe’s style?
Out of possession we’ll see Brentford slot into their 4-1-2-3 shape controlling as much of the pitch as possible. Two centre-backs will go man for man on Wycombes’ forwards, with Akinfenwa, if selected, likely to wrongly assume Mads Bech Sorensen is drastically weaker in the air (also if selected) backing into the young defender and trying to disrupt his focus.
If we see any of the same tactical nuances as with the Norwich defeat it could be a long day for Alsopp as Toney and Forss take it in turns sitting on the shoulder of the back line.
Canos is likely to retain his starting spot and with one of the weakest right hand sides in the league finally make his selection count in goal or assist output. Knowing Brentford’s strengths, Wycombe are likely to go at least a man up centrally with four of five flooding the spaces Bees usually rotate three.
Janelt and Dasilva should offer too much of a physical mismatch for anything Ainsworth can put in the way so the Wycombe boss may opt for a deeper pivot as opposed to the high line we saw the Canaries routinely expose.
Wycombe rank 22nd for goals, 21st for shots attempted, 19th for shots on target, 23rd for goals conceded, 24th for shots conceded and so on and so on.
Drastically, Brentford rank 2nd for goals, 5th for shots attempted, 9th for shots on target, 2nd for shots against and so on and so on. 1 nil to Wycombe then.