In the opening 20 minutes of Sunday’s game Brentford were all over us. And given the slow start, it’s arguable that we were pretty lucky to have gotten to the 20th minute without conceding.
But after a first quarter of an hour within which we constantly lost duels and turned over possession cheaply, we began to stabilise. Antonio managed to sneak in behind a couple of times and Zouma saw a header fade just wide from an excellent Cresswell corner.
And it was in the 20th minute when the ball flicked off Ogbonna’s head and out for a goal-kick from a subsequent corner that we moved into a 3142 system for the third time in the game to try and pressurise Brentford around their own box.
This is because Brentford prefer to play out from goal-kicks, with the centre-backs splitting to either side of the six-yard-box, so we set up to press high with the aim of undermining this area of their build-up.
Here we had a back three made up of Zouma, Ogbonna and Cresswell with Rice sitting in between that and a midfield four of Coufal, Souček, Benrahma and Fornals with Bowen and Antonio up top.
This system was designed to match Brentford’s shape and stop David Raya, Pontus Jansson and Ethan Pinnock from being comfortable in possession as Bowen and Antonio would shift to screen their passing options with Soucek jumping out of midfield to press Franck Onyeka if he dropped deep to offer himself as a central passing option.
On paper this makes sense. Stop Brentford from playing out from the back and force them to go long where Zouma and Ogbonna can contest these high-balls and Rice can mop up the afters.
In fact, a 31st minute Brentford goal-kick provided a perfect example of how this was meant to work when Raya was forced to go long by our press only for Cresswell to win his aerial duel and nod down to Fornals who almost played Benrahma in with a first-time-pass on the turn.
In utilising our aerial ability in defence and encouraging Fornals and Benrahma to make themselves available to receive passes quickly in transition, the idea would’ve been for us to force mistakes or rushed long-balls that could have led to opportunities against Brentford’s out-of-shape defence.
But back to the 20th minute, the goal-kick in question and the series of events that lead to Brentford’s opener… As with the “perfect” example, Raya was forced to go long by our press and Cresswell is able to win a simple header but in this instance, he loses the ball in the sunlight and his header goes straight up instead of finding a teammate. Not to worry though because Rice’s positioning allows him to win the second aerial duel and nod the ball down for Benrahma.
Benrahma looks to turn with the ball, as clearly instructed to given our plan to transition quickly in these situations, but in letting the ball come to him, he allows Onyeka to nip in ahead and clear it upfield.
This time, Ogbonna comes out for the aerial duel and as he does so, Cresswell rightly drops a few yards deeper to be able to recover possession if the ball drops beyond the Italian.
Ogbonna wins his duel but the ball deflects off the back of Bryan Mbeumo’s head and into the centre of the pitch (where Rice would normally be) and with Souček only just recovering from his advanced position in the press, it falls perfectly for Toney.
All six members of the pressing unit have been taken out of the game and Rice is out of position leaving the back three exposed.
And rather than having taken a few steps across to cover the chasm that had opened up in the space Ogbonna vacated, Zouma compounds our problems by being caught ball-watching. Toney shows his quality here in connecting a perfectly weighted through ball into this gap on the half-volley which Canós can charge onto and suddenly Brentford are in.
Our initial reactions here are two-thirds good. Zouma races across to pressurise Canós and Ogbonna sprints back to cover. But with Cresswell having been virtually taken out of the game by Toney’s ball, Coufal barely breaks out of a light jog and fails to recover into his normal right-back position.
Then comes a classic second-phase-catastrophe as Ogbonna slows to a jog when he sees that Canós is about to unload a shot…
Never do this. The beginning of a shot obviously does not represent the end of the danger and should not bring about immediate inactivity if you are unable to get a block in. Always think of the second phase and remain aware of who might be coming in to latch onto a possible loose ball in the box… Think Rodri v Liverpool from just a few hours after this.
Mbeumo, like all good strikers would, sprints towards the goal to get onto any potential rebounds and Ogbonna’s moment’s pause is punished as Fabiański can only parry the ball wide and Brentford’s French striker is able to slide in and just about prod the ball over the line; 0-1.
There is without doubt a level of misfortune in the concession of this goal. Cresswell losing the ball in the sun, the ball deflecting straight to Toney from Ogbonna’s header and Mbeumo’s shot going just millimetres over the line. But there is also a lack of anticipation to blame. Zouma should step across when Ogbonna goes to head it and Ogbonna should stay with Mbeumo while Canós shoots.
It would also be easy to blame an unfamiliar pressing system for the confusion that led to the goal but the 3142 shape allowed us to regain possession from 66% of the Brentford goal-kicks that followed the goal before they eventually gave up and started to go direct from the 61st minute. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work out brilliantly for them with our defenders winning the first contact from all five of the following goal-kicks.
Sunday’s performance was far better than the result would suggest. Yes, we struggled for rhythm and control in the first 15-20 minutes but Brentford had four shots from this moment onward; one of which was blocked and two of which came in the final minute as they nabbed their winner. We took 14 shots in this period.
Had Antonio or Bowen shown better control when put through on two occasions or had they been able to put away excellent headed opportunities in the second half, the scoreline would have looked very different.
For me, this was less an example of an “embarrassing team performance” as some have suggested and more about us lacking our usual quality in both boxes. And with Everton, Spurs, Villa and Liverpool in the coming run of fixtures, we’ll be needing that back to come away with positive results.
All rights reserved. Jack Elderton. 2020. Statistical input taken from Wyscout & Fbref (Statsbomb).
Jack Elderton 