Swansea City manager Graham Potter has been known this season to get his sides to be flexible with players moving into a range of different positions in different phases of their passing build-up play.
Player rotations is nothing new in the modern game and it’s something that you regularly see but you could certainly argue that Potter is even more flexible than most in terms of player’s rotating roles and positions.
For example, against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Bersant Celina was often playing in a wide left role to support Dan James down that side. He also dropped deep to help the passing build-up play from the defence. Matt Grimes also drops in between the two centre backs, forming a back three before pushing forward as attacks progress.
To fill the hole in the centre left behind by Celina drifting wide left, Nathan Dyer often moved inside from the right to form a front two with Oli McBurnie. This often meant that right back Connor Roberts would provide the width on the right.
The animation below shows the passmap progression as the Swans move the ball from their defensive line to the attacking line or from the defensive third to attacking third.
The animation and the passmaps behind it are based on the first 70 minutes of the match before the first subtitution is made. This is simply done so that every player’s passes is based on the same time frame.
A few things to notice here:
- Oli McBurnie doesn’t drop as deep as we have seen this season and played more passes in a wide right area
- Mike van der Hoorn pushed forward, often in midfield to play forward pases
- Matt Grimes makes up a lot of ground, starting moves in between the defenders before moving down the left channel
- Nathan Dyer moves inside off the right
Low Phase – Average – High phase Pass Map animation. Thanks to @AshwinRaman_ for the idea. pic.twitter.com/RIcXGNAzNl
— Swans Analytics (@SwansAnalytics) March 31, 2019
Here are the individual pass maps that make up the animation above:
Low / Defensive #PassMap pic.twitter.com/qRkgFR2u10
— Swans Analytics (@SwansAnalytics) March 31, 2019
Swansea City Average #PassMap vs Nottingham Forest #NFFC
0-70 mins@Knaughts88 & @Matt_Grimes8 #Swans busiest passers
*A new animated passmap visual to follow later tonight. pic.twitter.com/4Yiw3HOVFO
— Swans Analytics (@SwansAnalytics) March 31, 2019
Attacking / High Phase #PassMap #Swans vs #NFFC pic.twitter.com/GmKGQJ1bjb
— Swans Analytics (@SwansAnalytics) March 31, 2019
Looking at the individual pass maps and particularly the average pass map which provides more detail including:
- Size of player dot = total passes
- Colour of player dot = Pass Accuracy %
- Passing lines = 3 most common pass – colour is accuracy of passes into this cluster
You can see a 4-2-4 pass map shape. Matt Grimes and George Byers being the two with a front four of James-Celina-McBurnie-Dyer.
What the average map doesn’t show is McBurnie’s passes in a wide right position.
There looks to be an imbalance here and an over-reliance on Dan James’ left wing. Kyle Naughton was also busy with the ball with only Matt Grimes attempting more passes during the game. As mentioned previously, with Celina moving across and Dyer then filling the hole in a central position, only Connor Roberts was available down the right if the Swans wanted to switch the play.
