Detailed tactical Match Analysis of Swansea City’s defeat at West Brom by Come On You Swans.com
Swansea City slumped to another poor League defeat – this time at West Brom as Tony Pulis continues to improve the Baggies.
Apart from a promising 10 minute opening from the visitors, Garry Monk’s Swans never really looked like threatening in the final third and that was mainly down to slow, predictable and conservative football and excellent organisation and work rate from the hosts.
Swansea City had the highest percentage of possession that they’ve had in months at the Hawthorns, but it counted for nothing when they finally got the ball on the edge of the final third.
West Brom’s defensive shape and discipline
Tony Pulis deserves credit for setting up his side in the way he did and the players for their commitment and discipline throughout the 90 minutes.
West Brom were happy for the likes of Jack Cork and Ki Sung Yueng to have time and space on the ball because they knew they would always outnumber the opposition when they moved the ball forward into wide areas or into Jonjo Shelvey.
Above, Ki has time and space on the ball to pick out a pass, as Shelvey moves into a pocket of space, but while West Brom are quick to adjust and close off the space, Swansea are always too slow with a pass and too often lose possession in dangerous areas.
Below, the ball is played into Shelvey but West Brom are quick to apply pressure and often won possession in these areas. The shaded area also shows the large space West Brom could attack into.
The likes of Ashley Williams and Federico Fernandez also sometimes pushed forward with the ball, and again – West Brom allowed them to ensure that they gave away no space in the final third.
Swansea’s play was far too slow and predictable and lacked any urgency or pace to try and force West Brom out of position – something that they desperately needed to do to try and get through two strict lines of four.
Below shows Ashley Williams in possession and a triangle of three f his team-mates in the centre – amongst 5 opposition players.
There were a severe lack of runs through the channels and balls played through. Here, the Swans could try to bring Taylor into the game – off his touchline slightly to try and play a first-time ball through for Montero – but they always looked for the simple, easy and risk-free option.
West Brom’s defending in wide areas
Whether it was through the middle or down the flanks, the Swans were outnumbered by at least a player or two.
Below, Dyer and Naughton try to link up down the right but they very rarely got in behind the opposition’s full back.
They’re outnumbered 2 to 3 for a start, and Naughton was only committed to supporting him with a pass back option, rather than providing an overlap or a quick ‘give and go’ option.
West Brom have 6 players covering 4 for the Swans, and winning possession here would allow them to counter attack into the shaded space. Jack Cork has also come across wide right, leaving Ki under pressure if the hosts did regain possession.
Sometimes, the only route forward for Swansea was down the flanks. The example below shows Cork’s only passing option is move the move down the right via Naughton and Dyer. But West Brom were quick to shift players across, and you get the situation above, then resulting in either possession lost and a possible counter, or the ball being moved back into defence.
Below is another example of West Brom’s three against two on Swansea’s right flank. And again, Dyer and Naughton pass back and four causing no threat whatsoever as the full back is reluctant to make that forward run to try and get in behind.
We’ve seen against Sunderland that Naughton can whip in a good cross, but I’d guess Monk instructed him to hang back as the full backs did this from start to finish, leaving the wingers running down blind alleys.
Losing possession and West Brom counter attacking
We’ve already mentioned how Swansea City lost possession in dangerous areas (yes – in their opposition’s half!) but it deserves a headline and a section of it’s own in this analysis.
It happened when the Swans looked to play direct passes like below, as Federico Fernandez played a few of these poor passes that were easily intercepted by the home side.
Dyer has two players on him and West Brom dispossessed him and were able to attack into the space in front of the 2 circled players.
But more often than, they lost possession on the edge of the final third.
Above and below are two examples of Swansea struggling amongst a crowd of West Brom players, losing possession and allowing the home side to quickly counter, putting Ki and his defensive colleagues under pressure.
Losing possession in these areas often resulted in West Brom counter attacking quickly and getting yards of space as the Swans hurry on the back foot (below).
Lack of attacking support through the middle
Having no luck whatsoever down the flanks, Swansea had even less of it through the middle – as you probably guessed seeing as they lost possession in these areas so often.
Swansea often found themselves without a single player in an attacking central position, with players shifting across and others not pushing forward.
Above or below are examples of this. Above, the ball has come back inside from the wide right position , and with Gomis alongside Dyer, the Swans have nobody in front of Shelvey when he receives the ball.
Below is a slightly different scenario, but it shows Cork and Ki’s reluctance to move forward through the middle, and to close off the space in the shaded area.
Again below, a slightly different situation again, Ki is allowed time and space on the ball, but as Shelvey drops deeper in support, Gomis is left isolated up top and is amongst 8 West Brom players. The Swans players were so often too far apart from one another, quick, one-touch passing and moving football was never seen, but as Monk said after the game, this was a must if they wanted to get through a stubborn West Brom side.
Below shows thee huge amount of space through the middle as Naughton moves forward and gets the ball out wide to Dyer, but he will soon be under pressure by at least 2 oppositions players without support.
A similar situation below. This time, Naughton passes the ball into Shelvey’s feet, but he’s closely marked by 2 West Brom players, loses possession allowing West Brom to counter attack.
Gomis was often isolated and left to do the work himself – on the rare occasion he received the ball into feet.
Below, he ‘s running on to a pass, while his team-mates ‘around him’ are static and waiting for him to do something. Shelvey – his main attacking partner – doesn’t go with him in support, Taylor doesn’t push forward down the left in support and the striker is left struggling on his own in these tight situations.
Players ‘swapping’ positions?
Another thing that was noticed in the game was players ‘swapping’ positions. Not intentionally, but players were moving out of their position, and a team-mate was then covering them in that area.
This happened in both halves, below shows Ki in a wide position, Dyer in the centre and Shelvey out wide? Swansea are hardly going to play to their strengths with this sort of thing going on…
There’s a few other screenshots showing this further on in the analysis…
West Brom remained in an excellent defensive shape throughout the game, keeping two disciplined lines of four as they controlled the shaded area of the pitch below.
Swansea couldn’t compete in this area of the pitch. Shelvey is alongside Gomis , meaning the only forward option is a direct ball into one of the two in between West Brom’s two lines of four. But they were always tightly marked, and the four players in the shaded area could easily start a counter attack.
Ki always held back and sat in his holding role but the Swans needed the push Ki and Cork further forward if they wanted any chance of creating some decent chances.
Below, Dyer is trying to get past two West Brom defenders, while his team-mates are behind him meaning the winger’s only alternative option is a backwards pass. A back pass to Taylor, or Cork often meant the ball coming sideaways – then to the left flank and back – and repeat.
Ki and Cork could push slightly forward, close the gap in the centre and support the player in possession. Monk sets up his side far too conservative and a ‘safety first approach’ is just not going to deliver goals if risks are never taken.
Nothing is changed in the second half
What was most frustrating when watching the game was that nothing changed from Swansea’s point of view. Their play and approach to the game was exactly the same in the second half.
No tactical adjustments before Monk made like-for-like changes that were never going to improve things whatsoever.
Above, Ki is allowed time and space – of course – but West Brom dominate the midfield in their own half.
Shelvey is not available to Ki in the slightest – he’s probably 35 yards away from him and instead of rushing across in support, he’s walking slowly on the opposite side of the pitch.
West Brom stepped up their game in the second half while Swansea remained identical to their first half failings.
The hosts were able to get into good attacking positions by simply winning possession in their own half and playing 2 or 3 quick passes to get a striker running through the channels.
The spaces for West Brom opened up even more though, and while the first half was poor from the Swans – they only looked in danger of going behind at a couple of set pieces.
But leaving huge gaps like this for West Brom to run into, it was only going to be a matter of time before they found the net.
The Swans were still losing possession because of slow , two or three touch passing. Below, Cork receives the ball but rather than making a first time pass back to Ki, he takes a touch – before losing it and allowing West Brom yet another chance to get forward.
West Brom’s opening goal
It’s pretty obvious how West Brom’s opening goal came about. Failure to keep possession, and a quick few passes forward before the finish – as easy as that.
Both Naughton and Dyer can’t keep the ball, West Brom intercept and Berahino (above) can move into that space and attack down the left.
Below, he plays a pass across to Ideye, Williams isn’t closely marking him and the striker finds the net.
We mentioned earlier about players ‘swapping positions’, well it was happening in the second half as well as in the first.
Below, Ki and Montero are circled on the left side of the picture. Ki in a wide left position and Montero in the centre. As well as that, you’ve got other factors we’ve continuously mentioned throughout this analysis. Dyer up against 2 players, no full back in sight and Shelvey closely marked.
Below is another example of players swapping positions – meaning at least 2 are not in their favoured positions as the team look to get forward.
This time it’s substitute Routledge in the centre, Cork wide right and Naughton moving inside rather than offering width.
West Brom double their lead
West Brom got their second to guarantee the three points when Montero was robbed of the ball inside his own half. He tries to make a run but West Brom did what they had done throughout the game, apply tight pressure and won the ball in good areas.
Berahino and Ideye then link up once again, and this time it’s Berahino to find the net with an excellent curling shot.
Here’s 2 final screenshots, and it’s the same thing as usual, Routledge below with no support whatsoever, and below that, it’s the holding midfielders in plenty of space and time on the ball but a huge lack of options in front of them.
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