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Potter Switches Formation Again – Wigan Athletic 0-0 Swansea City – Average Team Shapes

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Image for Potter Switches Formation Again – Wigan Athletic 0-0 Swansea City – Average Team Shapes

Swansea City manager Graham Potter continues to tinker with his starting eleven and formation as he chose yet another formation tonight for the trip to Wigan Athletic which ended in a well-deserved 0-0 draw.

Potter switched from a 4-2-2-2 double six to a 4-2-3-1 on Saturday as his side beat QPR 3-0 and he changed formation again tonight, opting for a 4-3-3.

Bersant Celina played on the left against QPR and after seeing the line-up an hour before kick-off, we expected Celina to move back to a central attacking position with Roberts and McKay occupying the wings.

However, Celina still found himself on the left at the DW Stadium – playing on the left side of a midfield three. McKay (19) played in a high position down the left.  McBurnie (9) dropped deep to help link play and form a diamond in the middle. Fulton was on the right side of the midfield three and Jay Fulton (27) did a good job linking the play with Connor Roberts (23) and Kyle Naughton (26).

First Half Team Shapes

Swansea’s team shape below left shows McKay’s (19) high position down the left and McBurnie dropping deep and wide to link up with Celina (10). Connor Roberts sat deeper down the right and worked effectively in a trio with Fulton (27) and Naughton (26). The direction of play is shown on the graphics below by the arrow.

Wigan’s team shape (below right – blue) shows good balance with three central midfielders operating close together in the centre. Their main striker (41) maintains a high position as Wigan mostly looked for quick counters into wide areas as well as their lone forward.

Overall Team Shape

The team shapes below show the overall team shape (left) and the team shape including the substitutions (right).

The Swans were busier down their left flank throughout the game – particularly in the first half as Tom Carroll was busy with his link-up play. McBurnie also came deep to that side to drop in with Celina. When the Swans congested that side, they were then able to spread the ball out to the likes of Roberts and Fulton on the opposite flank to stretch the opposition.

The second graphic shows the substitutes and how the shape changed following the changes. The subs made were Routledge, Olsson and Fer on for Carroll, McKay and Fulton.

The main observation here is how we even more over-balanced down our left side. We lost that link and pivot with Fulton linking the play well with good passing triangles with Naughton and Roberts. With that lost, we had to do most of our better forward play down the left side again.

Wigan Team Shape

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