Author: Kalhan Karwani

Categories
Player Analysis

Player Analysis: Yves Bissouma – Life under Ange so far

In this article, I will be analysing Yves Bissouma’s performance while in possession of the ball/when the team had the ball so far this season under Ange Postecoglou.

Background

Malian International Yves Bissouma joined Tottenham Hotspur on 14th June 2022 for a £30m deal from Brighton & Hove Albion & signed a 4-year deal. He excelled in the Premier League under Graham Potter. After joining Spurs, he did not get a lot of game time under Antonio Conte and was not trusted as part of his midfield two in his 3-4-3 formation.

Ange-Ball

Ange Postecoglou has a philosophy that he always sticks to regardless of the competition or quality of opposition –

  • Entertaining & exciting style of play
  • Attacking football
  • Playing through the thirds
  • Playing out from the back
  • Retention of the ball
  • Rotations & Interchanges
  • Creating triangles & diamonds around ball carrier

Thoughts on Yves Bissouma

The 27-year-old midfielder is a midfield dynamo but has shown that he has shown signs that he can operate as a deep lying playmaker. He is known for his athleticism, high work rate & ability to cover a lot of ground both defensively and offensively. However, under Ange this season he has been orchestrating play and initiating attacks with his vision, composure, excellent passing accuracy and ability to dictate the tempo.

What Bissouma brings to the table?

Now let’s have a look at how he is using his qualities on the ball/when the team has the ball this season & transforming into a key cog in the Tottenham midfield. I have analysed 3 qualities that he brings to the table and picked up moments from some of the toughest games he has played so far against Liverpool & Arsenal.

1. His understanding of space

Bissouma has an excellent understanding of space on the football field. This understanding is a critical aspect of his play and contributes to his effectiveness on the field. The Spurs midfielder demonstrates an awareness of the space around him. This allows him to make quicker decisions on whether to pass, dribble or release the ball. The spatial awareness he possesses allows him to help maintain the tempo of the game & exploit gaps in the opposition’s defensive block.

This is what Ange Postecoglou once said –
“Ball speed’s very important for us – ball speed’s number one. Even when we’re keeping possession I don’t want the ball to move slowly. What does that mean? When we pass it, pass it with purpose.We need movement so the next pass is always available and not too many touches on the ball. One or two touches, we move it. We move together as a team.”

There are 3 principles of space: Create, Occupy & Attack. But, to apply any of those principles you have to first “Identify” which one has to be applied. Let’s look at some clips and see how he applies all principles of space when in possession of the ball/when the team has the ball.

Initially, Bissouma occupies space as part of a double pivot in between Liverpool’s ST & RW. Body position to receive 1st pass from RCB – back to goal, to attract pressure from ST. He then stays in the shadow of ST to get underneath Sarr. Moves out of space to attack another space & then become the wall pass to Sarr from RCB Romero. Better positioning from RB Porro would have helped Tottenham progress the ball up the field.

Bissouma occupies space between Arsenal’s 1st & 2nd line of press and centrally in between opposition front two. Receives facing forward & delays the pass out wide to attract pressure. As soon as the ball is played wide, he vacates the space for RB Porro to come into. RB Porro bounces it off to Bissouma near the touchline which helps in progressing the play forward.

Look at how Bissouma combines play with Maddison & Van der Ven to beat the Arsenal press by playing 1-2 touches max. Then he shows urgency to get on the ball from LCB Van der Ven.

Starting position – centrally in between & behind the 1st line of press. He then plays out wide to Sarr. Look how he holds his position as Sarr looks to cut inside looking to attack the space inside the opposition defensive block. Later, he drops back into space to find Porro who is the spare player by opening up his body.


2. Providing support

The Malian International has a really good sense of where he needs to be on the field as he is aware of how he should be positioned to receive passes or be available for his teammates when in possession. He always looks to position himself to be available for passes from his teammates especially the CBs to make it easier for them to play the ball to him. The videos below will show you how his movements are well-timed and purposeful. He knows when to drop into space to receive the ball and when not to.

Look at how he plays in the shadow of the left striker this time, allowing Maddison to get centrally in between the opposition front 2 and he is providing support underneath as a safe passing option with time & space.

A similar scenario to the previous one but in this the opposition is not pressing at the start. He plays a short back pass with his back to opposition goal to entice the striker to press which opens up a passing lane for RCB Romero to find Sarr in between the lines. Sarr bounces off to Bissouma who is underneath again. Sarr moving away opens up passing lane for Bissouma to find Udogie but an inaccurate pass makes them lose possession.

Look at the urgency Bissouma shows to provide support to RCB Romero when the opposition team is pressing high and with intensity. He receives the ball facing forward and creates time & space because of the urgency he showed initially and finds the ST Son in between the lines with a vertical split pass.

3. Breaking lines

Bissouma can break lines using his dribbling ability and close ball control by taking on opposition players which helps in drawing defenders out of position & open up opportunities for his teammates. The 27-year-old midfielder’s capacity to read and manipulate space on the field is an asset to his team. The clips below will show you how composed and confident he is in high-pressure situations.

In the above clip you can see Bissouma’s ability to make quick decisions under high pressure. He had a quick little scan just before receiving the ball which allowed him to attack the space behind him by carrying the ball through the lines.

His vision and passing is really good. Look at how he picks out his teammates with precise passes that are cutting through the defensive lines. He is brave in possession and is always willing to get on the ball.

Here you can see his quick decision making and see how he stays calm on the ball. Then he breaks the opposition’s 2nd line of press which was a decisive move to advance the play in this moment.

In my opinion, Bissouma is a press resistant player. Here is a glimpse of his ability to protect the ball and resist pressure from two opposition players which is another key factor in his success at breaking lines.

The Spurs midfielder’s physical attributes make him really effective at carrying the ball through the lines. Look in the above video how he accelerates away from opposition pressure, advances the ball and draws away defenders out of position.

Key Stats

I would like to highlight some stats of Bissouma on the ball where does he rank in comparison to other midfielders in the last 365 days. The stats below have been picked up from FBREF.

In the above videos we have seen Bissouma’s ability to break lines by carrying the ball and playing those incisive passes through the lines and it makes sense when you see the stats for progressive passes and progressive carries, he is placed around the 85th percentile.

Now the above picture tells us how good he is as a defensive midfielder when on the ball. The clips showed as that he was looking to get on to the ball and always provided support to his teammates. We can see that he is placed very low for long passes per game that’s because of the playing style Tottenham have adapted under Ange Postecoglou but it doesn’t mean he is not good at it. We can see that he has a very high long passing accuracy (76.1%) which places him on the 88th percentile in the world. He can definitely get more involved in the attack but I think he is doing what he is being asked to as a defensive midfielder.

His ability of taking on players is exceptional. He completes 72.7% of the take-ons he attempts, placing him in the 96th percentile. The Malian International also gets 83.27 touches per 90 which puts him in the 94th percentile. Bissouma shows desire to always be involved, urgency to get on the ball and look to break lines by playing/driving forward sets him apart from other defensive midfielders in the world.


Conclusion

Yves’ combination of technical skills, physical attributes and understanding of space allows him to be effective when breaking lines which can be useful when unlocking compact defensive setups and will come in handy for Ange this season as most teams will look to sit back and breakaway on the counter against them. He is neat and brave in possession and his qualities as a midfielder on the ball allow him to influence the game in multiple facets whether it’s driving the team forward, creating goal-scoring opportunities or simply maintaining control and balance in midfield.

We have seen plenty of Bissouma now in this article. Ange has definitely brought out the best of him as a midfielder and we can see that in the stats and clips above. Bissouma is adaptable to different roles in the midfield and he can be whatever Ange wants him to be.

Created using: https://once.de/once-video-analyser-pro/

Categories
Team Analysis

Melbourne Victory Women: 2021 vs 2022 – Data Analysis

This article provides a comprehensive comparison of Melbourne Victory Women’s attacking play in the A-League Women’s season 2021-22 and 2022-23. The use of metrics and graphs will help illustrate the differences between the two seasons.

Melbourne Victory finished 4th in the regular season on the ladder in both the seasons. I have outlined 9 different metrics to compare the attacking play of the team in both seasons-

  1. Goals per 90
  2. xG per 90
  3. Shots per 90
  4. Crosses per 90
  5. Key Passes per 90
  6. Passes to final third per 90
  7. Touches in penalty area per 90
  8. Forward passes per 90
  9. Number of passes 90

In the 2021/22 season, the team scored 1.9 goals per 90 whereas in 2022/23, they scored 1.6 goals per 90. The 1.9 goals per 90 in 2021/22 were scored at an xG of 1.5 per 90, which shows that they outperformed their xG. However in 2022/23 the xG was 1.8 per 90 which is higher than the previous season but they underperformed their xG & could only score 1.6 goals per 90.

Better qualities of chances were created in front of the goal in 2022/23 The team recorded 8 draws out of their 18 matches. Those draws could have converted into wins given that if they performed better in front of the goal when presented with the chances.

Lets dive deeper into how the chances were created in season 2022/23

Melbourne Victory women is known to play a mix of possession & direct style of play. Most of the times they looked to penetrate the final third by –

  1. Find wingers 1 v 1 in the outside channels to deliver crosses into the box
  2. The attacking midfielder making a forward run from deep getting in between opposition defensive line
  3. The striker holds up the play to combine with the “10s” or gets in behind to receive a through/long pass

If we look at the numbers now, we can see that there was a massive increase in the number of crosses in the 2022/23 season. It went from being 13.5 per 90 to 16.7 per 90 which resulted in the team attempting more shots on goal (from 12.1 per 90 to 12.8 per 90).

Melbourne Victory had 52.17% possession on an average in the 2021/22 season which went down to 50.6% in the last season but if we compare the numbers of passes per game, it actually increased from 421.7 per 90 to 427.3 per 90. It showed that the team looked to move the ball a lot more than just holding it.

One major principle in possession that I noticed of the team was that they liked to circulate play side to side & always tried to find the right moment to progress the ball further up the field. Therefore, you can see in the above graph that there was a slight increase in the number of forward passes – from 159.8 per 90 in 2021/22 to 161.4 per 90.in 2022/23.

The numbers definitely show that there was a much more positive intent in their attacking play in 2022/23. They were a team that looked to always play through the lines but again which can mean nothing because it also depends on how the opposition sets up against them.

In my opinion, while in possession, the presence of Kayla Morrison & Alex Chidiac made up the spine of the team because of their ability to break lines by driving forward & playing the passes through the lines. As a result, we saw an increase in the number of passes into final third which went up from 51.4 per 90 to 54.7 per 90.

The number of key passes per 90 increased from 2.4 per 90 in 2021/22 to 2.9 per 90 in 2022/23. This was due to the presence of Beattie Goad who averaged 1.38 key passes per 90 & Alana Murphy – 1.42 key passes per 90. The team heavily relied on their vision & an eye for a killer pass when Alex Chidiac left after playing just 13 matches to go back to Racing Louisville in the NWSL.

In 2022/23 the team looked to get more players into the box (averaging 3 to 5) whenever they entered the final 3rd & having Melina Ayres available for about 14 games this season saw the number of touches in penalty area go up from 13.3 per 90 in 2021/22 to 17.2 per 90 in 2022/23. Her timing of runs to arrive into the box & hold-up play to bring other teammates into play was exceptional & made her the focal point of the team. She finished as the 2nd top scorer in the league just 2 goals behind Hannah Keane of Western United. Imagine if she were there for the 6 matches she missed out?

Conclusion

It will be really exciting to see how the team does in the 2023/24 season after signing the likes of Kurea Okino, Emily Gielnik & McKenzie Weinert to add more firepower to the final third

Categories
Player Analysis

Albert Sambi-Lokonga at Arsenal FC – Scout Report

This scout report will provide an analysis of Lokonga’s individual talent as a player, and what he will bring to the table at Arsenal this season. In this article I have analyzed how can he fit in the tactics used by Mikel Arteta and taken out videos from his recent game vs Chelsea in the Premier League to show what he can really do.

Why was Lokonga signed?

Arsenal completed the signing of 21-year-old midfielder Albert Sambi-Lokonga from RSC Anderlecht for an initial fee of around £15million plus add-ons. Lokonga was the captain of his previous team and hence is viewed as a player who could challenge for a place in the first team this season and someone with a bright future.

Last season, Arsenal’s actions in possession were narrow and their positioning off the ball wasn’t helping in breaking through the oppositions’ pressing structures. Arsenal struggled to break through the opposition’s press and was often stuck in the central areas, unable to open the passing lanes and progress the ball efficiently.

Lokonga has been signed for what he does in possession, which is something similar to Thomas Partey. Mikel Arteta needed someone who’s confident on the ball to implement his possession-based style of play. Arteta also needed a good dribbler who can work well under pressure when in possession of the ball. Lokonga has the ability to control the tempo of the game while also constantly scanning for open spaces to keep the ball moving.

The young Belgian midfielder reads the game well, which allows him to move smartly off the ball and leads to strong decision-making on it. This will allow Arsenal to retain possession and move the ball both laterally and forward, which respectively releases pressure. He will surely help the team to bypass the opposition’s press and penetrate defensive blocks.

In possession

One of the key themes of Arsenal’s attacking play is the long diagonal switch to the players operating on the wide channels. Arteta has used both his midfielders and center backs for this in his build-up play strategies. So, it’s important that any player dropping deep from midfield possesses the ability to play long passes to the wingers or fullbacks.

When you see Lokonga play, you can notice that he has the ability to switch the play effectively. It doesn’t matter whether he’s sitting way deep in the midfield or pushed up, as is his case often when Arsenal attacked, he has shown that he has the technical ability and power to switch the play from one flank to another. The confidence of receiving the ball under pressure is something that was always lacking in Arsenal’s alternative midfield options and this is where Lokonga’s signing has helped.

In his few matches for Arsenal, Lokonga has shown moments of brightness and sharp thinking in midfield. He displays a willingness to move the ball forward, whether that be by carrying it himself or playing progressive passes. The young Belgian has also shown that he has the spatial awareness and agility to skip away from pressure and travel with the ball. Lokonga also possesses the ability to find time and space to hit attackers upfront on the run with expert precision. Against Chelsea, he played a game high 9 passes into the final third. His passes held an xT (expected threat) of 0.47 which was the highest by any Arsenal player in the match.

If you notice carefully, he always has his head up and gets good touches on the ball. He has a varied passing range with an excellent vision, which makes him adept at playing passes either on the ground or through the air into space for his teammates to latch on to. When in possession one of the most important attributes he has is composure. Lokonga can always be seen demanding the ball from his teammates as he provides them with very good passing options. His patience and ability to let the play develop rather than forcing killer passes makes him better than the other alternative midfield options at Arsenal.

As we have seen in the above video, he likes to drop deeper to either provide a passing option to the back line or the goalkeeper, which opens up passing lanes in midfield because he is inviting pressure and dragging players with him. This movement by Lokonga has acted as a pressing trigger for the opposition till now and his dribbling skills have helped him in bypassing markers and play line-breaking passes upfront.

When Arsenal has the ball

Lokonga looks like a classic centre midfielder who is always on his toes, anticipating the loose ball, ready to receive – exactly what Arsenal has lacked in other midfielders. The young Belgian is constantly scanning the pitch when his team is without possession, as well as when they have it.

Look at the video below and see how he provides a passing option to his teammates while scanning at the same time to increase his knowledge of the space around him and the positioning of everyone else on the pitch. If you look carefully, he is always positioned centrally between two opposition players, which urges other players to break lines and move the play forward.

Lokonga was always available as a passing option to his teammates but wasn’t played the ball. I think he had enough time to receive the ball to switch the play or play it forward.

We have seen the 21-year-old adapt a more box to box role at Arsenal in which he is constantly moving all over the field, using his positioning to offer quality passing options to his teammates. His spatial awareness and anticipation skills make it easy for him to break lines and play progressive forwards to help retain possession while also going forward.

Defending

Lokonga is 6ft tall and uses his large frame to execute his defensive actions, although he is not one of the most pro-active players while defending. He rarely racks up fouls and tackles when defending. He is never highly engaged in defensive duels, but he is an effective tackler who is patient as he waits for the right moment to put in a tackle and would be rated just above average when it comes to winning aerial duels. Instead, he is a player who uses his positioning and body to defend spaces on the field. Rather than diving into challenges, he relies on his anticipation skills, which would allow him to quickly react to the opposition’s movement. He is effective at using his body shape to shepherd attacks wide. The young Belgian is a promising player but defensively shows inexperience, as he also does not engage in winning second balls.  

Lokonga defended his space well as he cuts out the passing lane from Alonso to Lukaku which was the only way out of this wide trap applied by Arsenal.
Good anticipation by Lokonga here as he reached on time, which stopped Kovacic from playing forward and forced him to play back to Azpilicueta.

Lokonga has difficulty in sensing danger as he lacks defensive awareness which could prove problematic, and his recovery runs to get back into position are slow. Age is on his side and with proper coaching, he could work on these things and develop to become even better.

As Kovacic dropped deep to receive the ball, Lokonga kept on following him. Here he could have either stayed back to cover his space and stopped the pass to the more dangerous Havertz or his recovery run could have been a lot quicker to stop Havertz from starting an attack.

Conclusion

It looks like Arteta is trying to create a press resistant Arsenal that could focus on ball possession and positional play, also relying on preparation through video analysis. Lokonga’s signing is an important step in the right direction for better space exploitation and a more creative and unpredictable movement by the whole team during matches. The dynamic of Arsenal’s midfield has been too static for too long. He has the qualities to build on the arrival of Partey last summer and add vibrancy to the middle third, with much more room for him to develop. The 21-year-old midfielder has recently been called up to the Belgium squad for the World Cup qualifiers. I believe Lokonga will fit in nicely at Arsenal.

Created using: Once Video Analyzer PRO by Once Sport | https://www.once.de/once-video-analyser-pro/

Categories
Match Analysis

A League Grand Final 2020/21: Melbourne City vs Sydney FC – tactical analysis

Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne

Date & Time: 27 June, 5.05pm

Round No: A-League Grand Final

Attendance: 14,017

Melbourne City won their first ever A-League Championship after coming from behind to beat Sydney FC 3-1 in front of the home crowd. Both teams were without some of their best players who were away on international duty and it proved to be a great chance for youngsters like Marko Tilio, Stefan Colakovski, Nathaniel Atkinson, Joel King and Paulo Retre to make a mark. City came out really strong at home with character and attitude as they’ve shown throughout the season and were straight into its full throttle.

Sydney managed to open the scoring in the 21st minute and City equalized just after two minutes. From the 35th minute, Sydney was one man down as Luke Brattan was red carded, which turned the game into City’s favour.

This article is a tactical analysis of the game between Melbourne City and Sydney FC. I have analyzed the tactics that were used by both teams.

Line-ups

Melbourne City: 1-4-3-3 | Sydney FC: 1-4-2-2-2

Manager: Patrick Kisnorbo|Manager: Steve Corica

Patrick Kisnorbo set up his team in their usual 1-4-3-3 formation and made no changes from last match to the starting line-up. While Steve Corica also stuck to his usual formation 1-4-2-2-2 and made no changes to the starting line-up from the previous match.

Sydney out of possession vs City in possession 

This was a game of the league’s best attack (Melbourne City) vs best defence (Sydney FC). It was good to see both teams sticking to their playing style and do what they do best.

Sydney set up in a mid-block 4-2-2-2 shape while defending
in which the attacking midfielders Barbarouses and Baumjohann would tuck inside. They have conceded the least amount of goals (27 goals in 28 matches) in the whole season. Sydney is not a high pressing team as they like to stay on the edge of the middle third and allow the opposition to come out with the ball. They are ranked third-last on the number of pressures applied in the opponent’s half (15 per match at a success rate of 40%) which is below the league average (17 per match).

Sydney kept a compact mid-block structure, not allowing City to play through the middle. The strikers Bobo and Le Fondre would position centrally, cutting off any passes through the centre. Attacking midfielders, Barbarouses and Baumjohann would position themselves in the half-spaces blocking the passes out wide and would be ready to press if the centre-backs dribble with the ball forward.

Whenever City was able to progress the ball, Sydney retreated into a compact low-block. Hence, they were able to maintain their defensive compactness both horizontally and vertically. When in a low block, Sydney used a space-oriented man coverage (hybrid of zone and man marking) and if City were able to enter the coverage zone with the ball, they would quickly try to press the ball carrier. Sydney tried to force City to play wide and when this happened, the whole team would shuffle across to not allow the opposition to play through the wings.

Melbourne City looked to build-up play from the back in a
2-3-5 shape. In this tactical structure, Tilio and Atkinson were instructed to stay very wide, hugging the sideline which would pull the opposition fullbacks Retre and King out of the positions and created a bigger space in the half-spaces between Sydney’s centre-backs and full-backs. Thus, Luna and Berenguer could operate in those half-spaces and create a positional front five versus a four-man defensive line of Sydney.

When Luna and Berenguer moved up into the half-spaces, which
would leave big gaps in midfield and to cover them, Jamieson and Galloway would play as inverted fullbacks.

Initially, City found it a bit difficult as Sydney pressed with Bobo and Le Fondre against their two centre-backs. So, Galloway started operating a bit deep with the two centre-backs to create a back three which created a numerical superiority against the first line of press. Thus, Baumjohann had to follow Galloway and press higher. As you can see in the below picture,  a lot of space started opening up between Warland and King.

Thus, City’s build-up play shape switched to a 3-2-5 where in Jamieson also started playing more centrally. Then Atkinson started to operate more centrally to exploit that space between Warland and King which allowed more space for Galloway on the right flank to overlap and create a 2 v 1 against King as Baumjohann could not keep up with Galloway’s movement and speed.

The above video shows you an instance when Galloway made an overlapping run to provide a passing option to Atkinson due to which King got caught in two minds of whether to close down Atkinson or stop the pass out wide. The same instance shows you that Baumjohann was not able to keep up with Galloway and allowed him to run free.

As you can see in the below picture, City created triangles in the wide areas which involved a full-back, winger and attacking midfielder, trying to open the compact defensive block of Sydney.

All three players rotated amongst themselves and made sure all three spaces were always filled. The rotations in the wide areas helped in the progression of the ball smoothly into the middle and final third because of the poor defensive attributes of Sydney’s attacking midfielders, which led to easy penetration.

Watch the above video to get a glimpse of how City’s players rotate in the wide areas and how because of their movement they could drag all Sydney midfielders out wide to the flank which created a big gap in the centre.

Sydney in possession vs City out of possession

Melbourne City defended in a mid-block 4-2-4 shape. The wingers Atkinson and Tilio operated in the half-spaces and used their shadow to cover the Sydney full-backs. Luna joined Colakovski to lead the first line of press, positioned themselves centrally to stop Sydney to progress through the centre and force the opposition to play wide.

In possession, Sydney used a 3-1-4-2 shape in which Caceres or Brattan would drop in next to the centre-backs to form a back three, while the other would be present in front of the back three as a single pivot. The formation of a back three created more passing options for the defenders. King and Retre operated high and wide, providing the width. Barbarouses and Baumjohann were given the license to free roam and drift wide. Bobo and Le Fondre operated between the City full-backs and centre-backs, which kept them both engaged. Thus, City full-backs could not press King and Retre out wide.

Watch the above video and see how the movement of Barbarouses (drifting in from the toucline) allowed Sydney to play through City’s narrow defensive block.

Red card to Brattan

It seemed to be an interesting tactical battle until it was 1-1 and then Brattan received a second yellow card in the 35th minute, which meant that Sydney will be a man down for the remainder of the contest.

Steve Corica replaced Bobo with Van Der Saag. Retre moved into midfield with Caceres and Van Der Saag took Retre’s position. Sydney had to change their shape to a 4-2-3, it became harder for them to maintain a compact defensive block because City’s rotations in midfield and movement of midfielders in between the lines. So, City dominated the play comfortably and played through Sydney’s low defensive block easily.

Created using: InStat Australia | https://football.instatscout.com/

Instagram Id: https://www.instagram.com/instat_au/?hl=en

&

Once Video Analyzer Pro by Once Sport | https://www.once.de/once-video-analyser-pro/