The following tactical analysis is from Zach Wu, who’s not a Sailors fan, but we just thought it would be good for someone without rose-tinted glasses to analyse the tactics of our games. We hope to make this a regular column so that we can better appreciate what is going on in our games from a tactical perspective.
Compared to the reverse fixture, this game was not big on goals, but it was very intriguing from a tactical perspective.
First half
The general setup of the two teams was very much similar to the FA Cup final. Tampines were Manchester City, the more progressive team that wanted the ball while LCS were Manchester United, trying to use their attacking threats best on transitions and counter attacks.
LCS’s setup
LCS was aware that Gavin would set Tampines up in a 3-2-4-1 shape with the ball.
LCS set up in a 4-2-4 shape, with the front four of LCS being extremely narrow to block passes into Tampines midfield.
LCS’s shape was partly inspired by United in the FA Cup final the previous weekend with United also playing a narrow front 4 to block passing lanes. This way, by playing the front 4 so narrow, they would force the opponent to play into wider areas, where the other options would be strictly marked.
Here, both Tampines #10s (Joel and Yasir) are man marked by the LCS centre midfielders while the Tampines left winger (Faris) is also followed closely by his opposite number Hafiz Nor. This LCS approach made life very difficult for Tampines indeed.
As seen from the passing map, because of the narrow pressing shape, LCS players often picked up the ball in narrow positions and found it difficult to counterattack as they lacked width. This was something echoed by club legend Stipe Plazibat.
Hence, LCS picked out a measly 0.65xG in the first half.
Tampines setup
On paper, Tampines looked largely unchanged from their last meeting with LCS (bar the small change of Joel replacing Saifullah and Faris/Glenn swapping flanks). Above are the 2 shapes they adopted last time out. They looked to have 3-2-4-1 shape on the ball and a 4-2-3-1/4-4-2 shape off the ball.
While the shape was similar, Gavin changed the personnel around slightly. Here, Shah would slot into left centreback without the ball, with Milos defending at the leftback. Joel, playing as one of the #10s behind the striker without the ball would drop into centre midfield without the ball too.
Gavin was perhaps inspired by Pep Guardiola for the slight change in personnel. Here Gavin, moulded Shah into John Stones, playing as a defender without the ball and playing as midfielder with the ball. In fact, post-match when Eddy and I spoke with Kyoga, Kyoga laughed and did acknowledge it was a bit like the John Stones role.
While it was risky trying this new approach for the first time in a game of this magnitude, I can see why Gavin opted for it. Firstly, it would reduce the workload on a single player, as with the previous shape, Glenn had to provide the width down the left as a winger and run back quickly to defend as a left back too. Secondly, playing Milos as a fullback (compared to Glenn) would allow Tampines to have a strong presence down the flank against the tricky LCS right winger (be it Maxime or Shawal).
That said, it was largely a stalemate for the first half. LCS was comfortable blocking the passing lanes with their front 4 waiting for counter attacks while Tampines were struggling to get pass the LCS front 4. Hence, there were few chances created for either side in the first half.
Second half
The second half pretty much followed the same pattern, with LCS denying the passing options centrally to Tampines’ box midfield while Tampines tried to manipulate the 4 man frontline of the Sailors and possibly go around the press.
Faris subsequently scored a banger of a goal when a momentary lapse of concentration from LCS gave him the space to shoot. Subsequently, Yasir was given a second yellow for a rash tackle on Súper, resulting to Tampines going down to 10 men.
With a lead, away from home and down to 10, Tampines decided to sit deep in a 4-4-1 block, with the onus now on LCS to break down Tampines’ deep block.
LCS’s main method to create chances on the night against this deep block was to go over the block by finding the space behind the Tampines backline (above) and cutting back the ball with a clever knockdown to take shots (below).
While it generated some big chances like this Diego shot and a Lestienne shot cleared off the line by Shuya, this was generally difficult to do as the pass had to be perfectly weighted and the run perfectly-timed to connect. In fact, this method of creating chances might have been even better with a proper striker on the pitch, drawing the defenders’ attention and creating more time and space for the cutback and shot.
Too conservative from the Sailors
With the Sailors now a man up and with a tired Tampines offering little counter attacking threat, the Sailors had to take the initiative. More often than not, they were in situations like those above. The ball would be worked wide to a Sailors’ player and they would find out to no avail that there were few targets to aim for in the box.
The problem was made even worse when a natural striker in Abdul Rasaq was substituted off, leading to Shawal Anuar being the striker for LCS. This was quite bewildering and frustrating to watch on the sidelines especially considering they had a big #9 in the form of Bernie Ibini on the bench. In addition, Abdul Rasaq had already hit the bar earlier from a similar crossing position which showed the potentness of a proper striker upfront.
Bernie would have definitely given the newly shuffled Tampines defense an issue, especially considering Shah would have been the left centre back and more vulnerable in the air, as compared to the taller Milos. This was a big miss for LCS and Tampines managed to escape this potential threat. This in my opinion was a mistake from Coach Risto.
This is also backed up by the xG chart of the game. While LCS did create 2.84 xG in the second half, the majority of the xG was coming from the penalty, the Diego shot at the end and the Lestienne shot blocked by Shuya off the line (with Abdul Rasaq hitting the bar) in the 66th min. LCS did not create many big chances and they handicapped themselves by not putting on Bernie who could get on the end of crosses and cause further havoc in the penalty area.
Conclusion
While they could have been more incisive against LCS, they did pretty well before the red card, especially considering Gavin mixing up the shape slightly. It was a bold gameplan that worked somewhat well, the red card was slightly unfortunate, and they just about held on for the draw.
On the other hand, LCS should see this as 2 points lost rather than a point gained. Their approach was too conservative especially when they went a man up. Given that Tampines was leaving only one man up top in the form of Boris (who is not the fastest), they could have left fewer men back and brought on Bernie, a big target man. Even if Bernie was not fully fit, 10-15mins on the pitch just being a nuisance in the box would have given Tampines a lot on their plate to deal with.
In the grand scheme of things, LCS are 3 points behind Tampines and 3 points behind Albirex (Albirex having played a game less). LCS are barely hanging onto their title hopes with their failure to get a win against Tampines. They would have to beat Albirex AND hope the Yuhua outfit drop points to have any chance to reclaim the title this year. That would be a tall order indeed.
Written by Zach Wu
Edited by Eddy Hirono
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