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.
This was an early title decider and a clash of two giants of Singapore football. And the game did not disappoint.
[Editor’s note: There you go, something only a non-Sailors fan could say]
The 2 teams lined up as such off the ball with LCS opting for a conservative approach with a back 5 while Tampines were in their usual shape.
Tampines’s Box Diamond Midfield
This is where it gets interesting. Last season, Tampines played a box midfield. Check out last season’s article detailing this.
Instead of having a box midfield, this year, the midfield has tilted to form a diamond midfield instead. This results in a single #10 and 2 shuttlers (Shah and Kyoga here) to support the base of the diamond (Zlatkovic who has stepped up from the defence).
This worked well against LCS for a couple of reasons.
First, there is an obvious 7 vs 5 advantage (in the image above) for Tampines whereby it made it almost impossible for LCS to press them. Second, instead of LCS’s midfield pivot marking the two #10s of the box midfield, the LCS midfield pivot was forced into stepping up onto the 2 shuttlers (Shah and Kyoga), leaving Kunori free between the lines if no one from the LCS stepped up.
Example #1
Here, Kyoga has dropped wide here(orange) to receive while Hariss (purple) has followed him out. With Hariss out of position and with 5 vs 6 situation here, this then leads to Zlatkovic being able to receive the ball in between the lines and facing forward (pink) with the LCS press broken- an ideal situation for Tampines. Tampines was hence able to find a free man between the lines.
Example #2
Here, Hariss closes down Milos aggressively. Milos (black) then plays it out to Amirul Adli who then clips it to Shah Shahiran (pink) in the centre of the pitch. Again, Tampines have found the free man between the lines.
LCS’s Approach
LCS’s game plan was peculiar. While understandably weakened by the loss of Bart and Song (only fit enough to be a sub), they used 2 wingers in in the #10 roles, Shawal and Maxime for their 3-2-4-1 shape. They are players used to other roles and in my opinion not the most suited for this. Both players are renowned for their ability in the final third as compared to their trickery between the lines. Asking them to receive the ball in the middle and look to progress play might have been a little beyond them Possibly, they could have used Hami as a #10 given his quick feet in tight spaces. This definitely harmed LCS on the ball.
On the ball, there was little central progression- the ball was rarely played through the centre by either the centre midfielders or the #10. This is pretty ironic as the point of LCS’s box midfield was to achieve numerical superiority in the centre and hence make it easy to progress the ball centrally. The ball went long most of the time.
When the ball went wide, it was a big problem when the ball carrier (black) was unsupported. While a #10 has made a run in behind to threaten the defensive line, there was little support to expose the vacant centre (red). This should have been the job of the far sided #10 or a centre midfielder. In all, LCS were poor on the ball.
Either You’re Pregnant or Not
“A little bit of pressing is like a little bit of pregnant. Either you are pregnant or not? Either you want to play pressing or not.”
Ralf Ragnick once said this when talking about pressing. I fully concur. Teams who press should either go for an all out aggressive press or none at all. Everything in between is futile. Unfortunately, LCS chose to be everything in between.
LCS’s press was poor for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, the press was uncoordinated and uncompact. Here, Thy and Lestienne are trying to engage in a press. Unfortunately the rest of the team are too far from them, making this press uncompact. The second line of pressure (rest of the team) is too far from the initial line of the press (Thy + Lestienne). This allows Irfan Najeeb to receive between the lines and take down the ball even with a bounce.
Secondly, the press lacked numbers. In the above two images, this is a goal kick and Thy is curving his run to press Yamashita (first image). However because LCS have not pressed in sufficient numbers, Anu (pink) is left with 2 men to cover.
This situation is illustrated here. The LCS back 5 is pinned by 3 Tampines players. This means that there are too many players at the back and hence Tampines will have an overload elsewhere. The crucial area is in the centre of the pitch (black box) where Tampines have a clear 3 vs 2 situation. Anu is unable to mark 2 players, which means even if he marks one, the other midfielder would be free to face forward and advance play.
LCS should perhaps have pushed a player from the backline onto Kunori which would then allow Hariss to jump onto the other free Tampines centre midfielder. This allows LCS to mark Tampines man for man 3 vs 3 in the centre while still maintaining an overload of 4 vs 3 at the back.
Lastly, the timing of the press was often poor. It felt like LCS were often just running at the Tampines defenders without waiting for a pressing trigger. Teams use a press trigger often to give them a signal to start pressing (such as a poor touch, poor body positioning etc) to give them an increased chance of winning the ball from the opponent. Sometimes when a Tampines player had the ball well under control, LCS still pressed, giving Tampines an easy way to bypass their press.
Conclusion
The second half was a non-event with the quickfire goals just after half time that killed off the game. Tampines dominated the game in all phases – LCS did not even test Syazwan in goal. While from an xG perspective LCS could be considered unlucky not to score even a single goal, but Tampines were thoroughly in charge by then and even a goal or two would have been inconsequential for them. Credit must be given to Gavin for his quality in coaching and for coming up with a tactical plan to succeed.
On the other hand, LCS looked feeble in comparison. While I understand there have been losses to the staff, both playing and coaching, this was a wholly unacceptable performance. While they remain firmly in the title fight, the psychological damage of this heavy defeat will be etched in their minds for the next few months. It’s still early in the season but they’ll need to come back strong from this.
Written by Zach Wu
Edited by Eddy Hirono
If you haven’t caught our sister podcast Kicking & Screaming yet, check it out on Spotify! We talk to Madhu Mohana, former Tampines player and he tells us great stories from his time there.
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