How Garry Monk can achieve what no previous Swansea manager has - beating Everton
The Swansea Way's newest contributor Jon Trew of Inspire Football Coaching looks ahead to this weekend's match against Everton.
Only two points have been taken in the five league games played against Everton in the Premiership, and the Toffees appear to definitely be one of our bogey teams. In all the games we've played against them we have been beaten down the wings with link up play between the Everton wing backs and wingers and this, I believe, will be a key area to concentrate on when playing Everton at the weekend. Garry Monk must adapt his tactics to counter Roberto Martinez’s, and make a few changes to the team which put in an embarrassing second half performance against West Brom last time out.
Central midfield
In order to adapt and compete against Everton it would make sense to play with 3 central midfielders with Leon playing in the pivot role and De Guzman and Canas playing in box to box roles in front of him. This would allow the midfield to match the central three of Everton and not get overloaded in the centre. The Swans will have to cut out distribution to Lukaku and ideally Leon would sit just in front of him, intercepting such passes and picking up the second ball from longer passes in to the Belgian.
In central midfield I’ve gone for Canas and De Guzman for two reasons. Reason one being that we always struggle against the wing backs when playing Everton, so depending on which channel the game is being played, the central midfielder can come across to help out the Swansea wingers or wing backs. Secondly, Everton rely on their wing backs getting high up the pitch and delivering crosses - both from the byline and deeper positions, getting the forwards (Mirallas and Deulofeu) on the ball as well as cutting inside (see the goals Cardiff conceded last weekend). Doubling up high up the pitch and stopping the attack as quickly as possible is the best form of defence.
Defence
Both Williams and Amat will have to be on form as Lukaku is one of the most physical and powerful forwards they will have come up against this season. If Swansea start to struggle defensively in midfield Canas could drop in alongside Britton to form two defensive midfielders allowing De Guzman to get further forward and link up with Michu.
Forwards
I’ve gone for Michu up front for purely tactical purposes, though Bony didn't have a great second half against WBA so could maybe do with a rest and the kick up the backside being benched provides. Rather than playing Michu as a central striker I would get him to play in the ‘false number nine’ role. - allowing him to drop into midfield when Everton are in possession, and linking play with the wingers when we're in possession of the ball. It’s important that Michu closes down the defender in possession and also that he moves into the channels to help out the wingers when defending.
Pressing
It’s interesting to look back at the FA cup final when Martinez tactically outsmarted Mancini. I spoke with the co-founder of my football education company (www.inspirefootballcoaching.com) Jed Davies, who explained that Wigan pressed the Man City centre backs for the first 10 mins and then spent x amount of time not pressing. This then brought a sense of confusion to the centre-backs and they became lazy/too relaxed in possession bringing into play psychological aspects of the game. It would be interesting to see Swansea do a similar thing and see if ‘the scholar’ can use ‘the mentors’ own tactics against him. What is for sure is that when in our own half, Swansea must press the player on the ball to stop Everton playing us off the park as was seen once we conceded the second goal in the FA cup.
Tactics
Jed (@TPiMBW) also mentioned that Martinez got his two forwards to split as wide as possible, which meant that City's centrebacks had to choose to either leave them unmarked out wide (given Man City's preference for attacking with their fullbacks), or drift wide and leave a gap in the centre of the field. Everton play similar attacking tactics as Man City did under Mancini in that they attack with eight players and leave the two centre backs at the back - by asking Michu and, say, Pablo to stay up front to do the same when Everton are attacking, it would leave two vs two which would allow for a quick counter attack should Swansea quickly gain possession in their half of the pitch. Just like Kompany and Nastasic, Stones and Distin wouldn’t want to venture too far wide.
The Swans must play at their own tempo and alleviate pressure by passing out from the back whilst keeping possession in the first half, then hit Everton on the counter attack when Everton’s wing backs are pushing further upfield later in the game. The team must stay disciplined and not worry if at first the tactics don’t work - Wigan were under the cosh for three minutes of the FA cup final but by sticking with the game plan they were able to put the tactics into effect.
Lessons to learn from WBA game
The team must also learn quickly from the mistakes made in the West Brom game, and be switched on from the first whistle. When the Swans played Everton in the FA cup they conceded very early - morale isn’t particularly high at the moment and this could prove to be disastrous if there is a case of deja-vu.
The big mistake in the second half against West Brom was for the team to play a high line. As mentioned in my previous article for The Swansea Way, the solution should have been for Amat and Williams to play deeper which would allow the space in the middle of the pitch for Leon to control the game. The players were too close together which led to quick passing and lots of mistakes.
If you take a look at the images below you can see how much more space the defence and midfield would have had by dropping deeper. This would have allowed Amat and Williams to play a slower game to alleviate the pressure on the team, and would also have given the midfield more room to control the centre of the pitch.
The big mistake in the second half against West Brom was for the team to play a high line. As mentioned in my previous article for The Swansea Way, the solution should have been for Amat and Williams to play deeper which would allow the space in the middle of the pitch for Leon to control the game. The players were too close together which led to quick passing and lots of mistakes.
If you take a look at the images below you can see how much more space the defence and midfield would have had by dropping deeper. This would have allowed Amat and Williams to play a slower game to alleviate the pressure on the team, and would also have given the midfield more room to control the centre of the pitch.
Crossing
It’s imperative that the team make the pitch as big as possible and use the wings to our advantage. When Baines and Coleman get forward it leaves space in the final third of the pitch, and leaves Everton vulnerable to a quick counter attack. Rangel and Davies must look to play the ball in between the central defender and wing back for our wingers to exploit the space in behind, and put crosses in from the byline.
Michu scored the majority of his goals last season from arriving late into the box so the Swans must play to their strengths. The first half against WBA saw the majority of crosses coming from in and around the penalty area which led to 10 chances in the first half. The second half was a different story and the majority of crosses came from deep positions which as we know were unsuccessful. As I’ve mentioned previously, the best strategy for Swansea under Brendan Rodgers was to play the ball in between the central defender and full back and then play a drilled ball across the face of the goal.
Michu scored the majority of his goals last season from arriving late into the box so the Swans must play to their strengths. The first half against WBA saw the majority of crosses coming from in and around the penalty area which led to 10 chances in the first half. The second half was a different story and the majority of crosses came from deep positions which as we know were unsuccessful. As I’ve mentioned previously, the best strategy for Swansea under Brendan Rodgers was to play the ball in between the central defender and full back and then play a drilled ball across the face of the goal.
No doubt Garry Monk has been busy analysing the WBA defeat in minute detail and will have been working hard with the team on the training pitch to put right all the wrongs. If the Swans stick to the game plan then we could come away with at least a point if not all three. Fingers crossed it’s the latter and Garry Monk will have outsmarted his friend and former manager.
If you’re interested in coaching education please visit www.inspirefootballcoaching.com to find details of our London coaching conference in London on 8th of June.