West Brom boss delighted as his tactics unlock City’s defence
WEST Brom head coach Valerien Ismael altered his team’s attacking approach to try to exploit the spaces outside of Bristol City’s three centre-backs and drag them out of position.
Bristol City were swept aside at The Hawthorns as West Brom claimed a 3-0 victory in slightly unique circumstances as twice the game was stopped for two separate supporters to be treated for a medical emergency, while Robins defender Nathan Baker was also hospitalised with suspected concussion.
Ismael revealed he expected City to line up in a back three of Baker, Tomas Kalas and Rob Atkinson - as had been the case against Nottingham Forest - and sought to take advantage of that.
It was witnessed with the Baggies first goal after just seven minutes when Tomas Kalas was first dragged to the right flank as Conor Townsend moved infield to break the lines and feed Matt Phillips, Rob Atkinson drifted away from Jordan Hugill on to Phillips, forcing Nathan Baker to check his shoulder and stay in a central area.
As the move developed, Phillips’ through-ball was the wrong side of Jay Dasilva, finding that pocket of space behind the City wing-back, allowing Darnell Furlong to sidefoot a straightforward centre into the path of the now unmarked Hugill to score.
Although West Brom claimed further goals through a long throw and then an under-hit Danny Simpson back-pass, the tone had been set against a team potentially low on confidence and belief havwell
ing conceded twice in stoppagetime to lose to Forest in midweek.
City’s struggles were further evidenced by Nigel Pearson’s decision to remove George Tanner on 30 minutes such was the pressure the right-back was being put under.
“It was clear against a back three that we wanted to do something to change the approach and it worked at some times,” said Ismael. “I don’t want to give away all the secrets we made but it was all about giving more freedom to the players and stretching the opponents more and play balls in areas.
“We give players solutions of how we want to see things. We take our responsibility as a head coach and a staff and the players have to take responsibility for the quality and how he plays the ball and how is the quality of his passes.
“This is how we wanted to combine today to have a better game from us and tonight it was at least a good step in the right direction. Everything was not perfect but it was a good step in the right direction.” The back three/five is an interesting formation for Pearson to favour because in September he was outlining how it was not a system he tended to turn to due to the limitations of his squad.
“I’m not a massive fan of going to five at the back unless you’re trying to kill a game off. I don’t think our squad is suited to that, generally speaking. We’ll keep the plan as simple as possible,” he said.
However, in three of their last five games, the Robins have lined up with three centre-backs.