Being extremely cheeky here, but is anyone kind enough to help a good fellow with this article please? Many thanks https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/1a5fb55e-3395-11e9-b41a-ec1745518ba6
You owe me... The big six. We know them, we love them, we hate them. Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea often dominate the agenda and the attention of fans and the media across the country. But just below them in the Premier League table, two teams are putting together very impressive seasons. Wolves, in seventh with 39 points, and Watford, eighth with 37 points, are not only doing battle for a potential Europa League spot but they are also in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. For this week’s Game Dissected we take a look why they are the best of the rest. How they set up The graphic below shows the average positions for both sides in wins against Tottenham this season. Different opposition obviously brings varying tactics and slight tweaks in style but a narrow win against the same big-six side is a good place to start in terms of looking at how these two sides set up. Wolves play with a three-man defence and their wing backs (Jonny, No 19, and Matt Doherty, 2) are vital in stretching the pitch and making the opposition work hard for the ball. Having these two players pushed high and wide gives Wolves midfielders and defenders options for passes and switching the play, helping to drag the opposition out of position, eventually leading to chances to attack. More on this later. In midfield Wolves play two central midfielders, in this case Rúben Neves (8) and Leander Dendoncker (32). They will look to dictate the play, interchanging passes with the wing backs and eventually trying to find the three attacking players in advanced positions. Watford play a kind of 4-4-2 system which is more like a 4-2-2-2 in reality as the map above shows. Their full backs are also important as are the two central midfielders, in this case Étienne Capoue (29) and Abdoulaye Doucouré (16). Watford like to press the opposition and it is interesting to note the advanced positions of Troy Deeney (9) and Andre Gray (18) in their win against Tottenham. Their two attacking midfielders, Roberto Pereyra (37) and Will Hughes (19) work hard defensively but are ready to launch an attack as soon as Watford have pinched the ball back. Building from the back Both Wolves and Watford are tough to beat — they have conceded 33 and 34 league goals this season respectively, fewer than Manchester United (35) and Arsenal (37) — and are resilient and impressive in defence. But it is their creativity in defensive ranks that has stood out for both sides this season. The graphics below help to further enhance the idea of how important their full backs are to these sides. Both the Wolves right wing back Doherty and the Watford left back José Holebas feature prominently in terms of assists and chances created by defenders this season. Indeed for all the Fantasy Football teams across the land who include Doherty it is Holebas who has the most assists for a defender, alongside Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson. A quick word too for Doherty’s aerial prowess. He has won 119 aerials battles, fifth most of any defender in the league (and eight more than Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk). Add to that six goals in all competitions and it’s fair to say the 27-year-old is having a cracking season. Midfield maestros Time for a quick game of word association: Rúben Neves? Long distance goals. João Moutinho? Precise passing. Both knee-jerk reactions to the Wolves midfielders are fair but there is far more to both their games than stunning strikes and cross-field passing, as the graphics below show. Another midfielder who has impressive statistics for interceptions is Watford’s Capoue, who has made the most of any Premier League midfielder with 65. The 30-year-old has also won 165 duels (a 50-50 battle for the ball) this season, the third most of any midfielder and more than Manchester City’s Fernandinho and Paul Pogba of Manchester United. Capoue and Doucouré are also just outside the top six when it comes to recoveries with 167 each. Doucouré is an interesting player. From the Watford games I have watched he seems to be the driving force in midfield and yet he doesn’t feature as prominently as Capoue in various statistical categories. Indeed a Watford season ticket holder recently told me that while Capoue has been playing well he is most effective with Doucouré alongside him. Doucouré has five assists (and three goals) this season — Holebas is the only Watford player with more (6) — and only six midfielders have more in the Premier League with Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen leading the way. Tough up top Seventeen. That is the number of goals that Watford’s Troy Deeney (6) and Wolves’s Raúl Jiménez (11) have scored in all competitions this season. But while both players have been in decent goalscoring form they are also important to their team in terms of creating and defending, as the graphic below shows. While both players are a fair way behind the top four forwards in terms of chances created it is important to note that Crystal Palace’s Wilfred Zaha is fifth with 36. The 32 chances Jiménez has created puts him level with Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino while Deeney’s 29 is one more than Firmino’s team-mate Sadio Mané. Jiménez embodies Wolves hard-working attitude by coming in fourth for forwards recovering the ball while Helder Costa, his team-mate, and Deeney are not far behind. So how does it work? We’ve got the graphics and the stats, now let’s break it down in terms of how it works on the pitch. The image below is the start of Watford’s third goal in their 3-2 win against Cardiff. Domingos Quina has the ball on the left wing. Note the number of various passing options he has and the position of Doucouré — prepared to nullify a Cardiff counterattack but also able to join in the attack. Quina fires a pass into Deeney on the edge of the box. As the image below shows, the Watford striker shows good strength to keep hold of the ball and lay a pass into the path of Doucouré, who spots the chance to take advantage of the space in front of him. Now, keeping in mind the earlier point about full backs helping to spread the ball and drag the opposition out, see the image below. Doucouré passes wide to the Watford right back Kiko Femenía, who quickly sends a sharp pass back inside to Pereyra on the edge of the Cardiff area. Note again the position of Doucouré, offering Femenia another passing option but also acting as cover for the right back. Pereyra passes to Ken Sema who, as the image below shows, flicks the ball straight to Quina on the edge of the box. The man who started the move then curls a brilliant strike into the corner, completing a lovely team move. The goal showed perfectly how the team is in sync and playing as an effective attacking unit.
If you think that was good then have a look at the graphic below. The pitch map shows the 17 passes Wolves made for the move which lead to Ivan Cavaleiro scoring the winner in their FA Cup tie with Bristol City. Here is the list of those passes, showing every outfield player involved: 1) Cavaleiro to Jiménez, 2) Jiménez to Moutinho, 3) Moutinho to Jonny, 4) Jonny to Moutinho, 5) Moutinho to Cavaleiro, 6) Cavaleiro to Moutinho, 7) Moutinho to Bennett, 8) Bennett to Dendoncker, 9) Dendoncker to Doherty, 10) Doherty to Dendoncker, 11) Dendoncker to Bennett, 12) Bennett to Moutinho, 13) Moutinho to Sa*ss, 14) Sa*ss to Boly, 15) Boly to Coady, 16) Coady to Doherty, 17) Doherty to Cavaleiro. I was tempted to include images of every pass in the move but I think the graphic helps to illustrate the point made earlier about Wolves full backs and how they help to make the pitch as wide as possible, switching play from left to right, and back again with players like Moutinho in the middle orchestrating the play. Like Watford’s goal against Cardiff it was a lovely move and, crucially, highlights a collective team effort. Nuno Espírito Santo, the Wolves manager, and the Watford manager Javi Gracia have both developed systems which are effective against the teams above and below them and which bring the best out of a hardworking groups of players. It will be interesting to see if both sides can maintain their good form as they battle it out for the FA Cup and that seventh spot in the Premier League.
Probably made Bristol giddy as well. Wolves are a good side and full of confidence; we did well to win up there earlier in the season.
