I didn't want to make this post, this is quite amateur-ish analysis of the highlights in the Newcastle game, and some quick overview of the Forest and Brentford games, but bear with me.
So this is one of the chances that Newcastle created.
We are in possession, Newcastle keeps their back four consistent and organized, with their CMs covering Son and Maddison. This means that their back four don't have to break that structure and leave gaps behind.
We're still in possession here, but look at our structure. We have six players around the ball, no one creating spaces, no one between the lines and more importantly, this can be easily dealt with by less Newcastle players. This ends up with Newcastle recovering the ball in the crowded area, and look what happens next.
Our CBs have no one to mark, they sit narrow as Isak has dropped deep to receive the ball, while 4 of our players in the right corner are trying to transition back to defence.
Newcastle have 4 players against our 5, big space between Romero and Porro on the right flank, also big space between VDV and Udogie.
VDV moves to pressure Newcastle player, that opens even bigger space in the middle, between him and Romero. Newcastle have three players attacking the space against one defender who is behind them able to recover.
Next, Newcastle's first goal.
We are pressing them in a good structure, we end up recovering the ball, but our passing options are limited, as seen below.
Take a look at Newcastle's backline compared to ours. They keep it compact, in a bank of four, with a CM covering the Spurs player in possession. Only Son is in halfspace.
But Maddison runs straight into the space where Son is. Again, Newcastle defence keeps tight, doesn't break formation and where Son supposed to be (between their CB and LB), now he isn't because he came a bit more centrally and received the ball from Maddison. But take a look at our CMs. Wtf is this? Both covering the same area, both in no man's land.
They step up and come forward (BOTH OF THEM!!!!), but by the time they do that, Newcastle have already recovered the ball and Guimaraes (I think?) launches a long ball.
Because Porro has been caught out of position, massive space on the right flank. In the middle, Bissouma is trying to recover, but he's already very far. Gordon outmuscles Udogie and now our CBs are massively exposed.
So they end up scoring their first, of course VDV slips and you could pin it on him, but you can see what led to this. Massive gaps in defence, our FBs and CMs caught out of position and Newcastle don't even need many players to exploit these spaces.
Another Newcastle chance:
Porro inverted in midfield, that leaves big gap on the right side, Vicario launches it forward and Newcastle win the second ball.
Porro is trying to recover as the ball reaches Barnes on his side, but that already forces Romero into overloading, because he has to be careful about Barnes, aswell as be careful about Isak who attacks the big gap in the middle of defence.
This is another angle of the same chance.
And Isak's second goal:
We have commited so many players forward that a long pass is enough to exploit the space. Also notice Romero's positioning. Was he more central and closer to VDV, I think this might have had less chances of happening. But because he's probably trying to cover for the RB, he's sitting there unable to help VDV.
And of course, Isak's run is extremely hard to defend against, even if you have good pace as VDV's.
And last sequence, Newcastle overloading our RB, whilst they have two runners from midfield. Our defensive shape in this image is slightly better, but our CMs are again nowhere to be seen, the defence is exposed because they have to deal with Newcastle's positional attack, aka the man in possession of the ball, aswell as the danger of late runners who are ready to cause havoc.
Gordon ends up committing forward and receiving the ball, but you can see that our defence has no idea there are runners who will attack the space freely. Also Romero has to step up and try to put pressure on their player, which means that leaves gaps between Royal and VDV for a through ball.
I'll post the second part of this in the next post, as the forum only allows 20 images per post.
