FORMATIONS
TACTICS
Offensive:
Almost a flat 3-4-3 setup, Luton's main channel of attack was down the left side. Morris and Clark operated as the two second-strikers in the half spaces just behind Adebayo, the CF.
Doughty's pace was the key factor in almost all attacking transitions in the first half. Luton's attacks heavily depended upon the underlapping runs from their second strikers. Their movements and positioning drew the CBs out of their position or stretched it wide.
The experienced Ross Barkley with Lokonga orchestrated the play from the centre. They were always present in the middle third stabilizing the entire system. The double pivot operated quite well according to their plan.
It was clear that Rob Edwards wanted his players to stick to their positions and roles. Hence the positions of each player on the pitch were fixed according to their role. I did not see any flexibility or rotation in positions.
Defensive:
Adebayo was kept high up the pitch alone while the team got back in a defensive low block. The wingbacks helped out the defence in the wide areas. Clark was wider compared to Morris.
SET PIECE ANALYSIS
CORNERS:
Luton prepared a 5 man "train" or a wall near the centre of the goal. Clark has the role of disturbing the GK by standing in front of him. Ogbene and Lokonga are the two men waiting for a drop-off at the edge of the box. And a single-man defence, just to keep things tidy. Alfie Doughty takes Luton's max set pieces. With his left foot, he can put dangerous pacy crosses into the box.
As the corner is taken, the 5 man wall breaks. Burke and Barkley move towards the near post dragging the defenders with them. The rest of the 3 take a step back before attacking the ball. These kinds of movements often create chaos in the penalty box, which opens up the possibility of scoring a goal.
From the cross-map, it is evident that Luton's main target is in the centre of the penalty box where the space is created by their player's movement. Doughty has almost consistently delivered it at the correct area.
STRENGTHS
Luton Town's main threat is down their left flank, through Doughty or Chong. They looked comfortable and enjoyed attack after attack in the second half. When they get settled on the ball, Luton is quite dangerous.
They like to keep the ball in the wider areas of the pitch and attempt crosses. With the likes of Burke, Adebayo, Morris, Luton are a dangerous threat from set-pieces.
WEAKNESS
The distance between the players and the ball is often quite big, which often leads to huge gaps at the centre, where if there had been a player, the transition would have been much smoother. Luton concentrated on direct long passes to their tall striker, leaving gaps that could be exploited.
They were quite poor in their defensive structure and implementation.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Name: Alfie Doughty
Age: 24
Nationality: English
Height: 183cm
Weight: 68kg
Position: LWB/LM/LB
What to look for ?
His mighty pace
Ball control
Ability to stretch out defence
Dribbling 1v1
This is a Dribble map of Alfie Doughty in this match. He made 25 successful dribble carries (i.e at least carrying the ball 3m)
This makes him a key player to look after. Doughty bagged the Man of the Match for this match's performance.
Name: Ross Barkley
Age: 30
Nationality: English
Height: 189cm
Weight: 87kg
Position: CM/CAM/CDM
What to look for ?
Passing
Vision
Distribution
With over 200 Premier League appearances up his bag, I can never write off experience. Even if he remains inactive all the match, he has the potential and experience to change the game with a single pass.
This is the threat that he possesses. He should not be given the slightest of space to pick his marker.
CREDIT: I do not own any of the original match clippings. The match clipping is taken from the official streaming of the game. I have used Play by Metrica Sports to telestrate and do my analysis. The analysis is completely my own work, the match recordings are owned by the FA, English Premier League.
The stat maps - I have used a public repository by Konstantinos Michai.
👍
Good job...