#BrentfordFC v #MiddlesbroughFC Sat 3pm - Griffin Park

It’s back home for Bees after the dismantling of Hull and a prosperous 5-1 winning trip up north. Jonathan Woodgate’s Middlesbrough side sit in 18th position in the table and arrive in town with serious ambitions of spoiling the promotion plans of 5th place Brentford.

The gap to the automatic positions at the start of this round of play is 5 points.

Woodgate is embarking on his first managerial role and with that there is expected to be a significant amount of learning on the job. He is also tasked with adjusting how the club recruits and leans on its costly academy system. Early season results were hard to come by with some misinformed comments on underlying performance also contributing to the build up of pressure on his position.

With the fear of relegation mostly put behind them, a string of improved results has given the clubs season a lease of life. Woodgate, a former defender himself, speaks often about the traditional qualities associated with the game. Hard work, punctuality, grit, discipline. These traits are important but you need a lot more to be successful in this division.

After what seems like a continuous onslaught of teams playing a variation of 4-2-3-1, Jonathan Woodgate’s Middlesbrough come south to TW8 with a semblance of tactical variety.

We’re seeing Boro now exclusively deploy a narrow and fairly cautious 3-4-2-1 system, - moving well away from 4-3-3 - which can flip back and forth between a 5-4-1 shape. Attacking width is at a premium, with this style instead focusing on trying to provide continuous central cover and then central counter attacking opportunities.

It took the head coach until the middle of September 2019 to fully commit to this change in defensive structure, even though the warning signs have been present since conceding 3 goals to Luton on the first day of the season.

Brentford went through a similar change in defensive identity last season, although made sure the attacking principles of two inverted wide forwards remained. Does this shift to a back 5 put too much emphasis on the central areas and come at a costly price for Boro?

Let’s see how the Middlesbrough system functions and whether it is successful?

To begin with, they defend deep. Very deep.

Ayala is the main central defender in a back 3. Paddy McNair has been deputising in this position since an injury ruled out the Spaniard. Fry sits to his left and Howson has been operating on the right of the back line covering the width of the penalty area.

Playing with a back 5, the opportunity is there to deploy wing backs as high as your own confidence will allow. Because of the way a back 3 can cover behind them, out of possession, wingbacks can pressure the wide areas high up the pitch and force play long or inside towards central midfielders.

Boro do not tend to do this, instead preferring their wingbacks to sit deeper, closely aligned to the centre back 3 and almost giving the wide areas to the opposition when out of possession.

The midfield 4 ahead of the back 5 moves between a diamond and box shape with the idea of trying to prevent teams from marauding straight through Boro’s central area and then to provide multiple short options to facilitate a counter attack when possession is regained.

This narrow revolving midfield structure out of possession wants to see opponents play pushed out wide to the perceived areas of less possible damage. Is this working well? Yes, we think it is. Woodgate is getting this to function, the question beyond is whether this tactic is useful in the long run. We’re yet to be convinced.

Gestede has been re-introduced to the side and has featured as a lone striker at the tip of the system. He is unable or reluctant to pressure opposition during buildup and lacks coordination with team mates. He can be easily played beyond in that first defensive line and with little wide pressure coming high up the field from Boro, teams with attacking full backs and wingers find their way into the final 3rd far too easily.

From an attacking standpoint, the main 5-3-2-1 shape Woodgate opts for has both positives and it’s limitations. The fact that it is defensive in it’s first instance is an attacking limitation in itself.

Restarts from the goalkeeper, Pears, can lack any real urgency at home or away to move into the build up phase. When opting to build up, the back three system can cause confusion and impact ball progression.

The graphic shows an issue we’ve seen Boro fall into when trying to develop play in their own deep areas, brought around by possibly having too many of the wrong kind of player surrounding the player in possession.

With Wing dropping into the defensive line to pick up a ball from, McNair, he naturally wants to immediately turn and find a vertical option.

What he instead can find is the opposition able to easily outnumber advanced team mates, limiting his options and then his team's ability to move up the field.

A central midfielder in this formation dropping deep to pick up the ball in this way can create a muddled outcome. A situation where 6 players can be in close proximity but also not providing much in the way of gained ground shows how prohibitive a poorly spaced back 5 can be.

Woodgate must decide if his desire to play a defensive minded back 5 outweighs his desire for his side to try to build up from the goal keeper or simply make sure the right players are stepping forward with the ball. Wing is a talented player but McNair has the ability to find Wing in a more advanced middle third position.

With this being said, Woodgate is also happy for Pears to bypass all of this completely and hit long for his forward to challenge for the aerial ball.

We’ve spoken about how from a defensive standpoint, the 5-4-1 formation floods the central areas. The positives off the back of this are how quickly Boro can counterpress if the ball is lost centrally and also benefit the attacking phases of the game.

Fletcher offers the more touches and direct running when compared to his older counterpart, Gestede, and suits the lone front man system to greater effect. When selecting Gestede, Woodgate must factor in how much he gains in aerials but loses in terms of open play pressure on the ball.

Boro are dealing with the blow of losing loan signing Patrick Roberts to a serious hamstring injury. After limited minutes in the top flight with Norwich, Roberts had started to show some danger signs in transition for Woodgate as one of the narrow pairing behind the centre forward.

The versatile Saville, who Brentford fans will know well, is enjoying a rounded midfield role whose priority from Woodgate is to defend as part of a tight unit but then also break forward and shoot as soon as a moment presents itself.

Goals are not easy to come by for Middlesbrough, possibly over reliant on dangerous strikes from distance from Wing, who has exceptional technique from range, and the odd hit from Fletcher. Only 3 sides have scored less goals from open play so far this season.

A side with a low open play goals total is generally looking to be propped up by a number of well worked set-piece worked finishes, yet again here we see Boro struggling in the rankings. They are joint bottom with Leeds for set-piece goals although the quality of chances generated from these situations has them on around 9, so around 3 behind what they’d be expected to score.

Brentford have previously struggled against sides that play a 5 at the back system, comfortable prioritising defending and only allowing minimal space to attack in the final 3rd.

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Djed Spence (19) in the right wind back role for Boro will feature in the area that Benrahma and Rico Henry look to try to exploit. Howson plays an important organizational role here too.

If Spence repeats the similar deep positioning to that of the which he undertook against Fulham at Craven Cottage, it could be a difficult day for Boro, with Henry playing almost as a winger himself and Benrahma picking up and working himself into positions between the midfield and defence to create marking confusion.

Fry, in the left Centre Back position is far stronger on his right hand side. Heavy pressure from Mbeumo could see him come into difficulty and run out of room as his left side is squeezed to the touchline.

Where Fry may benefit defensively, is as Mbeumo naturally cuts in towards goal and moves across the box, the right sided defender can also move across and on his natural side with Johnson or Coulson covering movement from Dalsgaard.

Jeanvier and Pinnock are likely to resume their partnership in the continued absence of Pontus Jannson.

We should see an interesting tactical battle at Griffin Park. Middlesbrough are not as limited in possession as Forest, but at the same time are not as comfortable in their own skin.

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