Thomas Frank suffered in transitions, yet he suffocated Tuchel's side in the last 25 minutes. So what did he adjust to do so?

I’ve been watching Thomas Frank’s team since the start of the season, and from what I’ve been observing in their style of play and specially their way of pressing, I was so curios to watch them against Tuchel’s side. So what happened in this interesting game?

What did Brentford suffer from in possession?

Brentford started the game with their default build-up strategy, back 4 with Zanka going to the right corridor, and Pinnock and Jansson are the main centre backs, while Canos joins the attack. And as usual they tend to play a small combination between the centre backs and goalkeeper then play a direct long ball to Toney, who tries to either pass into the space behind in one of the flanks or to pass it back and midfielders try to win the second ball. And the alternative way was to drag Chelsea midfielder’s out of position to give a ground pass to Mbeumo or Toney, whoever drops down to receive and then passes the ball the same way into one of the flanks. What was a little bit different this game in first half that Toney drops a little bit deeper than usual.

This was useful sometimes since Toney attracts one of Chelsea’s midfielders (Kante for instance in the next image) which frees Jensen in the inside corridor. But here was the first phase in the game that shows the effect of the difference in quality between both squads. The image below did not go well, since Pinnock was threatened by Werner’s pressing and did not exploit the movement of Toney and played a long ball instead, which was definitely lost since the one who can receive long balls perfectly (Toney) was right there beside him. Toney was pointing to Jensen in this situation, but unfortunately Pinnock was looking down.

One of the issues that Brentford suffered from too was in defending transitions. To elaborate more I will talk about Onyeka’s role when the team was in possession. Onyeka tended to run forward when the ball reaches the midfield, trying to take position in the right corridor, since Canos tucks in frequently dragging Chilwell or Sarr with him. The idea was good and it happened many times, but the problem here returns us back to the same keyword ‘quality’. In most of the cases situations like the one below ended up with an inaccurate pass and Chelsea starts a quick attacking transition, where I’ve seen huge spaces every time for either Kante or Kovacic since Onyeka wouldn’t be able to get back that fast and I don’t think it was his fault.

Another example for Onyeka’s role and disadvantage it causes in transitions. It was a pass from Zanka to Mbeumo, who was supposed to drop down earlier so he can play the desired one touch pass for Onyeka into the space.

Pressing mechanism and its flaws

Brentford goes to man-oriented pressing scheme with the start of the game, 3v3 in midfield; Onyeka with Loftus-Cheek, Nørgaard with Kovacic, and Jensen with Kante, and they frequently swap marking roles based on the situation when they lose the ball. And the first line of pressure; Mbeumo or Toney (depends on where is the active side) presses the wide centre back who has the ball, while the other forward presses Christensen to avoid a possible horizontal pass to him. And Canos jumps to press Chilwell if he becomes a possible receiver with closed body orientation.

So far so good, but there were two issues that showed the flaws of this mechanism. Firstly, Werner drops a lot and was quite faster than Pinnock who presumably was the one who had to jump to press him, but Pinnock’s reaction was always late. And Werner was not just dropping down the same way everytime, he was so dynamic, sometimes he overloads one of the flanks, other times he drops as a fourth midfielder creating a numerical superiority 4v3 in midfield with a diamond shape which facilitates Chelsea progression process.

The second issue that caused a problem for Brentford in this phase of the game, was when Chelsea uses an extra man from the back line. In an extreme example in the second half, Kovacic drags Onyeka to the left corridor, allowing Chilwell to cut inside and progress with the ball comfortably. Then Lukaku drafts wide attracting Zanka, which gives more and more time and space for Chilwell to progress with the ball.

One last thing that Chelsea beat Brentford’s pressing with, was the third man concept, so basic yet so effective. I will show one example of it, but it did happen a lot. Kovacic is the most dangerous player in Chelsea’s midfield with the ball so usually the aim of this concept was to have Kovacic with the ball in final third with space and time. In the below example, Sarr waited with the ball till Onyeka pressed him, then he passed it to Loftus-Cheek who with one touch gave it to Kovacic (the third man).

Thomas Frank’s tactical switch in the last 25 minutes

In the 67th minute, Frank introduced Forss to the game and took Onyeka out, and 5 minutes later he took Canos out and Ghoddos entered. Forss played as a centre forward between Toney and Mbeumo, which for the first time in the game gave Brentford a numerical equality upfront against Chelsea’s back 3. Forss was substituted in for this, he drops down dragging Christensen with him then pass the ball to Mbeumo, Ghoddos or Nørgaard in the right flank. He provided the team with an extra player in the front and a good linkup to progress with the ball better.

In the above image Ghoddos had the ball with huge space to put it in for Mbeumo who was cutting inside, but again it was executed badly.

And the next image shows 3v3 for the first time in the game upfront.

The second tactical switch was in the last 15 minutes when Thomas Frank decided to play with back 3 instead of 4; Pinnock and Zanka as wide centre backs, and Jansson in between alone. This gave Henry more freedom and protected Ghoddos’s back.

I will show an example of what did these tactical switches provide. In the next images we can see Henry advances with no restriction, Toney drops dragging Chalobah out of position, and now it is not only Mbeumo upfront as it was for the first 65 minutes, it is Forss and Mbeumo, so Christensen had to stay in his position to cover all this space behind Chalobah, while Sarr marks Mbeumo and Chilwell marks Forss missing what is in his blind side. I think you can see what is coming, both strikers tuck in and Ghoddos sneaked behind Chilwell in the space all of these details created. Finally Toney played it into the box and it ended up as a big chance.

So it helped the team to get the ball more frequently into dangerous areas, and to get more corners and throw-ins, which is the last but not least phase I will talk about in this game.

Brentford’s set pieces variety and brilliance

It’s nothing new for anyone who’s been watching Brentford with Thomas Frank that they can really harm you in set pieces. But what is really remarkable about it, is that the ideas in their set pieces never ends. Against Chelsea they got 5 corner kicks and around 10 throw-ins in final third. This time in the throw-ins they played it short sometimes to Canos or Henry (according to which side the ball is), who crosses it into the far post to one of the advanced centre backs, who passes it into the other post or penalty spot. Or they throw it directly into the box with the same objective. It is more like to be called an organised chaos.

And finally in corners, they used mainly two distinct formations. I will illustrate two of the five corners they got.

• Corner 1: in-swinging from Jensen, 2-3 formation, Pinnock at near post, Nørgaard behind GK, and 3 finishers distributed horizontally, plus 3 players at clearance area, for crossing it back into the far post usually. And Canos’s cross in the second image ended up with Mbeumo hitting the post.

  

  

• Corner 3: out-swinging from Jensen, 1-4 formation, and 3 players at clearance area. Canos in close area unmarked beside Mendy, and 4 finishers in the known form conga line. Canos started to sneak from the small area going to the far post when Jensen starts moving to hit it, while Zanka runs to the near post and the 3 other finisher get distributed around the penalty spot (central area). And the ball reached Canos in a really dangerous situation as you can see in the third image.

  

  

  

In my opinion Tuchel beat Frank in pressing phase taking advantage of the quality difference he has in his team, but still Frank’s tweaks in the second half (in the last 25 minutes specifically) tortured Tuchel’s side. So you can’t avoid being impressed by what is Brentford providing to Premier League this season.