EFL Championship 2022/23: How defensive errors from Luton enabled a West Brom comeback – tactical analysis

Ever since Carlos Corberán took the reigns at West Brom, they have looked like a new team, climbing from 23^rd to 6^th in just 11 games. In that time, the Baggies have lost just twice and have earned a lot of praise for the brand of football as well as their impressive form.

In their most recent fixture, they were required to find and utilise great mentality, spirit, and drive to come from 2-0 to beat fellow play-off hopefuls Luton Town. Luton went into this game having won three of their last five fixtures, losing once, so they were confident of picking up a positive result against West Brom.

In this tactical analysis, we will look at West Brom’s poor start that resulted in Luton grabbing a 2-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes, as well as provide an analysis of the Baggies reaction to said poor start, looking at the tactics that helped them to turn the tables and go home with three points. Specifically, there will be an analysis of the link-up play that occurred between West Broms full-backs and wingers, along with a look at the defensive display of Luton, which included some poor marking.

Lineups

Hosts Luton Town deployed their familiar 3-5-2 formation where they look to involve the wing-backs in attacking phases. Rob Edwards made just one change to his lineup from his side’s previous Championship game (a 2-1 win over Huddersfield), with Louie Watson being replaced by Jordan Clarke in the deeper central midfield role

Louie Watson, Cauley Woodrow and former Premier League striker Cameron Jerome all made appearances as substitutes, along with Harry Cornick.

West Brom also won their league game prior to this fixture, beating Reading 1-0. 4-2-3-1 has been the shape consistently used in Corberán’s tenure, with the occasional switch to 4-3-3. Just like their opposition, Albion made no changes to their defensive unit (compared to their last league game). In fact, their entire lineup remained unchanged, and this was likely made possible by resting many players in their FA Cup tie against Chesterfield on the 7^th of January. Albion utilised three substitutes against Luton – Semi Ajayi, Adam Reach, and Grady Diangana all making appearances.

How Luton took an early lead

Up until the first Luton goal, West Brom started the game nicely – playing with good intensity, and even went close to opening the scoring themselves. However, what Luton did very well was closing the space in between the units when there was a transition, effectively slowing West Brom’s quick start down and allowing themselves to get higher up the pitch and increase the pressure. West Brom did themselves no favours either, defensively speaking – when Luton had the ball, the Baggies didn’t seem quite at the races in closing their opponents down, which ultimately cost them the first goal, as analysed below.