EFL Championship 2019/20: Barnsley vs Hull City – Tactical Analysis

After seeing manager Daniel Stendel lost his job due to a struggling start to their return season to the Championship, Barnsley wasted no time in finding a successor for him. It turned out, though, to be Wolfsberger A.C.’s manager Gerhard Struber, who led the club to their first Europa League group stage campaign in their history. His first match in the Championship was against Middlesbrough, and although his team did show some positives, they still lost out on three points when Ashley Fletcher’s goal at the 54^th minute sealed the match for the home side.

For Hull City, their convincing 4-0 win over promotion-chasers Preston North End had helped them moved closer to the play-off group as they were separated with sixth-placed Swansea City by just three points. As they travelled to the Oakwell Stadium of Barnsley’s, there were hopes that they could pick up the form that kept three points at KC Stadium over an in-form Preston. Unfortunately, Alex Mowatt’s goal inside the first half opened up a match in which Barnsley took control for the majority of time with Mike-Steven Bähre and Conor Chaplin sealed it for the home side during the second period.

This tactical analysis will provide an analysis of Barnsley’s 3-1 win over Hull City. Meanwhile, using statistics, we will point out what went wrong with Grant McCann’s tactics over Gerhard Struber’s tactics.

Lineups

In his second match with the club, Struber lined his side up in a 4-3-1-2 formation as he had a full list of players to choose from. Two players who managed to shake off their injury problems to join up with the rest of the squad were Aapo Halme, who was deployed as a single pivot in front of the defence, and Jordan Williams, who replaced Dimitri Cavaré as the right-back for this match.

Up front, Cauley Woodrow was implemented as a striker more than an attacking midfielder as Struber wanted to use the former Fulham player’s physicality to shield the ball for his teammates and link up the play. Playing alongside him was Jacob Brown and they received support from attacking midfielder Conor Chaplin.

On the opposite side, McCann opted to remain consistent with his 4-2-3-1 which could be seen as a 4-4-1-1 on several occasions. At the same time, he also had a handful of players who missed out through injuries which included several of rotational players. Jon Toral was one of them as he was absented from the squad list that travelled to Barnsley alongside Angus McDonald and Brandon Fleming.

Meanwhile, new signing Leonardo Da Silva Lopes was able to return to the starting lineup after he recovered from his illness and he paired up with Jackson Irvine as central midfielders. At the same time, summer additions Josh Bowler and George Honeyman were chosen to fill in the attacking midfielder positions alongside Polish international Kamil Grosicki.

Hull Citys style of play

Approaching this match with high confidence after their 4-0 win over Preston, it was no surprise to see Hull deployed a positive mentality in order to gain control of the match. They tended to build attacks from their defensive line and made the most out of the passing ability of Reece Burke and Jordy de Wijs. Along with that, the centre-backs also received support from the wing-backs who occasionally stayed deep to involve in the build-up process and one of the two central midfielders.

Having a