EFL Championship 2019/20: Cardiff City vs Sheffield Wednesday – tactical analysis

Just like after the first international break, it was Neil Warnocks Cardiff City that were the first to resume into action after the second international break of the season. On Friday night, they faced Garry Monks Sheffield Wednesday who had a chance to go top of the EFL Championship with a victory in South Wales.

Both teams were in touching distance of the play-off spots prior to this game which made the encounter even more intriguing. It was a game of two halves where both teams had a completely contrasting 45 minutes each. The first half certainly belonged to the visitors from Sheffield who had a total of 10 shots compared to the home sides 3. However, the second half experienced a completely reverse scenario where Cardiff grew into a game producing 11 shots in total. Contrarily, the Owls lost the momentum and managed to test the home teams goalkeeper only twice.

The game ended in a one-all draw that seemed to be a fair result considering the contrast in teams performance in both halves. This tactical analysis will take a closer look at both teams game strategies that lead to such dissimilar 90 minutes.

Lineups

Warnock opted for a 4-3-3 formation in this game. Neil Etheridge returned into the goal following his come back from injury replacing Alex Smithies. He was protected by a back four consisting of Lee Peltier, Sean Morrison, Aden Flint and Joe Bennett. In midfield, it was a solid trio of Marlon Pack, Joe Ralls and Leandro Bacuna who had a more protective role rather than a creative one. Upfront, it was Josh Murphy on the left-wing, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing on the right and Robert Glatzel down the middle.

Monk went for what on paper was a 4-1-4-1 formation. Cameron Dawson started between the sticks with a back four of Liam Palmer, Dominic Iorfa, Julian Börner and Morgan Fox in front of him. Slightly ahead of them was Sam Hutchinson who often dropped in between the two centre-halves to aid the ball progression from the back. The other two more advanced central midfielders were Massimo Luongo and Barry Bannan. The width was provided by two wingers in Adam Reached who roamed on the right and Kadeem Harris on the left. Sheffield Wednesdays top scorer this season Steven Fletcher started up top.

Sheffield Wednesdays offensive approach

When in possession, Wednesday took up an approach that is common with the majority of the teams that try to play out from the back. This meant creating numerical superiority when bringing the ball from defence. In this case, it was a holding midfielder Hutchinson who often dropped deep to assist the ball progression. The 30-year-old had the most touches (62) and performed the most passes in a team (47) with an accuracy of 78.7%. It indicated his key role to progress the ball to the next build-up phase.

Below we can see such an example with Hutchinson dropping deep