EFL Championship 2019/20: Fulham vs Bristol City – Tactical Analysis

As we are getting nearer to the Christmas period, teams all across the English leagues are preparing for one of the toughest runs of matches in order to fulfill their expectations at the end of the season. In the EFL Championship, the league table was also shaping itself up as the promotion-contenders had found themselves the most suitable spots to press for a spot in the Premier League next season. Two of them were the teams who faced off each other on Saturday evening, hoping to secure a positive result and maintained their hope.

In Fulham, they enjoyed a very successful period after securing four wins out of their latest five matches. This gave them a huge momentum before welcoming Bristol City to their home stadium along with the expectation of extending that winning streak up to five matches. For the visitor, things were a bit tougher as they suffered a devastating 4-1 loss to West Brom last week but they still enjoyed two wins and two draws in their last five matches.

With that in mind, many fans had expected this to be an interesting clash as it would create a push in both teams’ hope for promotion. This tactical analysis will provide an analysis of Bristol City’s 2-1 win over Fulham. Meanwhile, using statistics, we will point out the interesting tactical clash between Lee Johnson’s tactics and Scott Parker’s tactics.

Lineups

The home side started in their familiar 4-2-3-1 formation. With most of the squad fit for the game, Parker opted to fill his lineup with some of the best players that he had. As Harry Arter remained doubtful and missed out from the squad list, Stefan Johansen was the player who stepped into the lineup and paired up with captain Tom Cairney as Fulham’s central midfielders.

Bobby Decordova-Reid also missed out on the opportunity to face his former club with former Tottenham midfielder Joshua Onomah filled in the attacking midfielder spot right behind the main striker Aleksandar Mitrović. Maxime Le Marchand was another player who was absented from the final squad with a similar reason to the first two, still, Parker was happy to keep the back-four that helped Fulham secured three points against Swansea City.

Many expected Bristol City to line up in a 3-5-2 when playing away from home, however, Johnson sprung a surprise when he chose a 4-4-2 formation for his team. Upfront, Benik Afobe was almost certain to miss out from a couple of matches later on, with Andi Weimann stepped into the lineup and paired up with Famara Diédhiou as the team’s leading strikers.

Meanwhile, the former Chelsea duo Jay Dasilva and Tomáš Kalas were still recovering from their respective injuries, which allowed Tommy Rowe and Ashley Williams to start for the side. Nathan Baker managed to shake off his problem with a dead leg in the last match against Huddersfield to join the Welsh defender as centre-backs. Taylor Moore was expected to start alongside them in case Johnson opted to go with a back-three, but he was registered on the bench for this match and enjoyed several minutes on the pitch when he was subbed on for right-back Jack Hunt.

Fulhams style of play

As the London-based side enjoyed their home advantage in this match, it was no surprise to see them approach the game with high confidence for a positive result. Right from the start of the game, it was clear that their intention was to build their attacks from the backline and attempted to gain control of the majority of possession.

The invo