EFL Championship 2019/20: Middlesbrough vs Stoke City – tactical analysis

The Friday night football brought us to the Riverside Stadium where Jonathan Woodgates Middlesbrough hosted Michael ONeills Stoke City in the EFL Championship fixture. For both teams, it was a relegation six-pointer with the Potters having been stranded in the relegation zone since August, while the Riversiders were only three points above their rivals before this game sitting in 20th place.

The home team has been the lowest-scoring team so far this season averaging 0.86 goals per game having scored only 19 goals in total. Luckily for them, their opponents from Stoke were not much better in this metric. ONeills side has been averaging a slightly higher goal per game ratio of 1.09, having scored 24 goals in total prior to this game.

The visitors dominated the first half in terms of possession and total attempts, 58% and 7 respectively. However, the majority of Stokes attacks lacked cutting edge and incisiveness in the final third with 5 out of 7 shots performed from outside the box. On the other hand, Middlesbrough played very safely in the first 45 minutes, managing only a single attempt at goal. The Riversiders averaged only 0.19 attacks per minute compared to Stokes 0.53 in the first half.

After a quite uneventful first half, the scenery changed after the half-time. The game saw two goals being scored in the first 12 minutes of the second half with a substitute Lewis Wing adding a third of the game and his sides second to seal an unexpected win for the hosts.

This tactical analysis will take a closer look at both teams game strategies that lead to such a game outcome.

Lineups

The Boro manager Woodgate went for a 3-5-2 formation in this game. Aynsley Pears was placed in goal with a back three ahead of him consisting of Jonny Howson (right side), Daniel Ayala (middle) and Dael Fry (left side). The two wing-backs were Djed Spence (right) and Hayden Coulson (left). In front of the back-line, Adam Clayton was the one who provided even more defensive stability with George Saville and Marcus Tavernier being the two more advanced centre-midfielders. The goal threat came from Ashley Fletcher and Stephen Walker.

Woodgates opponent on the night ONeill lined-up his team in a 4-3-3 formation. Jack Butland started in goal and was protected by a back four of Tommy Smith, Danny Batth, Liam Lindsay and Stephen Ward. Jordan Cousins was chosen to protect the back four in a holding midfield role with Joe Allen and Sam Clucas playing higher up the pitch. James McClean provided width on the left-side with Tom Ince doing the same on the right. Lee Gregory was Stokes lone man upfront for the night.

Stokes intention to attack down the right

From the first minute of the game, the away teams tactics were to attack down the right flank. The first few attempts mainly saw Ince being the target man after one of the centre-backs would switch the play with a cross-field pass. The Englishman had the third-highest xG ratio in a team (0.23); however, the situations where Stokes right inverted winger was left to play one against one did not deliver much joy to the away supporters. The pacey winger tried to dribble past the opponents 12 times but succeeded in only 33% of those attempts.

Below we can see an example of the above-mentioned