EFL Championship 2019/20: Nottingham Forest vs Leeds United – tactical analysis

Another important game for Leeds United in the new calendar year. In this campaign, Marcelo Bielsa’s team started strongly in the early stages of the season, and, they had to try to avoid the story of last season to secure promotion to the Premier League. In this fixture, they travelled to the City Ground but failed to challenge Nottingham Forest.

Forest had five wins, and one draw in their last seven, Sabri Lamouchi’s team climbed to the fourth of the table in January. The Frenchman also became the latest manager to win the EFL Championship manager of the month.

In this tactical analysis, we will show you how Forest secured a two-goal victory against Leeds. It is an analysis that focuses on tactics.

Lineups

Forest only had one change after their loss last week. Ryan Yates was on the bench; he was replaced by Samba Sow, who partnered with Ben Watson at the midfield. In this game, Tiago Silva played on the left, Joe Lolley played behind Lewis Grabban, and Sammy Ameobi played on the right. They started in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Bielsa’s team played in a 4-1-4-1 formation. They started the exact same team as they did in the last game. Stuart Dallas moved the right-back position; Luke Ayling partnered with Liam Cooper at the centre of the defence; Ben White was pushed to the midfield, playing as a sole pivot.

Defence of Forest

In this match, Forest were aware of the attack of Leeds, hence, they were willing to give up possession and defend with a midblock. They only had 37% of possession.

For their block, an important part was to keep the sole pivot of Leeds under control, hence, it forced Leeds to move the ball wide early or play long. In general, they maintained their shape, 4-2-3-1 in their block, with Grabban leading the line.