EFL Championship 2018/19: Preston vs Swansea City

Preston North End and Swansea City shared the points at Deepdale this weekend in the EFL Championship as Courtney Baker-Richardson’s opener early in the second half was cancelled out from the penalty spot just five minutes later.

Preston manager Alex Neil drafted in two new January signings into his starting XI (Brad Potts and Jayden Stockley) as they looked to improve their form after an inconsistent season so far. Graham Potter, meanwhile, kept an unchanged side from the one that beat Aston Villa 3-0 at Villa Park last weekend in the FA Cup third round, as he looks to build momentum in the second half of the campaign.

As expected, both sides adopted a 4-2-3-1 formation. It was going to be interesting to see how Swansea City would cope up against a more effective and organised high press from the home side after breezing through both Aston Villa and Reading since the turn of the year.

Preston’s effective press

We closed our previous analysis of Swansea’s win at Aston Villa by insisting that future opponents surely wouldn’t make the same pressing mistakes against Graham Potter’s side – adopting an disorganised high press and leaving too much space in behind.

Unfortunately, from Swansea’s point of view, Preston adopted something of a similar press that we’ve seen from the Swans so often this season. They relied more on well-positioned players blocking passing lanes and options out from the back, as opposed to employing quick and intense pressing.

Swansea City were keen to persevere with their philosophy of playing out from the back, splitting their two centre-backs wide. Preston, however, frustrated Swansea, often forcing them into recycling possession backwards, kicking long from deep or forcing them down the sides via the full-backs.

A key mistake committed by Swansea’s previous two opponents was their failure to mark their two holding midfielders, Matt Grimes and Leroy Fer. Both Reading and Aston Villa pressed the goalkeeper and two centre-backs but Fer and Grimes were always free to receive passes and turn into large areas of space.

Preston, however, got it right. Below is an example of Preston closely marking Swansea’s midfield duo, and as a result, forcing Swansea to pass back to the goalkeeper.