Europa League 2021/22: PSV vs Monaco – tactical analysis

Thursday night saw PSV Eindhoven host AS Monaco in the third game of Group B in the Europa League. Going into the game both teams were on four points having both picked up wins against Sturm Graz and draws against Real Sociedad. Whilst PSV enjoyed most of the changes in the game, they failed to make it count with Monaco snatching all three points late thanks to substitute Sofiane Diop. This tactical analysis will provide an analysis of the main tactics used by both sides and how they impacted the game.

Line ups and formations

For this game, PSV stayed in their usual 4-3-3 formation, in goal stayed Drommel with Max, Obispo, Ramalho, and Mwene making up the back four. Van Ginkel and Boscagli were being deployed as a double pivot in midfield with former Borussia Dortmund man Mario Götze playing more advanced in a number 10 position. Gakpo was used on the left-hand side and Madueke on the right with Vinicius down the middle, Notably, PSV manager Roger Schmidt left out prolific goal scorer Eran Zahavi.

 Monaco, who have had a mixed start to the season in Ligue 1, utilized a back five for this game, German youngster Nubel, on loan from Bayern Munich, remained in goal with the back five of Aguilar, Disasi, Maripan, Badiashile, and Henrique deployed in front of Nubel. In front of the back five were Volland, Fofana, Tchouameni and Jean Lucas. Although on paper it looks like a 5-4-1 in possession it was more of a 5-2-3 with Volland and Lucas pushing higher to create a front 3. Finally like Schmidt Monaco manager, Niko Kovac left out main goal-scoring threat Wissam Ben Yedder in replacement came in Boadu.

Monaco’s vertical and direct passing

While in possession Monaco often looked to progress the ball quickly using direct and vertical passes to progress them up the field with pace and precision. This differs from the approach of PSV who looked to use short passes to keep the ball and patiently work the ball up the field. In possession, Monaco would push their wing-backs high and wide. They also looked to pass directly either into the feet of Boadu or beyond the first press into the two midfielders. This allowed Monaco to get the ball into the mid or final third quicker and in turn, get the ball to their attacking players. On several occasions, we saw this with Maripan playing the ball beyond the press into the feet of the midfielders as shown below. With the below Pass Maripan has beaten the first press and got the ball beyond the midfield block. The key feature of this pass is the fact it takes 6 PSV players out of the game.

Here you can see this pass results in a four vs four situation and the potential for a dangerous attack to form. Although the attack fizzled out into a lame effort from Lucas, it was a sign of more to come from Monaco.