FA Cup 2019/20: Southampton vs Huddersfield Town – Tactical Analysis

The year 2020 finally witnessed the return of the English domestic leagues with many fiery matches being played across the country. Just five days after the New Year’s Day, the FA Cup also made its return as it brought along fascinating ties between clubs from the top four divisions. One of those ties which many fans had their attention last weekend was between Southampton and Huddersfield Town.

Southampton had seen a significant rise from their dreadful run of form in between October and November, which saw them suffered through “that match” against Leicester City. Their strong run in December, though, brought back for the Saints four wins and a draw, including a 1-0 win over Tottenham on New Year’s Day. On the opposite side, an average form in November saw their intention of escaping the relegation battle unaccomplished. With five points separating them from Wigan Athletic, there were still very much left to do for the Cowley brothers. As they travelled to the South Coast, they aimed to come out from the match with a positive result to allow them to create a momentum for them in the Championship.

Still, things went the opposite way for Huddersfield when two homegrown youngsters in Will Smallbone and Jake Vokins scored Southampton’s two goals in the second half to seal the match. This tactical analysis will provide an analysis on Southampton’s 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup. Meanwhile, using statistics, we will point out the noticeable tactical points in Ralph Hasenhüttl’s tactics and Danny Cowley’s tactics.

Lineups

With the intention of letting most of his key players rested for the next Premier League match, Hasenhüttl made a few changes to the side that secured three points for Southampton against Tottenham. Also, given that they went into this match without having too many names being included on the treatment list, the Austrian manager had a wide range of players to choose from. In his 4-2-2-2 formation, there were two youngsters who featured regularly for the under-23 this season being included in the lineup, which was Will Smallbone and Jake Vokins.

As they made their first professional start for the club, another homegrown duo in Harry Lewis and Callum Slattery looked on since they were being registered among the substitutes alongside Michael Obafemi and Southampton’s top-scorer Danny Ings. Kevin Danso also had his ninth start of the season with him occupying the right-back position and completed the back-four that consisted of the centre-back pairing of Jannik Vestergaard and Maya Yoshida. Up front, Ché Adams continued the search for his first goal for the club as he led the line with the pacey Irish striker Shane Long.

For Huddersfield, they had an overwhelming of absentees from the squad list that travelled to Hampshire last weekend. At the back, veteran centre-back Tommy Elphick missed out through an injury, thus, left Cowley with Christoph Schindler and Jon Gorenc-Stankovič at the heart of the defence for this match. Terence Kongolo hadn’t played for the club since their 5-2 lost against Bristol City, which raised the concern of his match sharpness, and the same can be said with former AS Monaco striker Adama Diakhaby.

Another attacking player that Cowley did not have in his hand when it came to choosing the squad list was Collin Quaner as he continued his recovery from an injury. Elias Kachunga also missed out from this match with him being considered as a doubt for this match. But this did not concern the former Lincoln City manager too much since he had an attacking trio on the bench who was subbed on later in the match in Stevie Mounié, Josh Koroma and Karlan Grant.

Huddersfields style of play

Entering this match with a strong team, there was no doubt that Huddersfield wanted to have a positive result for them from this match. Eventually, they did enjoy what is considered as a decent first-half for them with both teams entered the break without any goal separating the two. But in reality, Cowley’s side were on the back foot for most of the time as they tried to counter against and even bypassed the pressure from Southampton.

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