Ligue 1 2019/20: Monaco vs Marseille – tactical analysis

19th-placed Monaco faced Marseille who were in good form in the fifth matchday of Ligue 1 on Sunday. Monaco have not had a single victory yet in their hands with two draws and two losses earned in four matches. Marseille, meanwhile, have been doing a fairly good job as of late, winning two matches while drawing and losing once respectively.

Almost getting relegated last season after finishing in a 17th-place in the Ligue 1 table, the arrival of Leonardo Jardim was expected to restore the Monegasque club and bring them back to the upper-side of the table where they belong. However, their terrible performances and unpleasing results have surprisingly continued onto this season and unsurprisingly, they earned yet another loss in the league, making them winless in five games already. On the other side of the pitch though, the results put the side that are currently managed by Andres Villas-Boas in fourth place with 10 points, overtaking Lille in the process.

In this tactical analysis, well be taking a closer look at how both teams performed and what kind of tactics did they set up for the game.

Lineups

Monaco (4-4-2)

Having used a 3-5-2 system in their last match, Monaco reverted to using a 4-4-2 in this match. The strikeforce of Wissam Ben Yedder and Islam Slimani was yet again on display in this match after the two strikers playing very well in their last match against Strasbourg with the latter scoring two in that game. Several changes of personnel can be seen with Benoît Badiashile, Adrien Silva, and Gil Dias all relegated to the bench while Ruben Aguilar, Tiémoué Bakayoko, and Cesc Fàbregas saw their names in the starting lineup in this game.

Starting XI: Lecomte  Aguilar, Glik, Maripán, Ballo-Touré  Martins, Fábregas, Bakayoko, Golovin  Ben Yedder, Slimani

Bench: Benaglio, Badiashile, Silva, Augustin, Keita, Dias, Onyekuru

Coach: Leonardo Jardim

Marseille (4-3-3)

Villas-Boas deployed his team in his favourite system which is 4-3-3 in this match. They were playing with a rather flexible, fluid, and a fairly high-intensity system where players would actively rotate their position whilst also rotating the ball in a fairly quick tempo and keeping possession. Didnt seem to be a lot of differences than the way they play in their last game against Saint-Étienne.

Only one change of personnel in this game for Marseille with Valère Germain coming into the starting 11 to replace Hiroki Sakai. Bouna Sarr, meanwhile, was played in a deeper position as a right-back while Germain filled in at right-wing.

Starting XI: Mandanda  Sarr, Kamara, González, Amavi  Strootman, Lopez, Sanson  German, Benedetto, Payet

Bench: Pelé, Ćaleta-Car, Chabrolle, Khaoui, Rongier, Aké, Radonjić

Coach: André Villas-Boas

A balanced affair

Both teams showed their attacking intent since the start of the game. Marseille seemed to be the ones who were more dangerous though as they managed to get into dangerous areas several times already in the first 10 minutes of the game while Monaco were struggling to find their rhythm

Monaco seemed to build their play up from the back. They moved the ball in a moderate tempo, not very quick but not exactly slow either. They seemed to try to break through the flanks when in the attacking phase albeit seemingly trying to progress the ball through the middle at first in the build-up. However, due to Marseilles compact and narrow defence and extremely crowded middle, Monaco were often forced to play and progress through the flanks.

The picture above is a good example of how Monaco tended to play when they have the ball. As mentioned before, they tended to play the ball out from the back, not rushing to go forward. They moved the ball a lot laterally, trying to find the gap through to play the ball through and progress forward. With Monaco having the full-backs sit high and wide to stretch Marseilles defence while the winger sat narrow in the half-space while occupying the full-back, they often tried to catch them off guard by switching the play quickly, knowing that due to Marseilles defensive tactics which were to compress space and concentrate players on one side of the pitch, there should be a good amount of space left on the other side of the pitch that could be exploited if they could move the ball and switch the play quickly.

In the picture above, Kamil Glik received the ball with the instep of his back foot from Maripán and quickly turning to shape himself up to distribute the ball into space in the right flank. With Dimitri Payet sitting quite high and narrow and Ruben Aguilar sitting rather high and wide, the latter was effectively free from any opposing player in that area. When the ball was played towards Aguilar, Gelson Martins has already prepared his outward run towards the right flank from the half-space and Jordan Amavi followed him. Amavi saw the opportunity to challenge Aguilar and take the ball away from him as the latter seemed to be a bit uncomfortable when controlling the ball, leaving the blisteringly pacey Martins free at the back as he continues his run behind the Marseille left-back. Aguilar then managed to release a through pass onto the path of Martins who was completely free out wide and delivered the ball low into the box. However, the cross wasnt perfect and was easily cut out by Marseilles defender.

There were some differences in tendencies between Alexandr Golovin and Martins though.