New England 2019: Their recent success under Bruce Arena – scout report

Under Brad Friedel, New England Revolution finished eighth in the Eastern Conference in the last MLS season. The awful start in his second season was evident as New England suffered eight losses in 12 games. There were major defeats likes 6-1 against Philadelphia or 5-0 by Chicago Fire. Therefore, when the club sacked Friedel it was no surprise.

As his replacement, the club chose one of the most successful coaches, Bruce Arena the five-time MLS Cup champion. He took over the head coach position in May. Since Arena was appointed, New England Revolution have been doing great as they collected some big scalps such as beating LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo, and drawing with Philadelphia Union and DC United.

Now, we see New England returned to being an interesting side once again as they display some great performances. This tactical analysis focuses on Arena’s New England and the tactics that now look pretty effective.

Statistical analysis

This scout report aims to show the improvement in New England’s performance and tactical changes. Thus it is a logical step to look into the numbers what it tells us.

First of all, there was an increase in xG (expected goals) in the last five games, but more importantly, there is a huge difference in the goals ratio. Under Brad Friedel, the New England Revolution scored an average 0.92 goals per match in this season (11 goals in 12 games), and conceded 2.5 goals per match (30 goals in 12 games) which is an awful ratio.

Now, let’s investigate these values in those nine games that New England played under Bruce Arena. They have scored 1.8 goals per match whilst only conceding an average of 0.8 goals per match. Of course, this looks much better, therefore the improvement is evident.

Formations

As a base point of this analysis, it is important to identify the structure that the current team is using. In the case of New England, they form a 4-2-3-1 shape which morphs into a 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 structure against the ball.

However, recently coach Bruce Arena tweaked it and formed it that probably more fit to his tactics thus New England deployed a 4-3-3/4-3-1-2 formation lately. It was evident from the Houston game and looks like it is a permanent change in their tactics.

Defensive phase 

New England usually form a medium block but often press high up the pitch. Out of possession, the wingers Juan Agudelo and Cristian Penilla drop next to the double pivot.

Against the ball, the goal is to force the opponent wide. To achieve this, the striker adds central protection but attempt to press with a curved run to block the passing lane between the centre-backs. Meanwhile, the wingers are responsible for pressing the full-backs and one player marks the opposite midfielder. 

In their medium block, the shape is a bit narrow to protect the passing lanes. In order to close down the wings frequently see them shifting side to side. For example, in this situation, New England’s second line shifted to the left-hand side. The left-winger (Penilla) needs to be quick enough to close down the full-back on the ball. Also, Carles Gil moves there to mark the nearby midfielder whilst Wilfried Zahibo and Luis Caicedo adjust their positions by moving to the half-space to give support to Penilla who pushed out diagonally to press.