At Bury Football Club during the 2018/19 season, word began to spread about Ryan Lowe, the manager at the time of the now-dissolved club.
Lowe had managed to get Bury promoted.
Bury boasts a very attack-minded style of football that has been said to be influenced by some of the world’s greatest coaches, including Jurgen Klopp, Rafael Benitez, and Pep Guardiola.
Bury were League Two’s highest-scoring team, finishing second and earning promotion before Plymouth Argyle poached Lowe.
Lowe guided the team to third place in his debut campaign with the Pilgrims, earning automatic promotion to League One.
In the 2020/21 season, Plymouth was finding its feet in a higher-quality league and ended the year in a respectable 18th place in the third-tier table.
Nonetheless, Lowe’s men have hit the ground running in the current campaign and are now sitting pretty at the top after twelve matches.
What’s more impressive is that Plymouth Argyle are on the second-longest unbeaten run in English league football at the moment, spanning 11 matches as of writing, with only Liverpool besting this record.
It is still early days, but the fans will certainly be happy with the team’s current form.
However, what is even more impressive is Plymouth’s style of play under Lowe.
This article will be a tactical analysis of the Pilgrims under their Merseyside-born head coach, presented as a team scout report.
It will analyze the team, with a heavy focus on Plymouth’s tactics and principles of play in possession.
Formation and Lineup
Plymouth Argyle have mainly utilised a 3-5-2 formation in all competitions this season.
Of course, in the defensive phases, this collapses into a 5-3-2 with the wingbacks dropping alongside the three centre-backs.
The 3-5-2/5-3-2 has been used in 92 percent of the Pilgrims’ matches this season, although Lowe has also deployed a 3-1-4-2 in certain games, such as the 2-2 draw with Lincoln City at the Sincil Bank Stadium.
Plymouth underwent severe surgery to their squad during the summer transfer window as lower-league clubs tend to do.
Quite a lot of their first-team players this summer were brought in on free transfers.
