Transitions, Transitions, Transitions!

[Rousseau 9,487]

IBROX -- Pedro Caixinha cut an imposing figure as he emerged in black from the tunnel into the glare of the afternoon sun. Ibrox responded with a customary roar, but a quick raised hand was all before he took up position on the touchline; arms folded, legs apart, he gazed over his new players like a general examining his troops.

 

I hate to go all 'hipster' this early, but with a new manager comes a new style and philosophy; and two words that have followed Caixinha throughout his career has been Tactical Periodisation (TP). TP is not a philosophy in itself, nor a style of play; it is merely a way of thinking about the game by breaking it into key stages, namely: Defensive Organisation; Offensive Transition; Offensive Organisation; and finally, Defensive Transition.

 

According to TP, these are the 4 key stages in any game of football. It is then up to the manager to decide how he wants his team to react in each of these stages. Some sides, like Guardiola's Man City want that Offensive Organisation set up before they play out from the back; others like Klopp's Liverpool, prefer to play with pace on the transitions; others prefer to focus on Defensive Organisation, like Simeone's Atletico.

 

 

On first look, transitions seem to be the most important aspect of a game to Caixinha. On RangersTV, Tom Miller said that Transition was a new word for the counter-attack. Whilst Tom's not wrong, it's not the whole picture either, because although a team can transition offensively when they win the ball -- the counter-attack -- they also transition defensively when they lose the ball too.

 

Offensive Transitions

 

Our offensive transitions were a breath of fresh air. We moved the ball up the pitch quickly, whether with pacey, short one-twos, or with longer balls into space. Hamilton couldn't deal with the pace of our transitions at times. We also mixed up our transitional play with some longer balls into space, which were crucial in giving Hamilton something different to think about; both Waghorn and Miller were constantly looking to run in behind into the spaces, stretching play.

 

Offensive Organisation

 

The offensive organisation was slightly different to what we've been used to too. There were rumours that the width in Caixinha's teams come from the Full-backs, and this looks to be true. Instead of both wingers hugging the touchline, which too often saw our forward isolated, both "wide-midfielders" (McKay and Hyndman) played narrow. This gave space for Tavernier and Wallace to stretch the play.

 

We've seen our Full-backs bomb forward a lot this season, causing untold damage to our defensive stability. The difference on Saturday was the double-pivot; both Toral and Holt took up sitting positions to guard the back-four and support the rampaging Full-backs, and both were effective in their roles.

 

Ironically, our pitch geography -- a staple under our last manager -- was rather good: we created impressive overloads in key areas. Defensively, the double-pivot created a box-like formation at the back, allowing us to overload any Hamilton counter. Conversely, on the flanks we had 4v2 overloads, with Tavernier, Hyndman and Miller on the right-flank, with Holt supporting.

 

Defensive Transition

 

Those overloads also helped our defensive transitions. As soon as we lost the ball several players instantly press the ball and the passing options with an intensity that has been missing for far too long. The 'hunting-in-packs' approach allowed us to win the ball back quickly, and initiate offensive transitions.

 

It's no surprise that Tavernier -- like the rest of the back four -- had his best game in quite some time, because he was actually supported on the defensive transition instead of being left to do it himself; he's not a natural defender, his first instinct is to go forward, so he needs help. Holt was constantly by his side, applying pressure, with Hyndman supporting too. Tavernier's pace and energy always suited the intense press, but now that he has support, we should see him become a more consistent performer.

 

Defensive Organisation

 

Although our first instinct was to press on the defensive transition, there was a period towards the end of the game when we set up defensively in a low block, with two banks of four and a forward drifting to fill in gaps. Caixinha has said previously that if the press fails, then he wants his teams to be compact defensively. It's not something we want to see too often, but there will be times when we need to sit in. It was therefore pleasing that we didn't look troubled as Hamilton dominated possession and territory in this short spell.

 

Another pleasing sight was our variation in set-pieces. Over the last couple of games we've seen a revival in goals scored from set-pieces, and a lot of credit has to go to Graeme Murty for this -- the banner thanking him was a nice touch, and fully deserved. On the rare occasion when we crossed the ball, it was usually Tavernier hitting out-swingers; they were generally easy to defend against. On Saturday we saw Toral -- who had an impressive game all-round, distributing the ball with crisp accuracy -- deliver some delightful in-swingers; Clint Hill's goal came straight from such a delivery.

 

Provided by The Back Pass Rule

 

The game felt a lot more satisfying offensively. Too often we've seen possession for possession's sake, without creating too many chances. On Saturday it felt like the directness and pace of our attacks contributed to a lot more chances -- and better quality chances at that. The stats seem to back that up.

 

According to The Back Pass Rule, our average expected goals (xG -- a metric measuring how many goals an average team would have scored with the amount and quality of shots created) is 1.87 -- that's under 2 goals per game. Saturday saw that figure rise to 3.33 xG. The graph shows that we regularly created good chances throughout the game, and generally took them.

 

It's easy to get over excited, but we have to remember that this is just one game; Caixinha's first, against a struggling club. Nevertheless, it looks like we will have a team that is well-drilled, intense in the press, able to attack with variation, and able to defend compactly when the situation arises. Caixinha now has an international break in which to work with his new players. It is just one game, but the signs are positive.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Rousseau

[Bluedell 5,354]

Thanks for the great analysis, mate. That's added a lot to my understanding.

[Rousseau 9,487]

I wanted to include a pass map, but it's taking longer than I thought to get that, so I've just added a rough formation guide. Hopefully I'll get that pass map soon -- it'll be interesting to see the difference.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Rousseau

[Rousseau 9,487]

Incidentally, this is a pass map from earlier in the season against Aberdeen:

 

 

The spacing was quite good, with many connections, but Garner is nowhere to be seen and the passing to waghorn is few and far between; it looks quite open at the back; and there are not many out-balls from McKay.

 

It will be interesting to compare it to Saturdays game. We should see more/better connections up front.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Rousseau

[craig 5,199]

Excellent analysis and echoes my thoughts entirely.

 

A couple of things to highlight :

 

1. "more direct" doesn't mean "long ball" - just in case anyone thought that was what you meant Rousseau. There were a couple of things that were really pleasing to me on Saturday and this was one of them. We got the ball "vertical" or "up the pitch" much quicker than under Warburton. As soon as we won the ball we were looking to get it forward but into feet of our players. Transitions aren't looked at in isolation to your team - there is an equal and opposite transition that takes place with your opponents.... When you transition into offensive transition takes place this means the opponent has to set their defensive transition - if you transition offensively quickly (as we did on the weekend) then the opponent doesn't get the chance to transition into defense and also means that their defensive organization is weak - because you have moved the ball forward so quickly they simply don't have time to.

 

2. Attacking the spaces. We were constantly looking to attack the spaces - just how many times (1st half particularly) did Miller break far right, receive the ball from Tavernier - and then play a ball in behind the full back for Tav, Holt or Hyndman to run onto ? It wasn't just playing the ball into spaces for the sake of it either - it was playing the ball into space knowing that a team-mate was going to head for that space. It created all sorts of space in behind the Accies full backs (particularly on the right, seeing as they doubled up on McKay) - again.... looks to me that Pedro has noticed the doubling up on McKay and decided to divert much of the attacks to the right side instead - when teams start to play more honest on the right it will also free up time and space on the left for McKay.... makes perfect sense, right ?

 

3. Hunting in packs. This again goes back to those transitions - and is a major reason that Barcelona were so successful under Guardiola. Sure, they had the players too - but they always maintained that the 3 closest players pressed the ball high up the pitch for 5-7 seconds. If you don't win it then simply fall back into your position - what that did, rather than have 3 players "out of position" for those 5-7 seconds was it allowed the other 7 players to get their defensive organization set properly - and also given the 3 closest players would normally be forwards, who would usually be by-passed in the transition anyway - it gave them a job to do instead of just saunter back into the centre of play. By doing this it ALSO prevented the opponent from setting up their own offensive transition and organization - you see, each action has a reaction and you can, to an extent, dictate the reaction of your opponents depending on how you act to each situation. Hunting in packs is a very effective way of not just winning the ball back, but from preventing your opponent from getting their attack started.

 

4. Set pieces. Our set pieces were much, much better on Saturday. Toral's delivery for those inswinging crosses was excellent - we should be using those far more often as they are more dangerous than the outswinging cross. Not only that but it was nice to see an attacking throw-in not be taken short and end up back with Foderingham but rather we sent Hill forward and Wallace launched the ball into the box - if you have someone that can launch the ball into the danger area - and you have someone good in the air - USE IT !!! I thought we showed great variety in our set pieces on Saturday.

 

There were a number of positives from Saturday but most pleasing for me were the above - hunting in packs, attacking the spaces, set piece variety and each phase of transition.

 

I think Saturday was the most comfortable we have looked against Accies all season - even including the 6-0 game. At no point on Saturday did we look like we would lose a goal (at least not in my opinion). Foderingham had one of his quiestest games this season.

Edited March 20, 2017 by craig

[Darthter 542]

A lot of what is being discussed here is similar to what the team were doing last season.

I felt this season, MW tried to tweak the method of play and introduce more long balls, which ultimately caused the system to breakdown.

[Rousseau 9,487]

It's so nice to be able to take about new things in our tactical approach. MW was a breath of fresh air last season, but it became too idealistic, inflexible and predictable. I hope we can now talk about little tweaks each week instead of the 'same old same old'.

[rbr 1,247]

It's so nice to be able to take about new things in our tactical approach. MW was a breath of fresh air last season, but it became too idealistic, inflexible and predictable. I hope we can now talk about little tweaks each week instead of the 'same old same old'.

 

This is where player recruitment will become so important , I would much rather PC goes for players he knows can play his system than marquee signings to impress the fan base

[JFK-1 1,677]

This is where player recruitment will become so important , I would much rather PC goes for players he knows can play his system than marquee signings to impress the fan base

 

I think even the board may have become disillusioned with so called 'marquee signings' after our recent experience unless of course we could be confident such a signing was agreeable to the manager and he was confident this player would fit into the system and improve the side. That gives the best of both worlds.

[forlanssister 3,050]

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/five-changes-caixinha-made-to-rangers-style-in-the-hammering-of-hamilton-195415552.html