Talking Tactics: From the Jaws Of Defeat – Bournemouth (H)

Sunderland returned to the Stadium of Light staring down the barrel of a long winter without a win in their previous three games to face a Bournemouth side level on points as they fought it out for fourth place on Saturday afternoon. With torrential conditions afoot once again and a 2-0 deficit within the opening twenty minutes, how did Le Bris galvanise his players to record yet another historic comeback and take all three points?

Sunderland Line-Up

After much debate about whether Sunderland should look to switch away from their more conservative system with three central defenders, Le Bris made a bold call and switched to his traditional 4-3-3 system at the expense of Trai Hume and Lutsharel Geertruida, who both dropped to the bench in favour of Omar Alderete returning from injury and Chemsdine Talbi making his first start since away at the City Ground back in September.

With a revert to type, Sunderland shuffled Enzo Le Fée back into his preferred position of central midfield ahead of the two pivots of Noah Sadiki and Granit Xhaka, both of whom were still riding the suspension tightrope. Alderete came back in on the left side of the defence to provide some natural width as a left-footer whilst Nordi Mukiele shuffled across to right-back in order to deal with the danger of Antoine Semenyo.

With an additional body in midfield Sunderland were able to fall back on their triangle principles and utilise the trios formed between full-back, midfielder, and winger to create overloads and spring attacks with pace whilst Wilson Isidor continued to lead the line.

Opposition Line-Up

Make no mistake, Andoni Iraola is one of the most tactically astute coaches in the Premier League and the work he does to set his sides up to spring opposition presses makes viewing who both managers chose to line up an interesting tactical affair.

Iraola made two changes from the side that drew with West Ham last week as Sunderland summer target Amine Adli came in to replace David Brooks and old colleague of Le Bris, Eli Kroupi, made way for star man Antoine Semenyo who returned to the side following an absence through injury.

Bournemouth look to set up in a traditional 4-2-3-1 which relies on controlled possession and utilising an overlapping wing-back to create overloads within the opposition final third. By focusing on tempo shifts, Iraola sets his teams up to control possession at a slower tempo through their build-up before quickly sharpening the pace through spells of three to five sharp passes in order to break through the defensive lines.

Undoubtedly Bournemouth’s most creative spark comes in the form of Semenyo whose ability to shape up defenders 1 v 1 remains one of the best in the league, paired with being categorised as a true “two-footed” player capable of going both outside or inside without fear of being pushed to a weaker foot. For context only Heung-Min Son, Kevin De Bruyne, and Jamie Vardy have recorded a similar distribution of goals between both feet in the Premier League over the last decade.

Rain in the South, Rain in the North

Despite the day starting off rather pleasant in the North-East, as we approached kick-off conditions deteriorated in an instant and the surface at the Stadium of Light quickly went from crisp to slick. After the negative effect the conditions had the week prior, Sunderland made a conscious effort to play their usual game without letting the weather impact them.

Within the opening exchanges it was quick to see the pace of the ball due to the slick playing surface and therefore passes were zipping about quicker than usual and touches a little looser than normal. Le Fée’s slightly overhit pass and Xhaka’s slightly loose touch would’ve presented a great chance to split the Bournemouth press on the five-minute mark but led to the total opposite.

Marc Senesi was able to capitalise on Xhaka’s error before playing a sweeping diagonal to isolate Semenyo 1 v 1 against Mukiele, only for the defender to slip and allow the winger to drive in a perfect ball to Evanilson. Roefs was able to make a fantastic fingertip save onto the post from an xG 0.56; however Amine Adli was quick to pounce on the rebound, 0-1.

Sunderland responded well with Le Fée able to drift in between Bournemouth’s double pivot to find Isidor; however in the blink of an eye a loose pass from Talbi saw Tyler Adams stride through the middle of the pitch and launch an audacious 0.03 xG effort from the centre circle straight over Roefs. Sunderland found themselves 0-2 and punished by two lapses in concentration.

Controlling Midfield

With changing shape back to a midfield trio, Sunderland were able to match Bournemouth in the middle third of the field when pressing and therefore provided both Talbi and Traoré with ample opportunities to attack the Bournemouth full-backs in isolated situations down the flanks without covering midfielders. Both wingers combined to make 5/11 successful dribbles including a 75% completion rate from Talbi. With the direct nature of Traoré’s runs he was able to help draw defensive attention and pinned Adrien Truffert from advancing into his natural attacking position as left-back for Bournemouth.

With neither of our midfield pivots wanting to risk taking a further yellow card, much of the defensive work was done by Le Fée who managed to finish with a 50% duel success rate including a wonderful recovery challenge to help create the penalty which he went on to convert. With the return of Alderete Sunderland were able to utilise his natural ability to drift on the left side of defence which in turn gave Reinildo the licence to overlap and cause problems going forward, which eventually led to him winning a penalty.

With the speed of the surface and poor visibility in the rain, short zipped ground passing became far more valuable to Sunderland. In stark contrast to Craven Cottage, Sunderland completed half as many long balls as their opponents (13 v 24) which was a third less than attempted on average by Sunderland this season.

Defensive Dominance

Despite finding themselves 0-2 down, Sunderland’s defenders will feel hard done by for the work they put in all afternoon. Nordi Mukiele was up against arguably the best winger in the league at the moment and shut him out entirely; Mukiele finished 8/10 from ground duels and 3/6 aerially whilst Semenyo was dispossessed twice and 0/2 for dribbles completed (albeit his one successful dribble nearly cost us!).

On the other flank Reinildo finished 5/9 from his ground duels whilst also making 8 recoveries and a pair of tackles. Dan Ballard was as industrious as ever in the air, winning 4/5 of his aerial duels against Evanilson, and Alderete also proved to be a thorn, winning 3/3 of his to ensure Sunderland remained resolute when defending in their set shape.

Special mention goes to Le Bris for his tactical decision to withdraw Traoré in favour of Trai Hume on the right wing in order to double up on Semenyo and prevent him from flashing any further balls across the box. Despite his instant yellow card, Hume finished 4/5 in overall duels and proved to be a useful outlet on the right to win headers and relieve pressure as we saw out the game.

SE Corner Corners

Sunderland were able to channel their inner play-off semi-final as the South Stand echoed out the Dan Ballard chant. Le Fée raised his arms and managed to plant the ball in almost the same spot from which Ballard scored, right onto the head of the onlooking Brian Brobbey who dispatched with ease. Brobbey did extremely well to direct the header on target and the 0.07 xG showed. Interestingly from this corner all attention was drawn to Ballard which left Brobbey isolated on the much smaller Adam Cook; the size mismatch when paired with the attacking threat of our other players makes a real dangerous mix from set-piece situations.

Double-Header

With two games against top opposition coming up this week, Sunderland will likely need to re-assess their system and probably turn to the tried-and-tested 5-4-1 system for games at Anfield and the Etihad. Liverpool might look like the most obvious game to take something from given their form, therefore we may see something more expansive in that game than on Saturday.

Manchester City have now scored 19 goals at home in the league this season in just seven home games, with a goal difference at home of +13; we’re expecting a tough afternoon on Saturday but once these games have passed we’ve got a full barometer of how we fare against the Premier League’s elite.