Minority Report 2020/21 V Luton Town

Unfortunately, I had problems with iFollow and I only saw the final 20 minutes (for which I had to pay £10 in spite of having a season ticket), just enough time to see Luton’s winner and Frieser’s missed chance, a free header, but not enough time to do much useful analysis. I have now seen the 9 minutes of EFL highlights as well


When I switched on, Ritzmaier, who presumably started at left wing back had already gone off. Callum Styles had moved from central midfield to replace him, and his replacement (Romal Palmer) was playing in central midfield. From the very limited highlights I have seen, Ritzmaier struggled with the left wing back position, both positionally and with the work load. Presumably, Struber wanted more strength at the centre of midfield because Luton were dominating us there and felt that Palmer gave him that. Dominik Frieser had replaced Elliot Simoes, who I guess was playing No10 and it looked like we had moved Woodrow back to No10 and Frieser was playing up front beside Chaplin. Later, Schmidt replaced Chaplin up front to give us our first all Austrian front line.


In my season preamble, I talked about what the Struber system struggles with, and deep/aggressive defending is one of those things. That is what Luton offered and from the brief bits of the game I have seen, I am drawn into comparisons with the Wigan home game last season. We were not able to impose our style on the game at all, and we were drawn into a scrappy encounter that was always going to be dominated by the physically stronger eleven, who played the game on the break. In the games that we did impose our style upon last season, our press was key. Teams that wanted to play football were frustrated because the press forced them into doing things that they were not comfortable with. The press began with the front two, but it worked because when they applied pressure to the man on the ball, his colleagues were all closely marked. Now admittedly, a highlights reel does not show much of the stuff that is working because it does not result in an opportunity to score, but it did not look like our press worked at all. Luton had too much time in their own final third, potential pass receivers were not forced to retreat in search of space, and our marking of potential pass receivers was consequently not as close. It all showed what a difficult thing it is to get the press to work well.


Of course, part of that was that the team has changed. Jacob Brown’s appetite for work was an essential ingredient to the successful press, and the combination of Woodrow and Chaplin up front did not work as well last season, and will not work as well this season. But there seemed to be another factor. Mads Andersen was caught out for the goal, and he was caught out in the same way for another Luton chance. Last season, he read the game very well, and that reading of the game often allowed him to be first to a ball. For the goal, he left his man (scorer Collins) in order to challenge the unmarked Mpanzu beyond the edge of the box. He got there second and consequently lost out on the challenge and the ball was headed on to Collins, and Collins scored, taking his chance very well. Sollbauer was not close enough to Collins, but in fairness, he was only covering that position from wider right because Andersen had been drawn forward. The principle fault was with Andersen. Now many will blame Andersen exclusively, but I ask the question, why was Andersen drawn forward to challenge the unmarked Mpanzu. The fact is that the whole thing came about as a result of a partially blocked clearance by Williams from wide left, and it was that partial block that caught us unprepared. First, a similar challenge to Andersen’s was lost by Ludewig for a first header, followed by Andersen’s lost challenge for a second. In other words, we competed poorly for two balls in the air losing both because we were caught unprepared, and those missed challenges left a man free. Now Luton are a big, and physically strong team, just like Stoke City were last season. Just the sort of team that we struggled with last season. We should not draw any hasty conclusions from yesterday’s events about the season to come, because that sort of team is in the minority in the Championship, but it did show Struber has not solved the problems his system faces against that sort of opposition.


Luton’s basic plan was to defend deep and hit us on the break. It is something that I talked about pre-match as being a problem for Struber’s system, and once again, so it was proved. We know that we have to get the ball forward quickly in those circumstances, but knowing it, and doing it are very different, especially without the pace that Brown gave us. The old problems were again in evidence. The lack of a proper No10 being the main one. We made only one chance during the 20 minutes I watched. Mowatt won the ball back in the final third, catching Luton poorly prepared. He crossed to Frieser on the far post. But Frieser does not look a natural header of the ball, and he wasted the chance. It was not the reaction of a natural goal scorer.


I have promised to look more at individual players this season, and that is significant early in the season because Brown has gone, and players were moved about in order to cover his loss. Two late injuries also robbed Struber of Oduor (who would have played at left wing back) and Halme (who would have been on the bench. The two major issues that I had with the team, even during our glorious escape at the end of last season were at No10 (the guy in the hole between midfield and forwards) and the front two and their inability to score enough goals. Frankly, the second problem is partly a result of the first. We do not create enough chances. Many on the BBS heap all the blame for the lack of goal scoring chances upon Mowatt, but in Struber’s system, Mowatt (along with his deep midfield companion) is deeper, and his main job is to read the game and direct play, both defensively and going forward. When Styles plays beside Mowatt, he too creates fewer chances on goal, which is, I suspect, partly why he was shifted yesterday. No the prime creative position in Struber’s system is the player who plays at No10, and both Simoes and Woodrow failed to impress there yesterday as they took turns to fill that role. Can the front two be faulted if they do not get the ball in potential goal scoring positions? Well, yes they can, because it is their movement that creates the opportunity for the No10 to pick them out. Unfortunately, movement off the ball is one of the things lost to TV coverage, because the camera always has the ball in the centre of the screen, so even if I had watched the whole game, I do not think that I would have had an answer. But even when I was present at games (before the lock down), I was not a fan of Woodrow and Chaplin as a combination. Many on the BBS call for a big man, and there is no doubt that both Woodrow and Chaplin would do better with a bigger partner, but there is also no doubt that the effectiveness of the press would suffer, and Struber is left trying to find a different way to play the game. However, that is already partly true because our main forward presser, Brown, has gone. The final two signings are going to be important ones in my view, and it will be vital that they are the right ones. It is certainly not something to rush into without proper consideration.