Southampton FC Tactical Analysis
“If you want Guarantee’s you should buy a washing machine. There are no guarantee’s in football anymore”. Ralph Hasenhuttl famously ushered these words in his unveiling press conference in the December of 2018. Despite Hasenhuttl’s philosophical views on football, it seems like the guarantee of the Premier League so far this term is the enjoyment that comes from watching Southampton play.
Born in Graz in August of 1967, Hasenhuttl had a relatively subdue playing career, an insinuation the Austrian is happy to confide in when asked about his experiences in playing professional football. A big target man in his day, he played for Grazer AK, Austria Wien and Austria Salzburg in his homeland, before moving on to play for Mechelen and Lierse in Belgium. He finished his career playing in Germany for FC Köln and Gruether Fürth before playing his last games in Bavaria for Bayern Munich !!.
The Austrian has enjoyed a more illustrious career in management. Plying his trade at SpVgg Unterhaching, VfR Aalen and FC Ingoldstadt 04. His arguably biggest role in management came at RB Liepzig, where he took over from Ralf Rangnick and led the club to second in the Bundesliga in their first season in the top flight of Germany. Now Hasenhuttl finds himself on the South coast of England, and we explore how he has returned the feel-good factor to The Saints.
Set-up
Hasenhuttl organises The Saints in a 4-2-2-2 formation, a variant of the more traditional 4-4-2. The main difference from the traditional 4-4-2 is that the wider midfielders, usually Stuart Armstrong and one of Nathan Redmond or Moussa Djenepo operate more centrally, in and around the half spaces rather than staying high and wide, especially when in possession. This in turn, allows the full-backs Ryan Bertrand and summer acquisition Kyle Walker-Peters to offer the width in the team.
The strike partnership of Danny Ings and Che Adams has been a fruitful one with the combination offering the Saints 9 goals already this term as well as four assists. However, it is also Adams and Ings’ work rate that is just as impressive, with the duo setting the tempo to initiate Southampton’s impressive pressing strategy, with both high-octane energy as well as situational intelligence to be aware of various triggers.
A midfield two combination is becoming more uncommon with teams favouring midfield superiority with a three-man central midfield. In this system, James Ward-Prowse operates as a box-to-box midfield eight, with Oriol Romeu deployed as a six, and the destroyer in the middle of the park.
At the heart of the defence Jan Bednarek a typically no-nonsense centre-half partners a more progressive passer in Jannik Vestergaard, having amassed 25 passes into the final third already this season.
Alex McCarthy has been a mainstay in the Southampton team and despite turning 30 has adapted his game to become more of a sweeper-keeper, a necessary role behind a back-line that operates high-up the pitch.
Defensive Organisation
Arguably the biggest improvement from The Saints since Hasenhuttl joined the club has been the way the team has defended. A common term used nowadays originating in Germany is ‘Gegenpressing’ which is Counter-Pressing when translated into English. Jürgen Klopp, arguably the biggest advocate of this defensive mechanism explained that it is a ploy with the aim of winning the ball back closer to the opposition goal. Hasenhuttl, like other coaches who favour a pressing style interpret their own ideas of counter-pressing. Hasenhuttl once insinuated that the best Number 10 is the player that wins the ball back high up the pitch.
As previously mentioned, Southampton operate in a 4-2-2-2 which reverts to a 4-4-2 when out of possession. Initially Southampton press extremely high up the pitch, which led to Che Adams’ goal vs Newcastle (Pictured below) after intense pressing from Theo Walcott and Kyle Walker-Peters.
Any team can go out and press, however few do it efficiently. Hasenhuttl has instilled more defensive intelligence high up the pitch with various pressing triggers. As shown above, the body shape of the of the opposition player receiving the ball denotes whether a press can be initiated.
Kyle Walker-Peters intelligence has been well noted by frequent viewers of Southampton, with Walker-Peters acknowledging Almiron receiving the ball with his back to the Southampton players, as such the right-back covers the distance to initiate the press, with Walcott acting off of this to swarm Almiron to recover the ball back high up the pitch, before assisting for Adams’ goal, a perfect example of Hasenhuttl’s pressing system.
Aside from other Hasenhuttl pressing triggers such as the quality of pass to an opposition pass, as well as the aim of stopping the supply to a creative opposition player. When pressing, Hasenhuttl drills his players to press in specific patterns all with the aim of winning the ball back.
One noticeable factor from a Hasenhuttl press is his desire for his forwards to dictate the play of the opposition. Depending on which centre-half has the ball, one of Che Adams or Danny Ings, or Theo Walcott, as shown against Newcastle, applies pressure to the centre half to stop the ball coming in field, instead Southampton applies pressure to funnel the ball to the opposition full-back.
As a result, one of the wide midfielders is able to press the player whilst using the touchline as another defender. The effect of this is that possession can be turned over as a result of a fault from the opposition player as a direct consequence of the press, or it is likely that the player receiving the ball will be forced to play backwards, thus not penetrating through the defensive block. (Pictured Below)
Despite being often expansive when defending from the front, Southampton have shown that once the initial line of engagement has been broken, they can remain compact in a mid-block, cutting the supply line to the final third, again aiming to dictate the play into wider areas to be able to use the touchline as an extra defender.
Despite often being numerically outnumbered in midfield by teams favouring a three-man central midfield partnership, Hasenhuttl seeks to combat this by narrowing his wider midfielders, to create somewhat of a box to suffocate the opposition, with the aim of retaining the ball and recycling it either to the centre halves to start the attack from deep, or to one of the full-backs to exploit the space left open by the narrowing of the wider midfielders. The picture below shows the narrowness created by this ploy, and a numerical advantage for Southampton in the immediate area surrounding the ball.
Building the Attack
Arguably just as impressive as the turnaround in the defensive phase of Southampton’s play, the attacking phase has improved dramatically, especially since Hasenhuttl reverted to his favoured 4-2-2-2 from the 5-3-2 he implemented at the start of his tenure.
Southampton have started building their attacks from deep more, with an emphasis on more possession football. Vestergaard’s inclusion into the squad has aided Hasenhuttl’s desire to start attacks from deep more, with the Dane’s ability to progress the ball into midfield, or further up the pitch by playing a diagonal ball to one of the full-backs high up the pitch, which allows Southampton to beat the initial line of engagement and take opposition players out of the game as pictured below.
Higher up the pitch, Hasenhuttl highlights the importance of players operating in the ‘Red Zone’. The ‘Red Zone’ or the hole, is the zone in front of the opposition back four. The importance of players operating in the ‘Red Zone’ especially for Hasenhuttl is evident, it can leave the opposition defenders in hesitation about whether to pressure the attacking player in possession of the ball, or drop back even deeper, offering more space to be exploited.
So far this season, The likes of Danny Ings, Stuart Armstrong and one of Moussa Djenepo and Nathan Redmond have been the prominent figures of the ‘Red Zone’. Theo Walcott replaced the injured Danny Ings against Newcastle, and left Hasenhuttl impressed with the forwards influence in the game.
The below picture shows Theo Walcott operating in the ‘Red Zone’ alongside Stuart Armstrong who vacates a wider area to seek the ball behind the midfield line. Having a numerical superiority in this ‘Red-zone’ allows the option for intricate passes behind the defensive line for sharp players such as Che Adams to latch onto, a quality that Stuart Armstrong offers.
Alternatively, the wider midfield players in Hasenhuttl’s system drop into deeper spaces to receive the ball to penetrate into the red zone through a dribble as opposed to a pass. The shots below demonstrate the positions that the wider midfielders take up when dropping deep.
What’s to come?
Southampton have, at least from the outside been the surprise package of the season so far. It cannot, however, be by chance that Southampton find themselves in the top four going into the November international break. Hasenhuttl has made it known that although Southampton cannot invest a lot of money, they can invest a lot in themselves through hard work and dedication.
Hasenhuttl’s demanding training regime has allowed Southampton players to be physically fit to play in Hasenhuttl’s self-proclaimed ‘demanding’ style. Hasenhuttl’s tactical nous has also returned the feel-good factor back to the south-coast not seen since the days of Ronald Koeman, and more similarly, Mauricio Pochettino. Despite it being unlikely that Saints will remain towards to the summit of the league, especially given the lack of strength in depth, Saints fans will be hoping for continued progress with Hasenhuttl at the helm.
Analysis by Russell Pope.