Solving Reading’s Problem With Playing Against Back Threes
The Royals don’t have a great record against stronger sides that use a back three, and Stockport County bolstered that trend by completing the double on Saturday.
Saturday was probably one of the bigger games of the season for us. The opportunity was there to put some clear daylight (with a game in hand) on then-seventh-placed Stockport County, and perhaps even catch up with Barnsley in fifth place - sitting a game ahead of us but with just the one extra point.
While Barnsley did their part, losing 3-1 to Bristol Rovers, we unfortunately suffered a defeat to Stockport by the same scoreline. Here’s the thing though: should we have expected this? There does seem to be a theme when it comes to us playing against sides who set up with three at the back, and that theme is us struggling against them.
I’ve done some digging on this, looking at our 25 league games so far. We’ve played teams with three central defenders 10 times this season (some of them twice, such as Charlton Athletic and Stockport) and picked up four wins, two draws and four losses. Two of those losses have been against the same team (Stockport).
It’s not the best record, but nor is it the worst. It seems, generally, we have enough to get over the line against teams further down the table than us, but against those we’re competing against in and around the play-off positions, we struggle to break them down.
Then you consider this: one of our two outstanding games is not only against high-flying Wrexham, but a high-flying Wrexham that plays – you guessed it – three at the back. When this is considered, despite the home advantage, it becomes a worry.
The question is: why do we struggle against those who play with an extra central defender? There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, Sam Smith is already quite isolated in our 4-3-3, and then coming up against an extra centre-back is really cutting off his supply chain. Similarly, our wide forwards are not helped by this, as they don’t have as much space to run into.
Also, not being able to consistently pick the same wide players due to injuries is probably not helping our attacking transitions, as different players coming into the wider roles more often means it becomes more difficult to build the understanding of when to move, when to overlap, when to run, when to cut inside, when to pass, when to cross and all of those attacking movements.
Lastly, with Harvey Knibbs/Charlie Savage/Ben Elliott being our two more attacking central midfielders of the three, they’re playing a more box-to-box role. Without a number 10 placed higher up the pitch to support Smith, the link between midfield and attack struggles.
There are two solutions here.
Firstly, we could explore the use of a 4-2-3-1, which this team has dabbled with during last season. It also helps get the nominal goal threat, running machine and aerial threat of Knibbs further up the pitch where he can do more damage to the opposition.
However, teams that often play three at the back will deploy a second striker. Typically, the best way to support the defence is to have an extra centre-back. However, in 4-2-3-1, we’d have two deeper-lying midfielders.
There’s an analogy that Rafa Benitez once used: it’s like having a blanket that’s too small. You can choose to either cover your feet or your head, but not both, meaning one becomes exposed. So having your midfield pivot sitting deeper could again stifle the creative, attacking transitions as the team look to break forward.
Alternatively, how about we fight fire with fire then? Why not go three at the back against such teams?
We have (transfer window nonsense pending) the personnel to do it. Abraham Kanu or Jeriel Dorsett can play on the left of the back three, Tyler Bindon or Harlee Dean centrally, Amadou Mbengue or Louie Holzman to the right. Possibly even Holzman could play centrally with his passing range, and Michael Craig could take up a position on the right.
From there, we would have width provided to us by the likes of Chem Campell on the right and Andre Garcia on the left, with Ashqar Ahmed, Mamadi Camara, Adrian Akande and Kelvin Abrefa all offering options for cover.
This could help remove the risk of seeing those balls played behind the last man on the left, which we often get exposed by, with having a defender such as Dorsett or Kanu stationed in that space to sweep up the attacks and progress the ball forward again.
The other interesting thing is that this formation would see Lewis Wing push further forward, with less defensive responsibility and the ability to influence the attacking proceedings more often.
Lastly, Smith could get more support with a second striker. Someone like Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan would thrive in a pair: offering aerial threat, but also the fact that he’s right-footed and Smith left-footed means they will have the ability to rotate the roles to either push wider of the box to allow runs form midfield, or receive the ball and cut inside to shoot. Jayden Wareham, you’d imagine, could thrive in a strike duo as well.
I know we’ve developed a style and identity for some time with the 4-3-3, and I’m not advocating we rip it all up and start again. However, we need to look at the squad we have and put more round pegs in round holes when we are coming up against stronger sides who play a back three.
As well as this, I’d also say that teams are more fluid with their shape during games these days. Just because we could set up as a 3-4-1-2, or something to that effect, doesn’t mean we stay in that shape all through the game.
Sitting off the ball, we could see the team drop to a back five, or even back to a 4-3-3, to plug the gaps and set themselves up to win the ball back and break quickly. If they’re sitting back, the wing-backs would drop deeper, and perhaps we would become more of a 5-3-2 or 5-4-1.
Shape is malleable through the game as we seek to stymy the threats of the opposition and exploit their weaknesses using our strengths. With this in mind, I’d like to see us trial a 3-4-1-2 against teams such as Bolton Wanderers and Huddersfield Town, who we will face in upcoming games and we know will prove to a challenge. Indeed, the same for the Wrexham game, whenever that will be.
We’ve seen Noel Hunt demonstrate some tactical flexibility with his in-game management to see games out with an extra centre-back. We wouldn’t be jumping into this completely cold, and this could be what we need to help us pick up those valuable points to keep us competitive.