Ipswich vs MK Dons match analysis— The importance of pressing & the growing influence of our left side:
After 3 games into the season, Ipswich are top of League One & set out their first big marker of the season with a 3–0 win over last seasons 3rd placed team MK Dons.
This was achieved through a fantastic pressing display against a side who looked to play out at pretty much every occasion.
MK Dons build up shape:
Due to our dominance, MK mostly played out from the back from goal kicks/when their GK collected the ball. To begin with, they setup as below; with the two CB’s either side of Cumming in goal. The FB’s were high & on the touchline to stretch our shape & create space inside, Johnson & Robson then lined up as a pivot centrally but both played on different lines vertically.
Ipswich adopted a man to man approach like they normally do when pressing but gifted the opposition space initially to invite them to play out into areas Ipswich would then press. You can see the speed & intensity at which Ipswich do this with the closing down of each man.
Harness initially stood in between the RB & RCB to block the pass to the RB but was quickly responsible for pressing O’Hora when play started, Ladapo pressed Tucker, Davis on Oyegoke & Burns on Lewington. Chaplin played more of a covering role where he would alternate between marking Robson & Johnson depending on what side the ball was on & he generally looked to mark passes back inside rather than directly press.
This pressing shape from Ipswich was extremely aggressive & had the potential to cause problems if the press was broken.
As you can see below, it was almost a 4v4 at the back if Davis was caught high pressing Oyegoke. However the intensity of our press was incredible throughout the game & to restrict the amount the ball went into forward areas & when it did — the recovery pace & high line defending of Edmundson, Woolfenden & Donacien was top notch. Credit to Evans & Morsy in the middle who stopped potential attacks & swept up loose balls numerous times to help us pile on the pressure.
Once again you can see the aggressiveness of our approach defensively with Edmundson stepping up with the RW, Grant to win the ball.
Earlier I spoke about how the intensity of our press & good defending when the ball went through our press kept the ball pinned in MK’s half.
Attached below is where MK attempted their passes during the game, look at how little is in our half & how much is in their own final 3rd, in particular their own box.
Ipswich’s build up shapes:
Now a look at how Ipswich built up play & how the differing approach from MK, as well as different profiles of players, impacted the game.
Within the first 12 seconds of the game you could see the differing shapes of either side — a back 3 for us in build up, Evans as the single pivot with Morsy just ahead but would drop in when needed. Davis took up a high position on the left flank compared to the deeper position he’s taken up in recent games.
MK’s off the ball shape differed between a 4231 & a 4222 & was very narrow, they looked to position themselves to mark space rather than players & block passes into central players. This created the space for us in build up to be in wider positions, either side of the MK Dons first line. This made lining up in a back 3 make sense as we could stretch our outside CB’s into the space.
Due to the high positions of Davis & Burns & the need for a back 3 in build up, we couldn’t really make use of the space either side of the MK midfield.
To fix this McKenna used a number of different strategies to then progress the ball into wide areas:
Chaplin started to drift wide right to pick up the ball in space (hard to see because of shade) with Burns occupying Lewington & then look to link play inside to Burns. The MK midfield weren’t bothered with this movement & instead stayed central leaving Chaplin 1v1 with Louie Barry, who isn’t the greatest of defenders it must be said..
As well as exploiting the space wide we also needed to get our better players on the ball more, Evans is a wonderful passer of the ball & due to MK’s approach of marking central space it was hard for him to get on the ball n build up initially. To cope with this, he started dropping deep to make a back 3 with Donacien then pushing on into the space wider. This allowed him to dictate the game more & play those switches to the underloaded left hand side.
This caused the first line of the MK Dons to press leaving central space for Morsy to receive the ball with loads of time, either directly through passes from Evans or from Donacien when the ball was moved wide.
The pressure MK Dons applied on the ball throughout the game was very poor & they weren’t all aligned on the same wavelength but part of this is cause of the threats Ipswich have in all areas of the pitch. When the first line pressed it wasn’t backed up the central midfielders because they were too focussed on blocking the space for our 10’s to pick up the ball & the CM’s stepped up they weren’t backed up by the backline because they were too wary of the threat in behind of Ladapo & Burns.
When MK were coordinated with their pressing we simply played through it; the confidence we have to build out is higher than MK’s & we have a lot more players that are able to take players on & twist out of tight spaces which MK just don’t have. The intensity of our players’s pressing was a step up above as well, MK really lacking legs in midfield.
Post Game Graphics —
Passmaps -
- you can see how Donacien’s starting position shifted with him playing slightly deeper & more narrow
- Burns with not much of an impact in the final 3rd but his movement & linkup created the space for Donacien & Chaplin to get into dangerous areas
- Davis much more involved in the final 3rd
Ipswich’s ball progression -
- progression generally coming from central areas which shows how poor MK were in the first phase
- looked to move it wide, one hotspot was on the right wing just inside MK’s half. This was because of their narrow shape & Burns’ movement
- we looked to get the ball high up when on the left & get Davis & Harness running into space, you can see the switches that Evans plays to the left side when looking at the pass map (2nd darkest blue) — these switches generally came after play on the right side leading to space on the left
Ipswich in the final 3rd -
- Davis with some good impact in the final 3rd — the most box entries on the pitch, he also done this from higher areas as well as deeper crosses
- Morsy & Evans clear at the top with the amount of entries into the final 3rd — once again showing how poor MK were & how we worked around their shape to exploit it
Ipswich’s defensive actions -
- despite having much more of the ball, Ipswich had a lot more defensive actions & done them higher up the pitch than MK
- Ipswich attempted 7 defensive actions in the final 3rd, completing 6 of them
