As the old axiom goes – attack wins you games, defence wins you titles. Those words were spoken by legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, and they have proven to be true on countless occasions. A robust defence can also provide form balance to a not-so-impressive attacking output – a description that fits all too well for West Bromwich Albion, who are currently fifth in the EFL Championship with 12 games remaining in the regular season.
The Baggies’ best asset this season has been their ability to keep clean sheets – of their 16 wins this campaign, 12 of them have featured a clean sheet for Carlos Corberán, with his side collecting an impressive 15 clean sheets in total in league competition this season. Their attacking output has failed to live up to the same standards – 49 goals is not woeful, but it is the worst goal return in the current top six, and a few teams in the bottom half of the table have bettered it.
This scout report will provide a tactical analysis of the defensive set-up at West Brom – shedding some light on the tactics used by Corberán when his side doesn’t have the ball. After all, it could be the difference-maker if the Baggies are to make a sensational return to the Premier League. The analysis will utilise key data to provide insight into their defensive performance, accompanied by game examples.
Formation & defensive personnel
As you can see, 4-4-2 has been the prominent formation for the Baggies this season, with Corberán looking to use his side’s defensive attributes as a catalyst to improve on last season’s ninth-place finish. 4-4-2, a shape seen less and less each year, it seems, can provide a strong balance, tactically speaking, while also allowing for fluidity between the thirds. Corberán has also turned to 4-2-3-1 in some games – the fundamentals generally remain the same; it’s just a matter of positional presence.
The defensive tactics utilised by WBA require good unit cohesion as they look to cut off passing lines and block potential access points, which is why they rank surprisingly low in certain defensive metrics that relate to individual actions, like defensive duels. That unit cohesion requires good tactical understanding from each player as well as a range of other psychological attributes to consistently contribute in line with the club’s tactical philosophy. Interestingly, West Brom have the second-oldest team in the Championship with an average age of 27.9 – perhaps an important contributing factor to the cohesion and tactical understanding due to player experience.
In terms of personnel, West Bromwich Albion have been fairly consistent, avoiding the need to chop and change their lineup game-by-game, particularly at the back. Darnell Furlong and Conor Townsend have been the regular full-backs (aged 28 and 30, respectively). At the same time, the two CBs have consisted largely of Cédric Kipré and Kyle Bartley – Erik Pieters and Semi Ajayi have been the two coming in to freshen things up when required.
Goalkeeper Alex Palmer has stepped up nicely, becoming the Baggies’ number one between the sticks this season, having played in half of their games last season. The decision to place the faith in Palmers is one that you can’t really argue with – West Brom’s defensive work mean they concede a low shot & xG average, but as you can see from his save rate percentage when called upon, Palmer is more than reliable.
The mid-block
West Brom are far from a high-intensity team in terms of how they approach things off the ball – a PPDA of 13.3 (ranking slightly higher than the league average) and a challenge intensity of 4.6 (lowest in the Championship) tells us they don’t go full guns blazing in search of winning possession. Instead, they show patience. And a good tactical awareness of where and when to up the intensity to squeeze the space and force a mistake from the opposition.
There are a few interesting notes to take away from the above image. Firstly, we can see that the bulk of defensive action takes place in deep midfield regions, with a fair amount of activity taking place in wide areas too.
Another element of Corberán’s defensive philosophy is discipline, both tactically and technically. Notice how the Baggies have not made a single foul inside the box all season, with just one foul outside the box in what could be considered shooting range for the opposition. This is a trait that should not be overlooked as they are not giving away cheap free-kicks or penalties, which afford the opponent a free chance on goal.
In fact, Corberán’s side are one of the most disciplined in the entire EFL – they average just 7.32 fouls per 90: the lowest register in the Championship.
As mentioned, West Brom aren’t the most aggressive team, but they are also far from docile, despite what the data may suggest. The visual above compares WBA’s work in high regains against that of Stoke City – the team that averages a higher challenge intensity (joint with Preston North End) and lower PPDA than anyone else in the league. The idea here is to give you an idea of the difference between the league’s most aggressive team and one of the least aggressive teams (according to data).
Counterpressing is not something you will see as often from the Baggies. Still, as you can see, they have a tendency to execute this skill in wide areas and attacking midfield zones – picking the right moment to try and swing a counterpressing move is key and something Corberán has instilled into his players very well.
Here, we see what West Bromwich Albion typically look like when facing opposition possession – a mid-block approach. Notice the space between all three units – the defence has not sunk into a low line, while the midfield unit remains particularly close to the front two, with the wingers tucking in slightly. Blocking the opportunity to play through the middle is important to the Baggies, largely because teams often opt for an audacious long-ball forward when they can’t play their way through the thirds.
And when it comes to defending long balls, WBA are well-equipped. They boast an aerial win percentage of 50.7% – the highest in the division, making them favourites to deal with the long ball forward.
The yellow lines indicate the action from the CF or RM of West Brom should the opposition had passed the ball to one of those two defenders, which links into one of the Baggies’ pressing triggers – lateral passing. If the opposition slow the pace down and show hesitation going forward, the Baggies aren’t afraid to step up the intensity from the front.
And that’s what we see in this image. With the opposition seemingly in no rush to get forward, and showing reluctance to play long, WBA sense the chance to hunt them down. The front two and midfield unit seem to act in unison in these moments – the CFs pressing the opposition CBs while the Baggies midfielders step up to squeeze the space but also man-mark any passing options. Again, this is aimed at forcing the opponent into going long, or into making a mistake.
Like we said, for Corberán, it’s also about knowing when to press and when to retreat. The opposition central midfielder dropped in to effectively form a back three, giving the opposition more width higher up the pitch as the full-backs now had the chance to push on. Pressing here would be a highly risky move for West Brom – if the opponents beat the initial press, they could bypass the midfield unit quickly. Instead, we tend to see them regroup and take up that mid-block shape once again.
Defending the box
West Bromwich Albion’s patient and guarded approach when it comes to pressing serves them well when the time comes to defend the box. They carry similar fundamentals into the task of defending in these areas in terms of pressing in the right moment and ensuring any potentially dangerous access points and passing lines are cut off. Additionally, as this segment of analysis will highlight, the Baggies have a real knack for defensive recovery – getting bodies back quickly to form a strong unit in key moments.
As we touched upon earlier, West Brom simply don’t afford the opposition much in the way of goalscoring opportunities. By breaking down the data, we get a stronger idea of just how impressive their defensive output has been. 15 clean sheets so far, which is the highest in the league (joint with Leeds), is phenomenal. At this point in the season, that proves that Corberán is leaning into the team’s defensive ability.
They’ve faced an xG of 37.16 this season – the second-lowest register in the Championship, proving that the Baggies defend the box well on a consistent basis and rarely give up good chances on goal. They also face a low shot average, with keeper Alex Palmer facing 8.84 shots per 90 – the third lowest in the division. West Brom have shipped 32 goals this season, 0.85 per 90 – only Leeds and Leicester have better records in both metrics. A credit to the tactics deployed by Corberán and how the players have bought into them.
When it comes to defending the box, West Brom look to work as a unit rather than getting into 1v1 situations. This is evidenced in the graph above. While their four CBs all rank among the best in the league for winning defensive duels, they, along with the two full-backs, have a low engagement with defensive duels. Overall, West Brom average the lowest number of defensive duels per 90 (47.49), but boast the league’s fourth-best defensive duels win rate (63%).
Now, this isn’t a negative thing, as Corberán’s defensive tactics are clearly working. The point here is that West Brom look to form a strong unit presence in the box to avoid those 1v1 situations, instead looking to force the opponent into taking an unlikely shot or giving the ball away by other means.
Earlier, we touched on West Brom’s ability when it comes to defensive recovery. The image above shows that – it didn’t even require much annotation as the transformation in presence is so clear all on its own! But how do they do it? Well, they are always looking to fill the box, particularly central areas when the opposition reaches the final third, and in transition moments such as this one, they simply do that in a quicker fashion, prioritising surrounding the ball.
Above, they eliminated the overload on that right flank inside the box and ultimately forced the opposition backwards, by which point the defensive presence was ready to face the attack. The defence became more compact, with important assistance being provided in central midfield in front of the back four, forcing a desperate shot from the opponent.
That heavy box presence is an ongoing occurrence for West Brom. And no, it’s not “parking the bus”, as they only adopt this numerical presence once the opponent reaches the final third – as we saw earlier, the mid-block is the go-to defensive set-up further up the pitch.
This attack started with the Leeds player on the ball being in a wide position, but the wall of West Brom shirts in front of him caused him to cut inside, and while he showed good pace to do so, there was still no clear way through once he got into a central position. Like before, the backline looks compact yet remains close to the midfield unit, which looks to swarm the ball and mark any immediate passing options.
Conclusion
Low engagement in terms of duels yet one of the Championship’s best defensive records – a credit to the tactical work done on unit cohesion on the training pitch by Carlos Corberán and his team. The Baggies’ defensive output is keeping them in the playoff mix and could continue to do so until the curtain falls on the season. Of course, Corberán would love to see an improvement in attack but he will be immensely pleased with the defensive work done over the course of the season by his men. Should West Bromwich Albion reach the play-offs, being strong defensively could be just the advantage they need to overcome the two-legged semi-final and the Wembley final itself.
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