Since the analysis of Gabby’s goal at Blackpool was well received, I thought I’d repeat the task for the goals against Blackburn yesterday. This time the solid orange lines represent player movements without the ball, the dashed orange lines indicate movement with the ball (dribbling) and the blue lines show the path of the ball between players (passes).

Goal One: Build up to the penalty

With the opening goal coming from the spot, there’s obviously nothing to look at with the goal itself, but the build up to penalty was interesting.

It started with a throw-in on our left flank and it’s worth looking at the options Fabian Delph had after receiving the ball back from Ciaran Clark following his throw-in:

• He had Marc Albrighton just ahead of him; he could send in a right footed inswinger,
• Delph considered shaping a left footed outswinger himself briefly,
• but in the end elected to feed the ball back to Clark to shift the point of attack to the opposite wing.

Here you can see how Blackburn set themselves up to defend. Their back four were all lined up in the box occupied by Ash, Bent and Downing. The two wingers sat deep as auxiliary wing backs, practically forming a back six. The three central midfielders formed a protective barrier in front of the back line and Santa Cruz was the lone point man.

So the objective was to move the ball to Kyle Walker hugging the right touchline and it was shifted fairly quickly through Clark back to Reo-Coker who played it back to Dunne. Dunne played a nicely weighted ball just ahead of Robert Pires and he sent it on to Walker.

There are many things quality players do well, one is knowing what they want to do with the ball before they receive it. Walker’s first touch was the key that set this whole opportunity up. He didn’t trap and control the ball, he used his first touch to knock the ball into space behind Blackburn’s back line and chased up looking to get a cross in.

(In the diagram below I’ve shown Walker dribbling with the ball briefly before crossing, but it was actually just one touch to knock the ball into space and his second touch was the cross).

However, the reason he was able to do this was down to Stewart Downing’s movement off the ball during the build up. Downing had dropped deep as Pires took possession dragging a couple of defenders with him, leaving space behind.

At the same time, Ash had tracked the movement of the ball and looped around Darren Bent so, although Walker’s cross was intercepted before it got to Bent at the far post, Ash was already in position to take advantage of Blackburn’s failure to clear their lines.

Of course, Ash only got the chance to harass Keith Andrews out of possession through Blackburn’s own failure, but trace this passage back to the throw-in and consider the outcome had Albrighton or Delph simply sent a cross in.

In this case, a patient build up led directly to the opening goal which unlocked the game for us.

Goal Two: Marc Albrighton

No diagram necessary for this one, it was simple second phase ball at a corner and I’m not sure whether it was a cross or shot to be honest, but at the time it certainly useful to have a right footer in that position.

Goal Three: Stewart Downing

The third goal was the killer and something of a sucker punch coming just two minutes after the second and Blackburn tried in vain to get back into the game. A classic counter attacking goal.

Richard Dunne had been drawn out to Blackburn’s left to shut down Pedersen, although Kyle Walker was soon back to help out. Whether intentional or not, as Dunne blocked Pedersen’s attempt to create something the ball ended up with Robert Pires.

Pires dribbled out of danger looking up for a outlet and spotted Ash just ahead before slotting in a nicely weighted pass. Ash was immediately shut down, but quickly shifted the ball from one foot to the other and then perfectly into Stewart Downing’s path as he galloped up the wing.

Once Downing had the ball it was a two-on-one situation with Darren Bent giving Hanley a Hobson’s choice of closing down Downing, leaving Bent completely free in front of goal, or sticking with Bent, leaving Downing a free path to goal on his stronger left foot.

Eventually he went to Downing, but too late and the winger fired home perfectly. Bent’s run was perfect though, first to the near post, then to far post once the defender was committed.

Goal Four: Ashley Young

It’s not worth showing even token Blackburn players for this one, they were traffic cones and knew the game was over despite just grabbing a late goal themselves.

The move started with Brad Friedel who threw the ball out to Fabian Delph at left back. He dribbled briefly before sending the ball back infield to Nigel Reo-Coker who then passed it on to Stiliyan Petrov, on in place of Pires.

Petrov was closed down, but spotted Ash’s lateral run behind and made a simple pass into the space Ash was running to. He was immediately closed down, Ryan Nelsen darting forward to press I think, but Ash was already moving the ball out to Downing on the wing and yet again placed a perfectly weighted pass for the wide man to run on to.

This is where it gets comical. As Downing came into the box the Blackburn defense became pre-occupied with him and Darren Bent heading for the far post, completely ignoring Ash who literally strolled into the box unchallenged.

A simple pass and a deceptively good first time strike and it was 4-1. All too easy.

Although it wasn’t really a contributing factor during the build up to the penalty for the first goal, it remains a fact that Stewart Downing was on the right and Marc Albrighton was on the left for all four goals today. The second goal might be a bit of stretch since it was a corner and Downing took it, but again, it’s a fact that Downing was on the right, Albrighton was on the left.

The two wingers spent the first 30 minutes on the “right” flanks, but all of the remainder of the game on the “wrong” wings. Correlation does not imply causation and, once again, I can’t analyse goals that weren’t scored that might have been using the more orthodox system, but surely fans should be close to accepting that “inverted wingers” isn’t a bad tool to have in the box?