JDT VS POHANG: AN ANALYSIS
JDT VS POH MATCH ANALYSIS
Group G’s fourth game is a replay of the third game, which may cause some viewers to experience a sense of deja-vu. Korea’s Pohang Steelers FC faces off yet again with Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’zim, with the former delivering 4-1 drubbing, albeit with a bit (3 penalties worth) of luck. Can Malaysia’s champions overturn the deficit from the last game and earn their second victory? Or will Pohang steel (pardon the pun) victory from them?
Fourth game: Johor Darul Ta’zim vs Pohang Steelers FC
Scorers
JDT:
POH: Lee Seung Mo (33’) , Kang Sang Woo (37’)
Formation:
JDT: 4-3-3
POH: 4-2-3-1
JDT lining up defensively as POH kicks the game off. POH are starting as their usual 4-2-3-1, while JDT revert to their original 4-3-3 formation. Corbin Ong, Aidil Zafuan and Safawi Rasid were reintroduced back into the starting XI. This time, however, Leandro Velazquez is out of the squad and Afiq Fazail lines up next to Safiq Rahim, and in front of Natxo Insa. The rest of the starting team lines up the same as their previous clash.
Compared to their previous game, POH pressed higher up the pitch. This unsettled the JDT backline as they weren’t allowed to build from the back as previously mentioned, thus forced to play long balls. This contributed to the fact that POH was able to secure 53% of possession compared to the 43% of JDT* - which was a reversal of their previous tie.
If they were not pressing the ball at the particular play, POH’s defensive organization went back to their normal midfield ‘box’ shape. This help to cut off the middle for to ensure that the trio of Natxo, Afiq and Safiq could not dictate play from the middle as much as they did towards the second half of the previous game.
Additionally, once the ball went out wide POH cut off the passing lanes. As the picture illustrates, there was no easy pass on for Matthew, with the winger closing him down, one DM closing down Safawi, the other DM closing down Bergson and the ST closing down the nearest JDT CB. While the AM was sitting in deeper, this meant that even if Matthew was able to play the pass to Shane (white arrow) the shape could fluidly transition over to the other side of the pitch, and even covered the the passing lane to Afiq (white circle).
JDT, decided tactically to do the opposite of what happened in the previous game. Whereas the last game Bergson and one other midfielder would go forward to press the CB when they received the ball, they did not do that for this game. Instead, they opted to allow the POH CBs to play and try to press the DMs when they received the ball.
Here, is the key pass that ultimately led to the POH goal. While Natxo and Safiq pushed up to press the POH midfielders, Safiq lost the man he needed to mark. In transition as the POH defender clears the ball, the unmarked midfielder (black circle) receives a one touch layoff from the forward, who then is able to pick out a through pass for the on-rushing winger. This is the point where, had the marking been tighter from JDT, it could have possibly stopped the goal scoring opportunity. After this point, the POH winger did well in attracting the attentions of both Aidil and Matthew then passing to the forward who put the ball into the roof of the net in a 1 v 1 situation while Shane was too slow to catch up to the forward.
This is the second goal for POH, where a combination of quick passing, movement and composed finishing doubled their lead. The POH captain (black circle) was allowed to run forward from the left flank by Safiq onto his favored right foot (he played RB last game and started as LB this game). Then, he plays a quick one-two with the forward, who lobs the ball in between Aidil and Shane for the LB who has continued his run unmarked into the penalty area, where he coolly slots the ball into the bottom far post. Great play by the Korean side, but poor defending by JDT to allow the POH captain to score. Shane is sucked into the play, where he could have passed on the man onto the midfielder and dropped a couple of yards, the LB dribbled the ball down the flank and into the half space un-challenged, then ran behind without any JDT defenders tracking the run until it’s too late.
Throw-ins are an important part of football. As a set piece, the marking during throw-ins is vital to ensure that the opponents are not allowed to resume play without pressure. Here, JDT fail to mark the player receiving the ball from the throw on several occasions, with some examples given above. In the picture labelled with a 2 at the top left-hand side, this failure lead to POH scoring a goal, their second of the game.
In the second half, to try and attack with more numbers JDT moved to a 2-3-5 formation in possession. This pushed the FBs wide and pushed the wingers into the middle and forced the POH midfield back and forcing them to get players to ensure they are not overrun. However, JDT did not take advantage of this as their players refused to switch play from one side to the other, either due to tactical instructions or lack of confidence, but this blunted the JDT attack.
In 16 minutes played, Syamer Kutty managed to put a band-aid on the larger issue addressed at the previous point. For a late substitute, Syamer was able to put the same number of long balls as Natxo (3) who played 74 minutes, while having more long balls attempted than Safiq and Afiq (both one) and the highest number of accurate long passes (2). As POH are a defensively disciplined side, JDT needed more switches of play in order to catch the POH defense off-guard and to create more chances. JDT were only able to create 3 chances created compared to the 12 by POH.
As the second half began, POH were in complete control of the game. The Korean squad was happy to play in their own half and build slowly as they knew that JDT weren’t going to press them as heavily as the previous game, as evidenced by the 284 out of 408 total passes from POH being done in their own half. JDT did try to press POH in their half and force the issue in the last 5 minutes of the game, but it was too little too late. Once they moved the ball forward into the middle third, they were quick to play a switch from one side to another to attack the JDT penalty area.
Overall: JDT were tactically, technically, and physically outclassed against POH. They were pushed and pulled to the whims of their opponents and didn’t really look like ever threatening to score. Had POH been more clinical in front of goal, it could have been a bigger score-line. The gulf in quality between the two teams were was in stark contrast to the first game, where it was a tighter affair. JDT have a lot of work to be done for the next season if they qualify for the AFC Champions League, as they are mathematically out for the next stage of the competition.
However, that is not to say that they cannot close the gap on the competition. They will need to improve a lot more, especially defensively, if they want to be competitive within the AFC Champions League. In any case, they still have two more matches left to play. Lets hope they can earn points against both Nagoya Grampus and Ratchaburi FC to finish the group stage with a decent points total.
*All statistics used in this article were taken from FotMob