Sacramento at New Mexico: Tactical Analysis - Welcome Back, Full Press

08/30: Sacramento’s line up, the good, the bad, and what stood out

The Lineup:

The full press has made its return, after two matches of Republic playing a low block, and it came back with an emphatic victory. After a busy week of travel and three games in eight days, Republic finally had a week between matches before jetting off to New Mexico on more well-rested legs. And those well-rested legs showed out: a 2-0 win, where Republic pressed the entire game.

Collins made a few adjustments to the starting XI this week - none a bigger surprise than the start of Rayan Djedje, making his first ever league start for the club after signing this off-season. In the midfield, that 3 man rotation of Roro/Ross/Willey continued, with Roro and Ross getting the nods this evening after Willey played all 270+ minutes of the previous three game stretch. Bennett also got the nod up top, which led to his first brace for the club—and could cement his place in the starting XI.

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The average positioning for the boys in Old Glory Red also went back to a much more familiar look:

That’s much more what we’re used to seeing than the low-block we saw last week. Republic is back to having 5+ players in the oppositions half, despite having less than 40% of the possession, and Kleemann is back to playing as the deepest player back, instead of the full backs dropping in deeper than they should.

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The Good:

Full Press - Effective on Defense
What is so effective about Republic high press is that, when they do it right, it fuels their offense while also stabilizing their defense. The Quails completely neutralized the New Mexico attack: they had zero shots on target, only one shot total from inside the box, and were able to accumulate an xG of only 0.11. And all of this despite New Mexico holding the majority of the possession. Look at New Mexico’s attack map:

The vast majority of New Mexico’s possession is in the center and defensive thirds of the field, and all of that possession doesn’t mean anything when they can’t get the ball forward with regularity.

To see how that high press drives the defense, let’s look at an example in the 50th minute. Right before this image, Republic had pressed hard into New Mexico’s midfield, forcing them to cycle the ball back deep into their own half—and Republic pounces on this by charging up field. Any of the close options to release this pressure for New Mexico are covered up and, on the far side of the pitch, Cicerone and Roro are pressing high enough to make any attempt to switch the ball dangerous, especially in New Mexico’s own third:

Now New Mexico do eventually dribble themselves out of this. But, because most of New Mexico’s offense has had to drop back to help the backline get out of the press, they lose their ability to play a counterattack—all of Sacramento’s players can just drop back with the New Mexico player they’re marking, and the defense doesn’t get overwhelmed by numbers.

Republic received their ninth USL-Championship clean sheet tonight, now the best in the league. Games like this one, where Vitiello didn’t need to make a single save, show how important the defense is to that number.

Full Press - Effective on Offense
On the attacking end of things, how do Republic then score despite only having 39.6% of the possession? The answer is still the full press! Because they push so many numbers forward, when Sacramento does get the ball it’s much more likely to be in the opposing third of the field. Here is Sacramento’s attacking map:

Other than a decent number of touches in the central defensive third, which are largely from goal kicks and defensive clearances, Republic are mostly operating in the middle and opposing thirds of the field, with an emphasis on the wings (specifically, the right wing). In fact, despite controlling just under 40% of possession, Republic outnumbered New Mexico in touches in the opposition's box (17 to 8), passes in the final third (104 to 92), and final third entries (58 to 50).

What causes those goals is, usually, turnovers. I’ve taken to calling them “six second goals”—that is, from turnover to the ball in the net, Republic usually score within six seconds for the majority of their goals this season. Bennett’s second goal is a great example of this. Count the time from Republic gaining possession to the ball in the net:

Really, this is more like 4.5 seconds, but you can really see how the press leads to these goals. The Quails are flying around the pitch, chasing every New Mexico player in their own half, until they force a mistake. And once that mistake is made, Republic’s numbers are already right there to punish the mistake. It takes a great heads up play from Benítez to know where Bennett is, and Bennett does an excellent job anticipating the turn over and staying onside. Watch for these types of goals going forward—they’ve become a staple of the Republic offense this season.

Regularly Shooting on Target
Early in the season, Republic struggled to hit the target. They had one of the worst on-target percentages in the league, and relied on quantity over quality to try and score.

Oh my, how things have changed. About two months ago, Collins made a noticeable and deliberate shift away from quantity and moved to quality. Republic’s shot on target rate has slowly risen ever since then, but tonight was a perfect example of where Collins wants that number to be. As a team, Republic had six of nine shots on target—of the three shots that weren’t on target, two of them were blocked by the New Mexico defense. This is a trend that Republic will want to see continue down the home stretch here, but they’ll have to watch out for not letting perfect be the enemy of good—if the number of shots drops too far, they risk playing things too safe.

Speaking of taking risks, look at that goal from distance by Bennett:

I have no idea why New Mexico gives him so much space here, but this is a wonderful goal, even if it takes a little deflection. Bennett alone accounted for five shots, four of which were on target. On scoring his first brace for the club, Bennett had this to say:

“It feels fantastic. Every time I play I try to give 100%, so I'm just happy to get my first brace with the club tonight. And even happier that it helped us come home with three points.”

Next Man Up
Rayan Djedje’s first league start was a great look at Republic’s offseason signing and what he can contribute down the stretch. Djedje scored himself a 6.7 player rating, and didn’t look out of place in a backline that’s been by far the best in the league. A few other players who haven’t seen as many minutes as of late, such as Chibi, Felipe, and Spaulding, came off the bench to help see out the clean sheet. Collins had this to say about the guys coming in with few minutes:

“Credit to Rayan… He's put himself in a position to put in a great performance tonight by the way he's trained and his attitude. Like I've said to him and Chibi, they've been unfortunate at times not to play more, it has just come down to the other guys that have been playing so well... But the team's with the ‘next man up’ mentality are going to be the ones that have the most success because I don't think I can play only 11 guys between now and the end of the season, especially when you've got a Cup Semifinal to look forward to.”

With performances like tonight, don’t be surprised to see Djedje slotting into the backline more often, especially when Sacramento needs to rotate and keep legs fresh.

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The Bad:

Overall… Almost nothing?
Republic did nearly everything correct this match. There’s a few minor things you could nitpick—the subs didn’t perform great (averaged a 6.4 rating), Republic continues to struggle to generate shots directly off of corners (0 shots on 5 corners), and yellow cards (4 of them) could be a concern as yellow card accumulation starts adding up, but those are all inconsequential in a match that Republic largely dominated. Sacramento just did everything right.

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What Stood Out:

This was a great pick-me-up after an exhausting week the week prior, and really shows how great Sacramento can play when they’re better rested, even when on the road. Bennett commented on the team bouncing back after last week:

“It says a lot about the character of this group. We were very disappointed to come off of a long stretch of games with a loss, but the reaction was fantastic from every single player. We stuck together today, executed our game plan, and came up with three points. So very, very happy and very thankful.”

And they’ll have to keep the momentum going, as the club returns back to the east coast to play in Tampa Bay next week, in what will be another busy travel week: four days after playing the Rowdies in Florida, Republic will be playing in the USL Cup Semi-final in Rhode Island, a match that will almost certainly take priority. Then, they’ll fly the 2,550 miles back home to host Phoenix in a Western Conference showdown.

The Rowdies aren’t in good shape, sitting at 10th in the East with only 21 points on the season—that makes them worse off than every Western Conference team. But, it could be a trickier match-up than it looks on paper, especially with the expected player rotation, as Collins tries to keep legs fresh for the semi-final match up.

For now though, Neill Collins and Co will use this win as a jumping off point:

“I can't underestimate how much [a win] helps. Next week you get on that plane eager to play. Whereas, if you have back to back difficult results, it can be a little bit of trepidation, although we'd handle it just the same. But this definitely makes it easier, the important thing is that we keep this level of performance and continue to build on it.”

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