What we learned from the Premier League weekend

The Premier League weekend produced a lot of intriguing tactical discussion points once more.

Some of Manchester City’s recent struggles have been brought on by their lack of possession.

We targeted Tottenham’s wide areas last week, drawing attention to the city’s high press.

Brighton’s winner in their 2-1 victory on Sunday demonstrates many of the same issues, with the latter more apparent as a one-off than a one-off.

The ball is moved to a defender out wide for both Tottenham’s opening goal and Brighton’s second, with the opposition’s attacker unable to press forcefully. Before making a long, direct pass down the channel, the wide player can turn and face forward.

Nathan Ake and Rico Lewis, two of their team-mates, dragged deeper into the City starting line-up as well, dragging them against Brighton and Spurs.

In order to fill that role, City must now have three back-up players who shift to the left to fill the space left by the full-back. One of City’s center-backs has to defend on the flank in a situation where they are less comfortable, making it more likely that they will lose their fight.

The space between the three defenders is then open to the opposition players. For instance, Brighton’s back three were attacked by four players, one of whom was from City.

Brighton also vacated the central areas because they were aware that their players would be more risky running in behind or running out wide by building down the sides.

Andoni Iraola, the manager of the Cherries, is renowned for his ability to put together a powerful press, which overpowered Spurs.

Spurs were pushed down Bournemouth’s left in what appeared to be an asymmetric 4-3-1 press that accomplished two things.

In order to defend the direct balls Spurs prefer to play, the first thing was to make sure Bournemouth had an extra player back. In order to match Manchester City’s 4-2-4 shape man to man, as they did last week at times, Bournemouth would not need an additional defensive player to help them mop up some of those second balls. Instead, they made very specific man-to-man journey choices.

The ball was then threw at players who couldn’t follow Frank’s instructions. When Spurs moved more directly from Micky van de Ven, Rennan Johnson struggled to receive direct passes into his feet. Instead of making strong hold-up play, his game is based on off-the-ball runs into the box to take advantage of opportunities. In contrast, Mohammed Kudus’ deep press resistance when facing the right is ideal for the execution of Frank’s tactical plan in the build-up.

The clever angled press, assisted by the players’ body shape, intensity, and intelligent swapping of who they were marking when the ball was passed, prevented the home side from showcasing their quality.

As the season progresses, Frank’s men may find a passing solution from deep against intelligent pressing thanks to the addition of more accomplished passers like Xavi Simons, James Maddison, and Dejan Kulusevski.

With four assists in his first three league games, Jack Grealish’s loan move to Everton appears to have been a success.

And we saw a little bit of his game in the assist Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall gave them in the victory over Wolves. He deftly slipped a pass over a defender’s outstretched leg after moving the ball down the middle and intofield.

It is more prevalent in South American players than in traditional English midfielders, which Grealish’s game possesses.

It’s a tool in small-sided futsal games, as author Jamie Fahey points out, and can be used on pitches of poor quality where the ball might get stuck or not carry as easily.

Players who can execute a scooped pass can sometimes advance the ball while others would hold on to it because of the Premier League’s compact defenses.

In their first three games of the season, Chelsea have been strong on set-pieces, particularly getting good shots off of corners.

Joao Pedro’s goal in the win over Fulham highlights the intriguing way that they have troubled their opponents’ goalkeepers.

As the Fulham man defended his neighborhood, Pedro had to make up space for Calvin Bassey. The Brazilian striker didn’t just make a move to make room for himself, but he also directly harmed the goalkeeper.

Being the “blocker” that Chelsea have used Delap as, he physically pressured Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno after leaving Bassey. It makes room for teammates and prevents the goalkeeper from stepping up.

However, the “blocker” returned to space and headed the ball home on his own against Fulham. By the time the header arrived, Leno couldn’t react quickly enough because he was trying to deal with the physical contact.