Outside Backs

Lahm, Alves, Baines...Davies & Shaw?

Youth Talents Emerging At Outside Back; 

Davies' Movement And Goal In Pictures

In the previous post, Luke Shaw (Southampton) got some love as an emerging back to watch.  Another young man to keep an eye on is 17 year old Ben Davies of Swansea City.  The same weekend Shaw got attention here for his performance against Everton (and the even-more-remarkable Leighton Baines) Davies scored for Swansea against Stoke City to open the game (an eventual 3-1 win for the Swans).

A couple notes: Shaw played well against Everton, but his youth is still noticeable.  He wasn't able to crack 70% in his passing completion percentage, a startlingly low number for a defender.  However, he was 10 of 13 attempts in the final third, though none of those passes actually entered the penalty area.  By comparison, the much more experienced Baines put connected 10 of 12 in the final third, with three entering the penalty area.  Doesn't sound like a huge difference, but that's three more dangerous situations created, and in the EPL any ball into the penalty area is a massive problem for a team.



Davies, for his really lovely goal, was merely 4 of 7 in the final third, with only one attempt into the penalty area (which was incomplete) but, he tallied an 83% completion percentage.  Which we might expect of a Swans player- given the way they knock the ball about, any player for the Swans should complete more passes, and at a higher percentage clip than most others in the EPL (recall that Brendan Rodgers, now of Liverpool managed under Mourhino at Chelsea; current coach Michael Ladrup is an Ajax legend- the club that invented "total football" and spawned Cruyff who subsequently took his talents and philosophy to Barcelona)  And since you asked, Baines completed 83% of his passes against Southampton.  Shaw and Davies might be in his class in some areas, but he's more effective in more areas than the pups just yet.

How Davies Does It:

Here's Davies' opening minute against Stoke in screen grabs:

As Ki receives the ball from the right side of the field, Davies (yellow arrow) sprints 8 or 10 yards up the sideline in the space allowed by Routledge (yellow circle) having moved centrally to link with Michu.  Ki looks to hit the two central players, but good defensive movement by Stoke clogs the lanes...

...Ki opts to pass (dashed red arrow) to the left center back, Williams, who advances with the ball to the point that he is higher up the pitch than the two center mids...











...Routledge moves out of the middle (forcing Davies to drop - yellow arrow - to preserve effective offensive spacing) giving Williams a good passing lane, which he uses (dashed yellow arrow).





Nothing much came of this move, but it shows nicely how outside backs are supporting the attack, and even how a highly technical central defender may become a playmaker (David Luiz at Chelsea does similar things, though he tends to use incisive long, diagonal passes to open up defenses from his center back role...he'll still be high up the pitch when he does this, however).  Additionally, we can see Michu doesn't do much in the way of moving in this instance.  Routledge moves to him so that were Ki to play a central pass, the tight Stoke defense may be broken down centrally via close, short passes.  As the ball is moved wider, the attack is clearly attempting to break down the flank positions; Routledge and Davies must move in concert to maintain greater spacing in order to have room to run into, with the ball, and/or make the longer passes required to attack the wide spaces.

The Goal:

Williams, again playing high up the field, passes wide to Davies (dashed yellow arrow)....

...Davies holds the ball briefly, then taps a short pass to Routledge who has come back from the left side of the picture, dragging two Stoke defenders (red arrows) with him, a key moment in the goal.  Davies, meanwhile, busts a hard run forward and crosses over the Stoke defenders recovery path (blue and yellow lines)...





...Routledge takes a touch, then passes to Ki (dashed yellow arrow).  Ki has meandered from the far side of the center circle and as he receives the ball, would have to pretty blind not to see Davies' run, and the massive space created by the lack of communication between the two defenders who both went to Routledge as he received Davies' pass...





...as it works out, Ki plays the ball where Charlie Adam ought to have been instead of stepping to Routledge.  Davies had plenty of work to do- the defender was ball-side and ought to have picked off the pass, but the 17 year old fought him off, received the pass, turned and skipped past the covering central defender, splitting him and the recovering left center back quickly enough to get his shot away.  Impressive stuff for a young player.