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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
As long as football has existed, tactics and strategies to out-think the opponent have always been prominent.
Modern managers like Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho have made the term ‘tactics’ such a buzz-word.
But often, it can just over-complicate things. You can get so bogged down with wanting to think outside the box, you lose sight of just how simple life can be. Just ask Ralph Hasenhuttl.
The Southampton manager’s bizarre team selection on Friday night against Bournemouth cost the Saints a real chance of getting a confidence-boosting result.
On the chalkboard
Coming up against a Bournemouth side that had impressively beaten Everton 3-1 at home, the first thing Hasenhuttl needed to ensure was that his team’s defence was up to par.
So what does he go and do? Play Cedric Soares, a right-back by trade, at left-back, and Kevin Danso, a centre-half, at right-back.
The decision was made even more bizarre by the fact the Saints boss had an England quality left-back in Ryan Bertrand, just sitting on the bench.
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Predictably, the home side fell two goals behind at the break, with Danso in particular looking uncomfortable in his unfamiliar role.
As per Whoscored, his 57.6% pass accuracy gave him the second-worst percentage of Southampton players who started the game and he was promptly hooked at half-time.
The damage, however, had already been done, with Bournemouth winger Josh King – who was operating on the left-hand side – running riot, registering six dribbles in total.
Speaking after the game, Hasenhuttl fell short of admitting he made a mistake, instead attempting to focus on how he tried to fix things at the break.
“We knew against Bournemouth it is always a tactically interesting game and we had a shape we could change a lot. At half time we had to be clear in the mind and try to find the right decision and I think we took the right decision at half time because second half was a massive reaction for us.”
Watch how to cross the road like a boss with freestyler Ben Nuttall in the video below…
If Eddie Howe had sprung a huge tactical surprise and Hasenhuttl simply reacted to it at half-time, then the jury wouldn’t be out.
Instead, the Austrian brought Southampton’s problems on by himself, failing to use players in their natural positions, and quite simply, over-complicating matters. The Saints had no real injury crisis at the back to warrant such a mishmash line-up.
It’s about time the manager goes back to basics and does the simple things right first.