Derby County recorded a huge win over Bolton Wanderers, which included one key tactical tweak from Paul Warne.
Derby County are a team on a charge towards League One promotion, having moved four points clear of third in the automatic places. A packed out Pride Park bore witness to a tense game against Bolton Wanderers that had all the feelings of a monumental occasion.
The away team will feel aggrieved that they came away from the game empty handed. However, it was the promotion nous of Paul Warne that edged the tie, with a goal from a corner that underlines the importance he puts on set-pieces.
In the match itself though, there were some interesting tactical ideas on display from the manager in attempting to stop the flow of Bolton attacks.
Derby County shape
While there was one like-for-like change in the team from the victory over Reading, with Craig Forsyth coming in for the ill Sonny Bradley, the shape wasn’t exactly the same. The Rams have relied on a 3-4-3 in recent weeks, making use of width with both wing-backs and wingers.
However, against Bolton, the shape was closer to that of a 3-5-2, starting off with Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Dwight Gayle as centre-forwards out of possession, with Tom Barkhuizen tucking into midfield and man-marking Josh Sheehan.
It didn’t quite work to start with, as the Bolton orchestrator in deep midfield continued to wriggle free from the press. A change came shortly after as Gayle’s injury forced a substitution, with Korey Smith coming on in his place.
The decision to make such a switch showed the awareness from Warne to change the structure that hadn’t quite worked so far, despite having Martyn Waghorn as a potential striker replacement for Gayle in that moment. Ebou Adams was then tasked with dealing with Sheehan, something he did fine, but with the trade-off of losing his ball-winning abilities in a deeper area.
Another switch at half-time saw Liam Thompson make his way onto the pitch, adding the spritely energy that has been synonymous with his performances. The academy graduate stuck to Sheehan like glue and made it tough for him to get free to dictate from deep.
In the end, Sheehan managed a pass accuracy of just 65.8%, via WhoScored, showing how the Rams eventually got to grips with him and made it tough to create chances as he would’ve hoped.
Derby County press
The other interesting decision to take note of was the press from Derby as the game went on. While Warne has often emphasised the importance of winning the ball back, the clash with Bolton saw more use of pressing traps.
The front two would often drop off and allow the centre-backs to have possession, keeping hold of the shape and forcing the away side to unpick them. Due to Bolton having three centre-backs, the two forwards would have to jump between their respective outside centre-back and Ricardo Santos in the centre.
With Barkhuizen, Adams or Thompson on Sheehan, the idea seems to be in stemming the flow of attacks. Ian Evatt would either need his centre-backs to drive on the ball to force pressure from Derby, and pass around them with the risk of losing the ball, or force longer passes that also risks giving away possession.
This is shown yet again in the numbers, as Santos made the most passes in the game with 51 as well as the most touches with 65. It’s how Bolton want to play, building from the back, but there would have been clear frustration from a lack of chances as the home side sat off.
The Rams can then play the percentages in their favour and win the ball back. It’s not that they weren’t pressing, but they were laying the foundations for a pressing trap.
The shortcomings of this could be losing the key players in the press, such as Sheehan, which may be why Warne opted for more energy in adding Thompson and Kane Wilson from the bench.
Key takeaways
One of the key takeaways from the result over Bolton is that Warne is more than capable of being tactically flexible where it suits the team. Evatt has constructed a side with great quality, which required some pragmatism from the Rams, but ultimately won them the tie.
The victory underlines just how important those offensive and defensive set-pieces could be for the team come the end of the season. But finally, it shows that the race for the top two isn’t over yet, despite the occasion.