How can Swindon Town improve their blunt attacking play?

Paul Glatzel and Aaron Drinan are both yet to register a shot in the league during the opening two matches as Swindon have struggled to get anything going with the ball. No side has produced a lower xG from their opening two games nor had fewer shots on target. The fears of a lack of fluency have become a reality.

Against Walsall, whilst Will Wright, Miguel Freckleton, Jack Bycroft, and Grant Hall had more touches than any Saddlers players, nine of the visiting players had more touches than Harry Smith and despite having 20 more minutes on the pitch, Glatzel had fewer touches than Albert Adomah. Town were simply unable to progress the ball up the pitch.

This was a similar issue for much of the game against Chesterfield as the hosts were able to limit Town to just one shot in the first half prior to them being able to figure out a better solution after the break and have more joy.

Part of the issue is that Swindon have given themselves a lot of pitch to get up when they do win the ball back in their two league games. Town defended fairly deep and then looked to play longer passes in behind Walsall on Saturday, as shown by the fact that Tunmise Sobowale, Nnamdi Ofoborh, Miguel Freckleton, Rosaire Longelo, and Will Wright contested the most ground duels.

By contrast, when Swindon created a non-penalty xG of 1.52 against Crawley Town, they had Glatzel and the wing-backs contesting the most ground duels, showing that these actions were happening higher up the pitch. Town caused Crawley many problems by looking to press high in a way they did with far less intensity when returning to league action.

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As could be seen from Glatzel’s big chance in the first half, Swindon pushed five players high into one corner from a Crawley throw, squeezed them in, forced the error, and because they had bodies around were quickly able to get a shot away.

This happened numerous times in the game, including for Ofoborh’s goal and to win the penalty, as Town proved themselves capable of playing those quick passes with players committed forwards to turn turnovers into chances.

Swindon win the ball high up and create a chance (Image: IFollow)

There were very few similar instances against Walsall, arguably the only time they were able to push high and win the ball created Smith’s long-range effort that struck the post after they won the second ball from a long ball from the back.

The only other route to goal that has created regular chances has been the outside centre-backs getting forward and overloading the opposition. The obvious example here is Wright’s goal at Chesterfield, but he and Freckleton have both done this well many times. But Walsall’s two-striker system seemed to contain this far easier, with neither of them able to complete a dribble on Saturday.

So far, Swindon have struggled to create openings when building from deeper and there has been a disconnect between the forwards and the rest of the team. Despite Smith’s prowess at winning headers, he has not always been able to find a red shirt when the ball is played long into him as there are not enough bodies around him. He had just 33 per cent pass accuracy against Walsall and 59 per cent against Chesterfield. The other strikers have struggled as well, with Drinan completing 43 per cent against the Spireites and Glatzel 62 per cent against the Saddlers.

Swindon's average positions against Crawley (left) and Walsall (right) (Image: Sofascore)

You can see from these average positions how much further up the pitch Swindon played against Crawley and this helped them to both defend from the front more effectively and also create chances once they had done so as there were players to pass to.

There have been glimpses during these opening few games of Mark Kennedy’s plan having exciting elements to it, but they have struggled to sustain this over prolonged periods and against Walsall, either abandoned them or they were nullified.

Unless a player with Dan Kemp’s transformative quality can be brought in, Swindon will be following the Jurgen Klopp mantra of pressing is the best creative midfielder. Against Crawley and at times against Chesterfield they showed that it could be done but they are going to need to be far more aggressive to succeed that way.

Ollie Clarke said after Walsall that the team need to be braver in not relying on long balls into Smith and finding another reliable way to work the ball up the pitch is needed. But the easiest way out of that hole is by playing to the strength of this team in their aggression without the ball and simply closing the distance they have to get the ball up the pitch.