How Swindon Town were defeated by struggling Morecambe

The defeat means the Robins move closer to the dreaded two relegation places as the winless run in League Two has stretched to almost 50 days.

Goal difference is what keeps Town away from the bottom, but how did the 3-2 loss play out from a tactical perspective?

Being played through too easily with the 4-4-2

Morecambe have had difficulty creating chances building out from the back this season and tended to thrive on opposition mistakes. Accidental errors are going to occur, but it’s how a team regroups with their structure that matters. The 4-4-2 formation made it easy for the Shrimps to break through the midfield.

The passing options that Morecambe had when possession was lost (Image: Tactical Board Online)

The image shows how many passing options Morecambe had when possession was lost and because of the two in midfield, Gavin Kilkenny and Nnamdi Ofoborh were left defending too much space. This meant they could not provide a press or have done much more to prevent the passing options.

Danny Butterworth was eventually moved into a central role. When he was defending, he’d often invert centrally, but during a quick transition, he did not have the time to be able to get to that area when it mattered as he was on the left.

How to prevent the set piece errors

Morecambe’s first two goals were a prime example of why Swindon need to improve from set pieces.

Jamie Stott’s opener was created by the late run of Luke Hendrie who was not picked up by anyone. Once again there was a spare man somewhere who was not close enough to mark Hendrie. If you iron that out, the first goal is prevented.

The corner which led to the second goal (Image: Tactical Board Online)

The second one is a similar situation and another lack of awareness. The majority of Swindon players were busy with marking but there were a handful who weren’t. Ben Tollitt didn’t go under the radar, he was sat in an obvious position and somehow did not get picked up by any player. This allowed him to make a curved run around the back and receive the ball to score.

The attacking struggles

The struggles going forward were obvious from the statistics, but from a look at the pitch, it was Morecambe’s goal kicks which made it difficult. Harry Burgoyne always went long, which forced Swindon back, creating a huge divide between the midfield and the attack. Town struggled to win the ball in the air which meant the Shrimps won the ball high up the pitch. With Morecambe squeezing high, Swindon tried to go long but this rarely worked.

The gap from defence and midfield to attack in the first half (Image: Tactical Board Online)

In the second half, Town’s attacks were often generated in two ways. Goal kicks were impacted by the wind and Swindon would often find themselves in possession by winning the loose ball, which also put a huge dent into how Morecambe would generate attacks. The second option was long diagonal switches of play which were aimed for George Cox or Aaron Drinan, as they would make runs in behind. It worked on occasion but it soon became predictable.

How the substitutes impacted the game

Holloway used all five subs as he looked to bring players on who could make a difference. The substitutions were mainly to try and turn the game on its head. Drinan, Jaxon Brown, Joel Cotterill, Sean McGurk and Paul Glatzel were all brought on, but how did they change the game?

Glatzel added what was needed to the tie as the switch to a fluid front three appeared for the first time since the defeat at MK Dons. This meant that Town could be even stronger in the middle as three strikers created the opportunity for one to drop back and help in the build-up. It appeared as a 4-3-3 shape at times with either Brown or Cotterill at right-back but with those two midfield players, they could easily come into more central roles and overload the middle of the pitch.