The P.A.U.L.O. System
If I have to squeeze in a reference from Always Sunny into every article then I will. What If he could smell crime before It even happens? What If his entire head is just one big nose? What If Paulo Pezzolano studied Oliver Glasners’ Crystal Palace team and put some of those ideas into this current Watford side?
We all know football tactics and strategy is one big cycle of plagiarism in one form or another, so why not implement some of that here?
Ladies and Gentleman, the P.A.U.L.O system is a comprehensive approach to strategy and tactics that has been perfected over the years from Professor Oliver Glasner. See, his success with football does not solely stem from player quality and favourable environments. There is a careful systemic approach that has allowed him to become one of the best Premier League managers we see today.
P - Press in the middle third
With our team, it makes sense to conserve energy and to make the pitch as small as possible in the middle. If you mirror up that Palace team with our team, their profiles are extremely similar. Fast central defenders, full backs more suited to wingbacks, runners in the middle who aren’t great going the other way towards our own goal but have athleticism and one standout ball player. Flair players that want nothing more than to create, shoot and excite. And to top it off, a mobile target man that can also float about and link play.
A - Attack with speed
In fairness to Paulo so far, we are being quick in transition and slash (shoutout to Matt Targett) in settled possession too, but we aren’t committing enough men forward when we do. Max Alleyne has clearly been instructed to play long balls down the right flank to Kjerrumgaard. Likewise with Ngakia and Bola down their sides too. We’re also bypassing the midfield without Louza in it currently. He usually touches the ball around 15% of the teams total touches whereas Kayembe, Kyprianou and Sissoko are 10% or below, around 6% and 7% if you’re Kayembe and Sissoko for example. That’s logical coaching to me as you don’t want either of them taking the ball in tight spaces and being heavily involved in build-up either. Louza is our Wharton, Kyprianou is our new Hughes. Both of them getting roughly 10-12% of touches but Louza especially being very efficient with his in possession play by dominating the team with progressive passes. We shouldn’t be a team that wants to dominate the ball, we don’t have the players to do that. We should want to break quickly, soak up pressure and commit men forward when the opposition is out of shape.
U - Use Petris over Ngakia
Back three formations live and die by their wingbacks. They have to have the mentality to get into the box and provide at the bare minimum some sort of threat otherwise the only box presence is the striker and the central midfielders. If that’s the case it’s easy to defend against as you know where the threat is coming from. Palace have struck this balance nicely. Mitchell is a defensive player by nature but he does stick to his role imposed on him by Glasner. He stays high and wide, he gets into the box, he unsettles the opposition backline. Palace averaged the third highest starting positions (touches) of any fullback/wingback combo in the Premier League with Mitchell (55.7) and Munoz (58.6) the latter averaging the second highest in the Premier League too and someone I want to focus on. Munoz is the perfect wingback for a wingback system. Gets up n down no problem, has good cut back awareness but most importantly consistently gets into good goal scoring positions. He had 37 shots last season with only 3 of them coming from outside the box and more or less every single one of them coming from that right side and close to goal. His open play shot distance was the closest in the entire Palace squad with 12.7 metres and the third highest shot quality in the Palace squad with 0.13.This is where Petris comes in over Ngakia. Instinctively, Ngakia’s first thought is to hang back. Whilst he does stay wide at times, he’s not always bursting forward to get into the box. Petris last season had 17 shots with 12 coming inside the box. Ngakia has had 14 shots inside the box since his move to the club in 22/23. Petris also offers an aerial threat at the backpost too being just over 6ft as well as speedy.
L - Lower defensive line to create more space to counter
Part of the reasoning for playing three central defenders is to outnumber the opposition forward line, as well as offering tactical flexibility within a solid framework. Our current crop of centre backs is proabably, on paper, the best we’ve had at Championship level for quite some time. Mendy, Keben, Abankwah are all quick and the latter two have shown to be solid in the air too. Alleyne isn’t slow but is also good on the ball and Pollock is the outlier in the sense he’s ‘slow’ and the best out n out box defender and good enough on the ball, but perhaps his speed not allowing him to be first choice anymore. The outside centre backs by design should have a better chance of first contact as the height differential in the battles they come up against is usually in their favour. For example, Abankwah in a back four last season won first contact 42% of the time. This season, albeit smaller sample size, he’s winning first contact 70% of the time. Max Alleyne on the opposite side in his first taste of men’s football has won all 6 aerial duels he’s faced so far. With the skillset’s this crop has — speedy, comfy on the ball, aerially dominant. We have the flexibility to use a high line and also drop it deeper too. It’s situational of course, but I would lean towards dropping that line but making the middle of the pitch very compact. Have the wingbacks push up when it’s on their side of the pitch so you’re keeping at least a back four at all times. Aim to win the ball back between the centre circle and your own third and look to spring forward.
O - Optimise your ‘two tens’ behind the striker
For me this is always Chakvetadze +1 — the one being Baah or Irankunda. Vata is the heir to Chak’s throne and his time and potential will undoubtedly in my eyes mean he’s the next one up once he leaves, and he’ll get a lot of minutes this season too as Paulo likes him. Also with those three, it’s fine to ease Giorgi back in anyway. Back to the matter at hand; Baah is by trade a winger, but that makes him predictable if you just leave him on that right side. Let him have the freedom to go centrally, go wide, run beyond the striker, run beyond the full back. I personally see Baah long term as a forward that runs inside and scores 10+ goals. Irankunda and Giorgi are more similar in the sense they’re much better in central areas and can dribble and carry and manoeuvre in tight spaces. If you look at Palace’ front three and as I mentioned earlier, It’s eerily similar to ours. Eze has the bulk of the touches averaging 37 passes per 90, Sarr with 25 and Mateta with 15. Basically Eze is allowed to roam about, drop deep, pick up the ball from the centre backs whereas Sarr (Baah) lead the team for progressive passes received by staying in the final third to turn and go.
Love these overviews - thanks!