Morecambe manager outlines the reason for his tactical tweaks

Morecambe boss Derek Adams explained the thinking behind some of his tactical changes in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Forest Green Rovers.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

The Shrimps’ manager named what looked, on paper, his tried and trusted 4-2-3-1 formation with Yann Songo’o and Toumani Diagouraga as the holding midfielders.

However, Songo’o dropped back into the centre of defence, playing between Sam Lavelle and Nat Knight-Percival as Morecambe switched to three at the back.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It was a move which looked to have paid dividends with Songo’o making a couple of timely interventions as A-Jay Leitch-Smith gave Morecambe the lead, only for late goals from Jake Young and Jamille Matt to hand the visitors victory.

John O'Sullivan was handed a new role as Derek Adams changed tacticsJohn O'Sullivan was handed a new role as Derek Adams changed tactics
John O'Sullivan was handed a new role as Derek Adams changed tactics

“He gave protection for Knight-Percival and Lavelle because we know (Jamille) Matt can flick things on,” Adams said of Songo’o.

“He did that but when that happened, Songo’o was in the area to deal with it.

“We had Toums (Diagouraga) and (John) O’Sullivan playing in a different role, dealing with that threat in the middle of the park.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We overloaded the area where we knew that Forest Green were going to be a threat. I’ve seen the stats about possession; possession doesn’t mean anything when you pass the ball from centre-half to centre-half - Pep Guardiola (Manchester City manager) will tell you that - but we just didn’t deal well with the last cross into the box.

“We know Jamille Matt, (Odin) Bailey and (Aaron) Collins like to run in behind. We dealt well with that, we didn’t have any space in behind for them to run.

“We know (Ebou) Adams likes to run forward, (Carl) Winchester likes to get the ball in deep. We dealt well with that threat, we dealt well with their wing-backs.

“Over the afternoon, the only thing we haven’t done is deal well with Jamille Matt on one occasion.”