Graham Alexander explains tactical tweak in Preston North End draw with West Brom
Preston North End played out a 1-1 draw with West Brom at Deepdale on Saturday.
Graham Alexander believes Saturday’s game with West Brom was the ‘right time’ to make a change to his tactical set-up and that his ‘tweak’ worked a treat.
Preston North End finally have a point on the board under their new manager after drawing 1-1 with promotion-chasing West Brom, and there will even be some regret they they didn’t get three.
It was a full-blooded, all-action display from North End with relentless pressing and heart-on-sleeve defending earning a rousing support from Deepdale, something Alexander believes has validated his approach so far.
Though he still lined the side up in a back-three, the boss did make a slight alteration to how his side set up in attack. Instead of it being a front three with two playmakers supporting one striker, he changed it one playmaker, Alfie Devine and then Andy Moran, playing in-behind two strikers, who would split into the channels to find space.
Preston were a million miles more threatening as a result. They registered an xG of 1.78. Their xG in Alexander’s first three games combined was 1.79.
“Yeah, I do,” he told The Post when asked if he thought the tactical change worked, though he insisted it would have counted for nothing if the players didn’t put in the effort they did.
“Formations are one thing and it's the players that go on. We could play any formation, if lads don't run for each other and don't commit to it it doesn't matter. It does not matter.
“Formations are there as a framework for the players to then add the ingredients to it. The running, the passing forward, the intent to score goals, the intent to press the opponent, all those sort of things.”
Alexander thinks formation tweak could be useful ‘going forward’
Leo Leroy, Delano Burgzorg, Jusef Erabi and Moran all had great chances to put Preston ahead before Andrew Hughes finally turned in the corner, but the narrow lead wasn’t enough as Aune Heggebo equalised just four minutes later.
Preston now have a framework of how they can play and take the game to teams, they just need to be more clinical when they get into the dangerous positions their high pressing creates.
Though he still needs to watch the game back, Alexander thought the slight change he made could be useful for the rest of the season.
He continued: “I'm learning about the squad, I'm learning about the qualities of the players as individuals, I'm learning about the make-up of the squad, where it's strengths lie.
“We just felt with two out and out strikers, with a three-man midfield would help us today and potentially help us going forward.
“I'll have to assess the performance in the cold light of day, like I said, I'm a pragmatic manager and I work around the players and what they can give us. I just felt it was the right time to tweak something.”