Anya Believe It?

Tactical Analysis of Scotland’s 2-1 win in Macedonia

Last
night, Gordon Strachan masterminded a tactical clinic on how to utilise one player’s speed to make an entire team better. Ikechi Anya’s
goal was far from the only thing that made him valuable to Scotland’s
2-1 win. The Watford winger was positioned high up the park in the opening
twenty minutes and could scarcely have been further wide if he was
standing on the touchline. Three times Charlie Mulgrew, like a
quarterback hitting his favourite wide receiver, launched long range
passing in the direction of Anya to go in behind the full-back. It
stretch the Macedonians out in defence and granted Scott Brown and
Mulgrew in the centre of the park the space with which to dictate play.

Macedonia set
themselves up in a 4-4-1-1 with Goran Pandev playing in the hole
behind Adis Jahovic. What made their style unorthodox was the use of
the full-backs – Daniel Georgievski on the right and Stefan Ristovski
on the opposite flank – who were pushed so far up the park when attacking that to the casual observer it would look like they were wingers, an
illusion aided by the two wide players in the midfield four moving to
central positions when their side had possession. In order to keep
defensive strength, deep lying midfielder Ostoja Stjepanovic would
remain situated just in front of the centre halves and would be
joined by central midfielder David Babunski retreating. The latter
completely watched the game pass him by, failing to impact in
possession and in halting Scotland attacks. He would replaced on 41
minutes by the more experienced Darko Tasevski who was to have a much
greater effect on proceedings with penetrating passes and winning
lose balls as the hosts started to dominate the centre of the park in
the second half.

In
the first half, however, the crowd quickly grew agitated when it
became apparent they were being outplayed by the visitors. Anya had
enjoyed such space in the first 15 minutes that Georgievski was
cautious as to how far forward he could get. Playing the ball over to
that side quickly became a defensive threat in its own as lost
possession could immmediately give the flying winger freedom to
charge down the field. Therefore Macedonia stuck to building on the
left and trying to play through the centre. Had Ristovski attacked
the byline as he did in the second 45 minutes then Macedonia would
have produced a more balanced attack in the first half. Instead he
showed a reticence to driving down the line, even when Barry Bannan
was showing him on the outside. Continually the ball would go down
the left, stop at Ristovski who would cut inside and float a ball
into the centre that would be either headed away by the centre backs
or intercepted by Brown or Mulgrew.

In
the Hampden game earlier in the qualification campaign, Macedonia had
a lot of joy getting Pandev in space 30 yards from goal and releasing
his teammates on the overlap through the channels. The constant
attempts to play through the centre indicated they wanted to mirror
such a gameplan. Scotland were having none of it. Barry Bannan was
designated as the right midfielder but he was seldom stationed in the
position – a fact that caused Alan Hutton to have one of his more
quieter games in a Scotland shirt. The midfielder naturally drifted
inside while Brown and Mulgrew dropped deep when not in possession.
Crucially, two players who didn’t drop deep were the two centre
backs – Grant Hanley and Russell Martin. They kept the line as high
as they could without pressing from the Scottish forwards. ‘The Hole’, the so-called position in which Pandev likes to operate, was now completely covered.
Stubbornly, instead of trying to free their star man, Macedonia
continued to loft hopeful balls into the centre or try to thread the
needle on the deck. Scotland cut out everything.

Meanwhile, at the other side of the pitch, pass after pass went out to Anya. The
threat pushed Macedonia back further than they would have anticipated
when not in possession and gave Scotland a real foothold in the
match. The only concern for Strachan with this game-plan going
forward was the lack of clear cut chances Scotland created when directly playing through it. Even when Georgievski was retreating into a
defensive position he was still getting burned by Anya, but a Stevie
Naismith header and Anya curler that had to be pushed wide were the
only opportunities of note. Scott Brown had the best chance of the
half but that move exemplified the weakness in the centre of the park from the Macedonians who had just made their substitution and were temporarily disjointed.

The
second half started with much of the same as Bannan executed a cross
field 40 yard pass that sprung Anya down the left – a prelude to
the opening goal. However, the Macedonians were becoming familiar
with the threat and decided to push forward Georgievski regardless.
The right back hit the byline for the first time in the 52nd minute
and Ristovski would soon follow suit on the other side. Finally it
opened up some space in the centre and Pandev was able to become a
menace in the final third.

Before
any of that occurred, however, Scotland took the lead. Macedonia’s
refusal to adapt for Anya came back to punish them defensively with
the winger having enough space in behind to latch onto Bannan’s
hooked ball over the top before delivering a tremendous finish that
nestled in off the far post. The pass was pure reactionary from Bannan
who quickly spotted the route to goal and delivered it perfectly,
which was thankful for Scotland because after the opening few minutes of the half they were having some trouble getting the ball to their new weapon.

In
the centre Mulgrew and Brown were having their hands full with the
Macedonian pairing post substitution. This, combined with the
full-backs finally delivering real width, allowed the home side to
squeeze the game, similar to the way in which Scotland had done in
the opening 45, but the difference being that they were doing it in the Scottish half. With so
much space in behind Anya was still a threat, highlighted by the
Shaun Maloney chance, but it was becoming increasingly difficult for
players to find the time to execute a releasing pass.

Their
full-backs now fully operational, Macedonia were able to push the two
centrally focused wide midfielders right on top of the Scotland
back-line as support strikers to Pandev and Jahovic. Their threat
increased with a greater volume of crosses going into the box. One of
the two, Ivan Tickovski, almost scored twice in a five minute spell;
first stinging the hands of substitute keeper Matt Gilks and then
firing into the side netting after latching onto a cross from the
right back.

The
pressure mounted and Scotland retreated; Anya was now sitting 20
yards into his own half for long spells. Steven Naismith deserves
tremendous credit for the amount of work he put in, particularly in
the air. He won a surprising amount of headers for one so small and
must have been feeling frustrated during the final ten minutes when
two were flicked on for nobody running in behind. Strachan committed to defending the lead by introducing James McArthur to shore things up
slightly on the right – Bannan had done a top job overall but had
been caught up the field on counter attacks in a couple of instances
– and by bringing in Lee Wallace to replace Steven Whittaker.

The
first half had suited Whittaker down to the ground. A natural right
sided player, at left-back he can often be caught inside and gift too
much space to his marker, but in this match his opposing attacker
wanted to drift inside also and the only threat on the wing was
Georgievski; the tormented full-back who was easily tracked by his
punisher, Anya. Once the right back was off his leash it soon became
apparent that Anya, clearly tiring, was struggling to deal with an
opponent now playing with a renewed determination and increasing confidence. With the midfield
retreating even further onto the top of the defence, Whittaker’s
tendency to move inside was beginning to become a problem as Scotland
needed to deal with the threat down the wing. Strachan reacted by
bringing on a natural left-back in Wallace to quell the threat, which
he managed in his 15 minute cameo.

Finally
Scotland buckled. Like so many defensive goals that are lost through
a source players have been instructed to cut off, it began with a
ricochet. The deflection landed nicely for Pandev who, since the ball
wasn’t intended for him, found space centrally around 25 yards from
goal. Mulgrew, who had been excellent in the match, particularly in
the first half, was a little slow to react. Although, even in his
worst visions, he surely wouldn’t have imagined Pandev pulling off
the sort of pass he did. It was exquisite and once the substitute
Jovan Kostovski had successfully trapped the ball in the box there
was only going to be one outcome.

There
was only time for one more action of note and while the substitutions
had an effect, the build up was not in the script. After Wallace’s
throw in was cleared to Pandev on the half-way line the captain must
have presumed he’d have plenty of time to turn and survey. Instead,
Grant Hanley came charging down on him from 10 yards away, brushed
him aside, beat him to the ball and came surging up field with it.
His pass into McArthur saw the fresh legs of the Wigan man side-step
a couple of challenges and go down on the edge of the penalty. Then
Shaun Maloney stepped up.

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