Brighton moved their two midfielders out wide, creating two separate triangles on the wings. Nottingham Forest likes maintaining a uniform shape in defense. They won’t follow the midfielders wide. This creates unique transitional moments down the wing.

Normally a team like Nottingham Forest would want the attacking team to play through the wide areas. This is assuming that Jack Hinshelwood and Georginio Rutter for Brighton stay near Carlos Baleba.

When Hinshelwood and Rutter move wide, Nottingham Forest don’t overreact, but it creates those two separate overloads on the wings.

Baleba is open for the pass, but the idea is to wait for the first opportunity to play through the wings. It is Brighton showing their hand to Nottingham Forest, daring them to follow them out wide to open up space in the middle, but they don’t follow them wide.

Because Nottingham Forest are marking Brighton zonally rather than man-to-man, they leave those overloads open on the wings. This creates situations like in Figure 1.2—moments where Brighton can quickly transition into the final third. Moments that Nottingham Forest can only react to; they don’t proactively try to stop it from happening.

This is another example showing the effectiveness of how teams can spread their midfield out to bypass a compact defense that is looking to clog the middle.

If a team is stubborn, this is a good way to get the ball past that compact center.

Match: Brighton 2-2 Nottingham Forest, 22 September 2024