Breaking down Dean Smith's double pivot vs. Vancouver

By Brian Maurer

Urso (left) and Westwood (right) - Photo courtesy of CJ Hellner/TopBin90

Charlotte FC finished their first leg of a three-game road trip with a draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps. The 1-1 result was a tale of two halves. One area of the field where the change in team performance appeared to be impacted the most was in Charlotte's midfield. Specifically their double pivot of Ashley Westwood and Júnior Urso.

Dean Smith mentioned in the post-match press conference Westwood and Urso were able to connect play well finding the "easy ball very quickly" in the first half and that the game got away from them more when they "bypassed the sixes".

Here is a breakdown of how Charlotte FC’s double pivot looked in the first half versus the second half, and the difference in the results.

First half

Westwood and Urso’s movement was fluid switching from side to side and vertically reacting to each other. When one player dropped back to receive the other would often push forward. When the ball switched to the left Urso would often start to float forward and Westwood would cover in behind, and vice versa. This led to several strong possession sequences in the first half and multiple attacking opportunities.

During build-up play Westwood and Urso would set up side by side in a double pivot. Shifting together from one side of the pitch to the other depending on ball progression.

When one of the two midfielders would drop deeper to help build up possession the other would generally move forward to occupy more advanced space. In this sequence, Westwood dropped deep to receive the ball and put in a long ball over the top to Kerwin Vargas while Urso moved up centrally (top left). Vargas was able to control the long ball and Charlotte started operating in the attacking third on the right-hand side (top right). Westwood joined in the attacking sequence while Urso dropped slightly deeper to protect against counters (bottom).

Second half

In the second half, the Vancouver Whitecaps came out with more energy and numbers forward. They also would congest the middle to isolate Westwood or Urso when they received the ball, outnumbering them and causing turnovers.

Urso and Westwood were surrounded by several defenders throughout much of the second half

Vancouver also looked for spots to press Westwood and Urso giving them less time to make progressive passes that set up much of the first-half attacking success.

Urso (left) and Westwood (right) were pressed by multiple defenders several times in the second half. In these examples, Urso and Westwood also look isolated as they are too spread out from each other. In the first half, they played closer together.

The Whitecaps made clear adjustments and also brought more energy to the game in the second half motivated to impress their record home-opener crowd. This led them to have several dangerous moments. One of those moments could easily be overlooked, as the open attacker was missed and the cross was easily defended by Adilson Malanda.

Westwood and Urso were too far behind the play as Vancouver led an attacking sequence. Because of how far behind the play they were Ryan Raposo found tons of space in the box as Charlotte’s backline was occupied by Brian White and Vancouver’s more advanced attackers. The ball to Raposo never came as the cross went harmlessly in towards White and Malanda parried it away. That could have been a far more dangerous sequence with the amount of space left for Raposo. 

Westwood and Urso struggled to cover space in between defensive lines as the game wore on which led to Vancouver exposing a potential weakness that the midfield duo will need to address.

The amount of space that Raposo found in the box will lead to several dangerous goalscoring opportunities if that defensive marking and positioning are not addressed.

Conclusions

Westwood and Urso’s movement and progressive passing were key to how effective Charlotte was at setting up attacking sequences. Once Vancouver started to press and surround The Crown’s central midfielders ball progression became more difficult in the second half.

Smith didn’t seem to have too much of a solution out of the gate for Vancouver’s midgame adjustments. Part of this is likely unavoidable as teams will often find an extra gear in front of their home crowd. However, adjusting tactics more quickly could help mitigate the risks that Vancouver attempted to exploit. Down the road teams will get sharper and will become more capable of capitalizing on the defensive holes left by Charlotte’s midfield this past weekend. 

Smith finding a way to support Westwood and Urso with additional numbers in the middle when they are being overloaded and pressed will also help them maintain strong possessional sequences, which were broken up more often in the second half.