Scott Lindsey • Tactics, Crawley Town League Two Playoffs • Masterclass

they were quite rigid and and quite structured within their shape which is why I felt picking a box against them and really matching them up um and go from man for M would be aggressive against them and would give us um you know kind of joy in terms of how many times we could turn the ball [Music] over the games I'm going to be covering is the uh League 2 playoffs in the semi-final we played MK Dons and in the final we played crew so my starting lineup was um Cory a dying goal um we

played a three at the back with Will Wright on the right hand side Deon Conroy who was Captain through the middle Lawrence Maguire on the left hand side we played with two pivots in Midfield uh on the right side Jay Williams left hand side Liam Kelly Two Wing backs right hand side was Harry for left hand side was Jeremy Kelly Two number 10s in cidy Lis on the right Adam Campbell on the left and single striker in Danilo AI um we played obviously a free what I call a free box free um You can call

it um a 343 U but we play with two1 quite narrow so we we kind of call it a box um our wing backs are really high pretty much on the same line as the striker the reason why we went with this system previous to the this we' played with we played with two Strikers actually played a 352 like generic 352 um and we felt looking at MK if we played with two Strikers against their back three we felt that it would give them a little more control in the game obviously with they're in an

extra one with them being possession based we felt that they would get out and kind of gain momentum up the pitch it's an actual fact that we felt that playing with one Striker would be actually more aggressive and then it depends on who we jump onto the outside Center halfs from there so we looked at jumping the two number 10 on to the outside Center halfs and being aggressive in that manner where uh Center halfs would look after their Striker their two number 10s Wing back to Wing back Wing back to Wing back we looked

at that but there was something not quite right about that for me um and I felt that their wing backs were really high and aggressive and their two number 10s were quite narrow similar to ours in many ways and their wing backs were really high same line as the striker and what I didn't want is my wing backs to stay pin back so an actual fact we thought it'd be better for our two number 10 to look after their two pivots we felt that our two pivots would be better off looking after their two number

10s and our wing backs would be really aggressive really aggressive against their two outside Center halfs meaning our two outside Center halfs have had to look after their wing backs like that that felt to me more aggressive and the decision that was made was because of their positioning with their positioning being really high I felt that our outside Center halfs could deal with that meaning we could get real pressure on the ball high up the pitch from our wing backs we also felt that if the ball turned over we had good attacking plays in in

in forward areas and that was a reasoning behind it [Music] so MK Don played very similar shape uh to us so they played a three at the back a boxing Midfield two Wing backs and a striker um one thing we noticed when we we analyzed MK was they were really really structured within their shape there was not many movements or rotations with in their shape they were quite uh structured with it and the two pivots played as pivots the two 10 stayed kind of central areas two Wing backs were kind of up and down um

and obviously the striker being a striker um but yeah they were quite rigid and and quite structured within their shape which is why I felt picking a box against them and really matching them up um and go from man for man would be aggressive against them and would give us um you know kind of joy in terms of how many times we could turn the ball [Music] over so in terms of the press we're really aggressive with this approach um obviously the spare man for them would be the keeper but we felt that anytime that

the ball went back to the keeper we'd follow our press through and make him kick it the downside to This was um when We Are One V ones is that they could play up kind of back and then kind of through balls or one ball could beat us I think it happened in the first game in the first two three minutes where um ball goes back to the keeper keeper kicks it Max Dean I think Dion probably slipped Max goes through um one one-on-one with Cory a die um uh right side Center half will right

recovers and clears off the line so kind of a big moment within the game um so that is the downside to going man Forman you know one one ball can beat you or an up back through can beat you but we were really confident and really aggressive that we knew MK would play make sure that they made plenty of passes at the back um and we knew we'd steal it we felt that they never got control in the game especially in the first game we didn't think that they got any control in the game because

of our aggressive nature about how we wanted to press against them [Music] we recognized quite early on that their two um two number 10s were going to jump to our outside center backs they were going to go Wing back to Wing back and their two pivots were going to jump onto onto our pivots leaving kind of a a 5v5 on the top line so what we wanted to do with this was to try and create a 2V1 here so that probably felt aggressive to them so we kind of jumped them a little bit higher the

two outside center backs would jump their T high like that and then Dion would split with Cory creating a 2v one in in that situation um max Dean um would press Dion Dion would play across to to Cory and then he would be reluctant to jump at that point and he he would come to a degree and then we would kind of get further Advanced up the pitch Cory would come Cory would come and those was actions where he would then wait for for Max Dean to press Dion would step in here Cory would make

a pass here and we would out be out through the initial press there was also times when we would play what I call the hook where again 2V1 uh Max Dean would press Dion Dion would play across to Cory Dean would go again um and then at the right moment when he's within kind of two or three foot from him we'd get the pivot to drop in we'd play to the pivot Dion would be in a position where we could receive in space and then Dion would bring the ball up and then we we'd get

out the again out the initial press there's also times when um we jumped Lawrence really high and aggressive and again it'd be Dion on the ball Max steam would press would play across to Cory Cory would bring the ball there was certain times when Cory was nearly at the halfway line where Dean had to do a lot of work he'd go press and then we'd clip a diag and diagonal ball for Lawrence Maguire to head in and we would collect it in these sort of areas [Music] here when we kind of got Advanced up the

pitch um and we we were controlled with our possession we had what we call a shape shift so we would bump Liam Kelly slightly higher um almost like um come in a number eight strike number 10 himself which would then bump Adam Campbell on to become basically a striker and then we would we' become more like a a generic 352 um and then we could kind of bring Dion through the pitch um and a couple of goals happened where Liam Kelly was really in these Advanced positions um I think his first goal he received the

ball where he had a roll out in these sort of positions we played played into Adam followed his pass through and got his goal in the in the in the first game in the first semi-final it's what we call a shape shift so once we get over that halfway line like I say we want to bump Liam a bit higher Adam a bit High to become a second Striker leaving um Jay Williams as a single pivot and then we can kind of get into them Advanced positions knowing that Liam Kelly can hurt the opposition um

with his with his ability um and then we worked on kind of little bits and pieces like stick passes we call them stick passes where um forag say Liam Kelly might have the ball there he he'll give eyes to to Jeremy Kelly bit of eyes bit of body language bit of contact with each other and all of a sudden he's in ball down the side and he's in behind him there it might be on the other side where lus has got it eye contact with um Harry fer he's bringing it slides him in balls in

there and can look at pullbacks and and more like passing lines rather than Crossing it so yeah there was sort of like the actions that we worked on in the final third [Music] the attitude going kind of 3n up in the first leg and going into the second leg a lot of people spoke to me about what the game plan would be for the second leg and would we become a little bit more conservative a little bit more safer within our approach and my attitude was no we're going to do exactly the same and we're

going to do better and for me it worked because kind of in the first moments of of the second game there was an action where um I think it was the the middle Center half gets it off the uh off the off the keeper um Alex gilby comes down to to receive the ball really deep kind of in that position there uh Jay Williams the the right side pivot goes really aggressive all the way with him Center back plays the ball um into into gilby um Jay Williams is really aggressive in the action steals the

ball brings it through scores 4-0 you know so I was really pleased that the attitude to go and do the same in the second game was really important to [Music] me we felt that maybe in the second game they might do something different so we still wanted to create this 2v one but we felt that maybe they might jump from a different position so we worked on three different scenarios where we could get out so Dion would have the ball he'd play with Cory and then we we we felt that maybe Max D might press

Dion play across to Cory and then maybe it might be uh Alex gilby who jump from this number 10 position who was marking will will right and he would jump from this position so we worked at the pivot dropping in at that moment where we could play um into into Jay Williams to get will right out and we get out that way so we we kind of constantly worked on that for the second game we also felt that there might be opportunity for the left side pivot which was bait to jump so Cy might have

the ball um max Dean would would make sure that he covered Deon Conroy bait would then jump into this area here we'd make sure that Jay Williams come down the line a little bit we'd play into will to get Jay on the ball again we'd get through the press and the third scenario which we worked on which is the one that they actually did was uh the left side 10 W would jump so this time it would be um max Ste would jump on to Cory and then he'd start to go on to Dion so

we looked at patterns where we dropped in we played we play to Dion to invite W on and then also Lawrence Maguire to drop down the the rail slightly just so we could get him out and then we'd be up the pitch Advanced out of their press couple of things we we noticed um in terms of their press um especially from watching the first game back was how their pivots jumped say Cory had the ball here or place to Dion Dion receives here gets pressed and then Jay Williams drops in he plays and then the

two pivots would go really aggressive against our two pivots like that leaving a 5v5 on the top line so then we would look at set and then we'd look at up back through so whether it's a ball into the strike and then we spin in receiving and playing forward or whether it's um a ball into feet where Jeremy Kelly was excellent at receiving the ball off the line and coming inside on his stronger foot his right foot he playing on the left it'd be like a bounce invite the press space bounce back Jeremy Kelly safe

side comes in the shape and all of a sudden we're now looking at these sort of actions where we're getting balls down the side of them which worked um especially in the second game after we analyzed it from the first game so they little things like that we looked at um and also we looked at cuz the top line if the Top Line were really high like their back line was really high and our and we were marked like that and then we had that initial press again from their Perot where we played in invited

the Press played back and their line was really high we looked at good movement off off the back of them so we could play balls kind of in behind their back line um which kind of worked as [Music] well Lola's really calm he slid in um Liam Kelly keeper comes out Dan AI just comes in into a square position plays across goal you know and it was kind of like really calm within the chaos there was a lot of bodies in there and we just played through into Liam Liam didn't Panic at all the keeper

come out kind of opened the goal up for Danilo aie and aie just tooks it [Music] away the game was pretty much won at this moment now you know and and we um we had an action where Jack rolls um had a shot keeper kind of saved it onto the onto the post I think they clear it and you could feel the players really manage that moment so so well because we felt that we'd won the game at that moment and we just rested with the ball I think we made 50 passes within that within

that action you know as soon as the ball hit the post we retrieve it and we just rest with the ball you know we get good triangles we get people dropping into pockets and and you know no disrespect but MK looked really disheartened in that moment coming back off Corey Cory would rest with the ball there Dion would split we'd play we'd bring the ball out we' make passes and we just rest with the ball and we just saw the game out with [Music] possession in terms of the final um we went with the same

shape the one change I made from the semi-finals was Kellen Gordon coming for Harry Foster um which was a a forced uh change to make obviously um Harry fer got injured in the semi-final so we had to make that change but we're really confident with Kell Kell Gordon had played a lot of football for us throughout the season so we're really happy with the team that we' picked same shape back three boxing Midfield two Wing backs and a striker crew they played a 4-2 3-1 going into the game we was unsure really about what what

shape they'd play Lee Bell who's uh a really good manager he's uh he's played various shapes uh with crew you know sometimes they play with a back three sometimes they play with a back four so getting prepared for the game was quite tough but what we did was we we made sure that we covered both scenarios if they were going to play a back three we knew how we was going to press if if they played a back four we knew how we was going to press so we were quite kind of organized but it

just became a little bit um more work on the training ground just to make sure that everything was [Music] covered in terms of how we pressed against them um one of their better best players was uh Mickey dimitrio so we wanted to make sure that we we put real good pressure on him so we had Dan Danilo ay um ready to press uh Demetrio so with our Midfield structure we ended up with uh Jay Williams looking after their number 10 then we had clydey lus and uh and Liam Liam Kelly kind of jumping slightly higher

which bumped Adam Campbell on to to press their right hand side CER half then what we'd do is we would have our our back line as it were looking after their front three so for argument sake if if Demitri had the ball there then um denil oari would press and kind of show him to the line if he played to his fullback then we would jump Kell on really aggressively and be aggressive behind the ball and almost create a 2V1 here so we had good depth and numbers here and then we'd get the back on

this side Jeremy Kelly to be what I call in on the pinch so it'd be in on the pinch there making sure we got a 2V1 matched up in Midfield obviously an aggressive press across their back line leaving their right back on the other side spare aggressive over one side of the pitch now obviously if they if they switched the play through their keeper and they went kind of out and and played these sort of balls there then we would readjust our positioning really quickly where Jeremy Kelly would go put pressure on the ball high

up Lawrence Maguire would be over Deon would come over will would come over Kellen Gordon would get back in on the pinch same again aggressive across one side of the pitch like that leaving the the opposite fullback and we felt that we we wanted to keep him this way so the way he would press is press to the line and we would hope for for scenarios like that where we could steal the ball and and start our possession from there we knew also that um with with these two outside wings backs being what I call

in on the pinch that it would give us numbers at the back with their direct style as well you know they made passes there was times when they made passes but there's also times when when they go really direct so we need to make sure that this back this back line was was correct and and and we had good numbers behind the ball so when they went direct we always had that spare one there where we could go aggressive and one spare behind and we could pick up and play from there [Music] in terms of

our build very similar in many ways to uh to MK Don's where we knew that they kind of outside players would would jump onto our outside Center R so we would bring them slightly higher like this um and then try and create another 2V1 um with with Dion and Corey so um what we did was we we had actions where again the center forward nebit would press we play um we play Cory um but once Cory kind of got possession in these positions here we knew that we could not kick the ball in this area

here because of demetrius's um defensive uh ability to Ed the ball back in um and when I watched when we played crew um before when we when we play crew before we we made passes like this Cy brought out and he kicked a lot down there and they they headed it back in and they picked a lot lot of second balls up within that game so we wanted to make sure that once we got Cory out and Dion was pressed and we we got him out we wanted to make sure that we kicked this side

of the pitch so we really jumped Lawrence Maguire high so Lawrence would come into these sort of positions here and we would get um Jeremy Kelly really Advanced um and we would make kind of them sort of passes in here to Lawrence to to either control or head down into these bodies here and we' pick the second up and play from there there was times uh kind of early on in the final where we'd get Cory out and then Jay Williams would drop in but the number 10 row was really aggressive behind him and we

Tri Tred to make them them passes where nit would press Dion would play to Cory neit would recover his Run start to press Cory now so we knew Dion was a spare man and we tried to play them hook passes but we felt that the the aggressive nature of row was really apparent um so we changed that really quickly and I I I didn't want to make them risk passes into there to get that hook out cuz I just felt that he was so aggressive within that moment so we either had him running away and

we could get Liam Kelly on the ball in them moments and turn and Advance forward or we would have like I say um Lawrence Maguire getting into these positions here and we would kick a longer longer [Music] pass in terms of our shape when we got further Advanced up the pitch again we'd have a shape shift where we we would bump Liam Kelly slightly higher so again Adam Campbell would would become that second stri um Liam Kelly would kind of jump a little bit higher into these positions here we would have Jay Williams more of

a a single pivot as it were and you know um we'd start kind of making sure that um Liam Kelly was involved in in a lot of our attacking actions um with his ability to to find passes with his ability to shoot with his ability to pick people out so we wanted him high up the pitch and you saw from the first goal there was in fact just before we scored the first goal we had a real good action where we played real intricate play around the edge of the box and Liam ended up getting

through and having a shot and and then of course denil o or's goal uh Liam Kelly was involved in that where he played into into Dan Ry ay turns and scores and then of course in later on in the game where um Liam Kelly's really Advanced high up the pitch again he gets into these little pockets here and scores his goal so we wanted Liam to be really high and aggressive which kind of left uh Jay Williams as the single pivot in them in them moments [Music] you know when I come into Crawley in January

um of last season and there was a lot that needed to to happen in the background you know there was um a lot of players that needed to to to be moved on and we need to to recruit the right people um so a lot of work had to be done in the background um and we had to build a culture in which this way of playing was really apparent um you know that we needed to to build a culture in order for this to work you know we need to to have a work ethic

where everybody was willing to run really hard um that's important to me that the players are willing to run hard you can't play this way if the players are not going to run um so I had to change the culture in order for me to change the culture I had to change Personnel so we did that over time um and now we've got um a real hungry set of players who are willing to to run hard and and play in this way they enjoy it you know we have a lot of the ball we're dominant

with possession uh and the players really enjoy it what the three victories meant to me was a real sense of um satisfaction in terms of how we played in all three games I'm kind of a coach who has always gone after performances and results will be the byproduct of them performances so I was really big on how we performed every week and to be honest with you we we performed very similar to that most of the Season we didn't always get it right we didn't always win you know um but we were always big on

performance es and I felt that the three playoff games everything fell into place perfectly you know we scored some good goals we were really aggressive on the Press um we played some really good football um so it was really satisfying for me was was the actual performance over the results of course the results um is the reason why we got promoted um but the actual way and the manner that we went about all three games was really satisfying for me as a coach [Music]