From Nuno to Bruno: Part one

I try to dig a little deeper into Bruno Lage's time at Benfica to see what Wolves fans can expect

It is perhaps not a surprise that the replacement for Nuno is another Portuguese manager, but you’d understand any concerns that the new man Bruno Lage is inexperienced as a head coach.

While his extensive experience as a youth and assistant coach should not be ignored (he has a good reputation for developing young talent), it’s hard to know how to feel about this appointment.

His initial impact in charge of Benfica was pretty sensational on the face of it but it ended sourly for him. Either way, his 76 games are not enough of a sample size to make concrete claims about his coaching philosophy and playing style.

Lage’s Benfica record

However, it’s all we have for now. Pre-season will be interesting to watch to see his ideas form but for now I’m going to try and do my best to analyse some of the numbers as well as some games from his time at Benfica. Two of those are against Sporting which stood out as strong results while the other was a Europa League defeat to Frankfurt, where they went out on away goals (having been 4-2 up in the first leg).

In this particular article, I will look at some of the numbers from Lage’s time in charge of Benfica and a game from a month after being appointed, a 4-2 victory over Sporting.

The numbers

Again, the small sample of games we have make it hard enough to assess Lage’s abilities as a coach, it’s even harder with the publicly available information.

@WolvesAnalytics did a really good job with their own article. They made the point that whilst their goals per game dropped off as time went on under Lage, their number of shots didn’t. Were they simply massively over-performing initially, or did they have a brief unlucky period?

In 2018/19 (Lage took over mid way through that league season), Benfica over-performed their expected goals (xG) by over 20 goals. They scored 103 goals in the league that season, whereas their xG was 79.02. It seems likely that in that 19 games period in which Lage led the team for during that season, the suggested improved attacking approach drew some luck too. For expected points, Benfica actually ranked second that season with 71.5 (actually getting 87 points!), behind Porto.

In 2019/20, Lage’s only full season, Benfica had the highest xG in the league but ranked second for expected points again (once more behind Porto). Their xG was almost 13 less to 18/19 at 66.83, but they could not defy the odds quite so wildly again, scoring 71 goals that season. The underlying numbers were not awful though, so overall he did a fairly solid job.

Much has been made of the idea that Wolves are going to be more offensive and dominant under Lage. Benfica ranked first in both seasons for the number of passes and passes into the final third (around 60) per game. They were second and fourth for possession which indicates that whilst Lage might favour retaining possession it is more with the aim of progressing play quickly as opposed to a slow build up. The fact they still made the most passes seems to indicate it is a fast, shorter build up style, which I think fans would be encouraged by.

The metric that interested me most upon seeing it was passes per defensive action (PPDA). This is a decent measurement of how often or regularly teams try to regain possession. In Wolves last three Premier League seasons, they averaged 16.1 PPDA. This is skewed slightly by last season as this increased across the division but it should not surprise anyone. Under Nuno, Wolves were always patient without the ball generally in a mid-block, waiting to steal the ball at the right time. Under Lage, Benfica’s PPDA was 6.93 in 18/19 and 8.75 in 19/20. Based on this, you might expect Wolves to become more aggressive and pressing higher up the pitch and earlier in transition than in recent times.

03/02/2019 - Sporting 2 Benfica 4

This game comes exactly a month into his reign. Though Benfica were 4-1 up until very late in the game, this was a scrappy game with neither side having huge sustained periods of possession when the game was in the balance.

There isn’t a hugely clear playing style embedded at this point (which is understandable given it was his fifth game in charge), but there were some little things I picked up on.

Attacking full backs

Positioning of Benfica full backs in possession

Early on, you can see that the full backs of Benfica are going to provide the width in possession. This is further evidenced by the build up to the opener by Haris Seferović.

Seferović opens the scoring

Gabriel is allowed far too much time and space on the ball in midfield, but is able to play the ball in behind to Álex Grimaldo who can run into the space as Sporting are defending very narrow.

Gabriel plays the ball into the space from Grimaldo to run on to

Grimaldo is able to cross first time for Seferevoić who finishes very well with his head. With the full backs high and the wide players stepping inside, it allows Benfica to have plenty of players ahead of the ball.

This of course helps the team to overwhelm the opposition and create overloads and space across the pitch however the trade off is a vulnerability to the counter attack, as we can see in the goal below by Sporting.

Sporting break and pull a goal back through Fernandes

In this situation, Benfica have a lot of players in front of the ball but they give away possession cheaply. The above situation quickly becomes the below in a matter of seconds.

Benfica try to play centrally

Wolves had similar struggles when playing a back four and positioning their full backs high and wide. It exposed the centre backs and the defensive midfielders struggled to provide adequate protection as a pair. In the Premier League, defending counter attacks effectively is huge; especially if you are trying to dominate the game with the ball.

The ball turns over just inside the Benfica half

Sporting breakthrough Nani, who steps in with the ball and slides it to Bruno Fernandes. Admittedly, it’s a stunning first time finish but because of Grimaldo’s initial position, he can’t get back in time to recover and disrupt Fernandes.

Sporting can quickly break and score

A balance may need to be struck. A lot depends on the system Lage decides to use primarily with Wolves, but it may require tucking one of the full backs in at times if playing a back four. Alternatively, he may wish to use a back three to allow him to play with wing-backs high and wide constantly.

Deep long passes

Another feature of Benfica’s attacking play in this game (as seen in Seferović’s goal) was passes over the top of the Sporting defence from midfield.

Benfica were a threat in behind

This worked well for Benfica in the game as Sporting struggled to prevent the pass being played behind them.

Seferović signals for the ball over the top

As you can see in this example, as the ball is being passed backwards in midfield, Seferović has his hand in the air signalling for the pass over the Sporting defence. Benfica even have four players looking to occupy the Sporting back four.

Something Wolves have lacked in the past 18 months is runners in behind. If Lage can encourage the attacking and wide players to play on the shoulder of the opposition defenders more often, it will help provide a threat in behind and consequently create more space in front too if it causes the opposition to drop off a little. This would potentially greatly improve Wolves’ attacking output as a result.

Throw ins!

Something I did notice was that Benfica were fairly good at getting the ball back into play through throw ins.

This is an area where Wolves have particularly frustrated in recent seasons. It certainly didn’t seem like an area that had been worked on much, with players extremely static in these situations. The best you would hope for last season is for a set back to the thrower, who would have to play out under pressure.

Benfica get the ball back into play from throws

What you can see from the above clips is that not only are the throw ins from Grimaldo and André Almeida quite flat, meaning the ball gets to the player quicker and to their feet but the movements are clearly practiced. Multiple times João Félix initially moved towards the ball before spinning out, with the throw in played to a team mate who would play the ball to Félix after his second movement.

Also noticeable was that the players’ start positions were not too close to the player taking the throw in. This allows players to move into space and receive under less pressure. Often players stand too close to the thrower and are easily marked, forcing the throw in to be taken ‘down the line’ and into the air which creates a 50/50 fight for the ball.

Managing the game

Benfica scored minutes into the second half, a Rúben Dias header to make it 3-1. From there, they didn’t necessarily seek to control the game with the ball. They maintain their shape out of possession, seeking to prevent the ball being played into the Sporting midfield.

Benfica’s mid block

Seferović and Félix’s main tasks out of possession were to ‘screen’ off passes into midfield. This approach may suit the current Wolves squad and allow for a smoother transition as the mid-block, protecting the centre of the pitch is something that will have been ingrained in them by Nuno already. What will be required of them however is the need to be more aggressive when they are required to challenge the ball or when the opposition try to progress the ball.

In this game, Sporting quickly became unbalanced and Benfica found lots of opportunities to break and attack. Until the final moments of the game (the goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos was sent off after conceding a penalty), Benfica were relatively comfortable and Sporting struggled to create chances to get back into the game. The xG for the game was 2.06-2.76 in Benfica’s favour in this particular game. However, a lot of Sporting’s chances and shots (including the penalty) came in the final ten minutes of the game as they naturally chased a goal from 4-1 down and put more pressure on the Benfica goal.

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This was a first glimpse at what we might expect, but as we look through the other games, which are further into his time as head coach, we should be able to get a better picture of what Lage’s style of play and principles are.

Make sure to subscribe if you haven’t already, so you can receive part two as soon as it comes out.