What a difference a month makes. Look, things at Argyle aren’t perfect yet and given the perilous state of the club’s finances (not my words, but stated by our CEO at the recent fan forum) they may not be for some time yet. And yes, there’s always the risk this will age like milk with a tough run of fixtures coming up.
However I’d be churlish to deny that things have enormously improved beyond the extent I considered possible in such a short span of time. And I have to say, it seems as though I could hardly have asked for a better response to my most recent article where I stated the need for Argyle to rediscover the ‘intelligent’ edge that we lost in the past two calendar years.
Firstly, we need to look at the on field improvement. Whilst December was an upturn in results, I’d be lying if I said the stodgy and defensive performances felt fully sustainable.
January was different – we saw a team that was, yes, a winning team, but just as crucially, a team that had found its identity and philosophy. And, some would argue more importantly still, a team that had once again discovered the joy of playing football.
I’ll pause for a minute to direct readers, if they haven’t already, to watch the ‘Behind the Greens’ in-house club documentary. It’s an immersive viewing and one that really gives a good insight into the work going on behind the scenes.
Read The Previous Argyle Life Article Here
Tom Cleverley himself is working smarter, not harder. It was widely reported even in our darkest days that he got into the building before anyone else to plan tactically and to lay out his training plan for the day. Now though, we see him relaxed in the gym doing pull-ups at 6am before we catch a glimpse of two words on a clipboard that epitomise our recent revival: Fast Press.
Last month, Argyle became a team that was very comfortable not having the ball but not in the old Italian ‘Cattenacio’ way. It was intoxicating and energetic at all times.
In pretty much every game (with the exception of the New Year’s Day bore draw at Stevenage), we attacked like a swarm of angry wasps off the ball, relentlessly pressing and pouncing on the first sign of any error.
Where this was most visible is in the attacking output. In every single January game, even the aforementioned Stevenage one, Argyle registered a higher expected goals tally than their opponents and usually by a fair way.
For the uninitiated, xG measures the quality of chances created – and the data confirms what our eyes are seeing. It isn’t a perfect predictive measure, but it’s about as reliable as we can get in this day and age.
By being prepared to take more risks, bursting forward into the opposing half to press, it is no surprise that we have created more chances and scored far more goals. Three against Burton and four at Bristol Rovers were just the start of it.
Then at Peterborough came the performance that really made me think the Greens were starting to find their style again. We only won 1-0 but could so easily have scored four on the day and it was a similar story against Luton. Dominant performances against Mansfield and Stockport should have yielded more than a solitary point from the two games.
The other area of focus was the recruitment. After a series of disappointing transfers, I wanted to see substantial improvement. Critically, I wanted to see that we were making decisions based on sound data-led principles.
So far, this looks like another box ticked. When the news first broke that Argyle were signing Port Vale winger Ronan Curtis, more than a single eyebrow was raised around Plymouth.
At first glance, it was a baffling signing. Here was a player who wasn’t regularly playing at Port Vale, one of the only teams in the league to be worse than Argyle (at that time).
However, when you began to look at his advanced stats, great cause for encouragement was found. Curtis ranked highly for metrics such as expected assists, big chances created and chances created per 90. Not just for Vale but across the entire division.
That faith was seriously repaid watching his debut at Bristol Rovers, where he registered three assists in his maiden Argyle appearance. Surely the first time anyone has done that?
The word you’d most associate with Curtis? Width. And, with the exception of ‘pressing’ that’s also the word you’d most associate with our recent improvement.
Again, I would remind you that the December run of form was punctuated with some disappointing results at Home Park. We lost to Bradford, were demolished (albeit with 10 men) by Reading and only a late equaliser saw us pick up a point against Wycombe.
The main issue? We were too narrow, too narrow by half. Bali Mumba, a right footer on the left side, always wanted to come inside and take the ball into more central positions.
It’s not a bad thing necessarily – it’s just the way he plays. After his recent departure to Huddersfield, he seems to have started well for them playing a substantial role in their three match winning run. It was, though, a bad fit tactically for Argyle’s system.
Mumba always came central. Xavier Amaechi on the other side, he too always came central as did Ayman Benarous in the early stages of the Reading match. The result? We were so packed in the middle of the field it was easy for teams to counter and hit us on the break.
Cleverley to his credit has rectified this – Curtis offers natural width on the right hand side which allows us to stretch the play and get quality crosses in.
On the other side is Matty Sorinola. Like Mumba, he’s not a natural left footer but he’s far more inclined to make runs down the touchline and get chalk on his boots (even if it means having to use his weaker foot or to change his body shape at times).
When he does invert, left-back Brendan Galloway is given licence to overlap and threaten the wide areas.
Finally, we added two more players to our squad on deadline day with loanees Wes Harding and Herbie Kane.
I don’t have the page space to do them justice, but they’re both players who’ve thrived at this level and played passably in the championship. The pragmatism to sometimes take an experienced option is welcome and something we’ve perhaps not seen enough of over the years.
Obviously there’s a long way to go – Argyle’s fixture and injury lists mean February won’t be an easy month for us.
But nonetheless, the combination of unabashed width and the fast press have ensured a significant uptick in performance.
It seems like we are finally working smarter and long may it continue.
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