March ‘Madness’
Brighton & Hove Albion is one of the most frequently discussed clubs in recent years. It started when Graham Potter became the head coach of Brighton in the 2019/2020 Premier League season, the flexibility and attractiveness of his team were often discussed and praised among football fans around the world. If people talk about Brighton & Hove Albion in the present era, they talk about De Zerbi, Mitoma, Mac Allister, and Caicedo. But no one really talks about Brighton’s №7, and it’s surprising.
Why? Because he currently records the most goals plus assists for Brighton in the league this season. He’s not as flashy as Mitoma but he can give enough output when he gets the system to thrive, just like he did with De Zerbi this season. March is enjoying life under Roberto De Zerbi, recording 14 G/A in 33 Premier League games this season. Previously he didn’t score or assist entirely in the first 15 Premier League matches when Graham Potter was still in charge of Brighton & Hove Albion. His best-ever attacking output under Potter was 6 G/A in the 2018/2019 season. Of course, there are differences in how the two coaches play, so there is no complete comparison.
Roberto De Zerbi does have a pretty good track record in maximizing the abilities of his wingers. We can see the examples like Berardi (60 G/A in 89 starts) and Tete (10 G/A in 11 starts) when he coached Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk. The most recent examples are Solly March and Kaoru Mitoma who have scored a total of 25 goals and assists in 33 Premier League matches. Because of that, I tried to analyze how Roberto De Zerbi helps one of Brighton’s most underrated players to reach his best-ever attacking output in the Premier League.
Build-Up
De Zerbi uses a 4–2–4 build-up shape, where the four defenders and the double pivot are close to each other. The idea is to lure the opponent’s press to get closer to Brighton’s goal while the front four pin their markers to create space between the lines.
Four players are in the high areas of the pitch, usually filled by right winter (March), center forward (Ferguson/Welbeck), attacking midfielder (Lallana/Mac Allister), and left winger (Mitoma).
Because the space between the lines is quite huge, Brighton can use it to make progression. The CF (Ferguson) or/and AM (Mac Allister) drop to occupy the space and perform combinations with other nearby players.
If the opponent follows the Brighton player who drops, it will create space behind the opponent’s backline that can be exploited.
Because of March’s high position and he pins one of the defenders (usually the opponent’s LB), it keeps March from being in an offside position so he can take advantage of the opponent’s high defensive line and their backline’s body shape facing forward to come from the blindside and exploit the space behind the opponent’s backline.
If the opponent can close down March’s option to progress, he can switch play so Brighton can circulate and restart. March is often used to switch plays, taking advantage of his accurate long-ball ability.
Attacking Phase
De Zerbi’s Brighton usually attacks with five players in the last line of attack to fill the entire horizontal corridor, March is usually tasked to hold the width. March’s position allows Brighton to stretch the opponent’s backline, thus creating gaps that can be exploited.
When on the flank, he usually combines with the help of his nearest teammate, and if there is an option, he will give a cross or final pass into the penalty box. De Zerbi often uses 3rd man-run combinations to bypass the opponent’s press and defensive block.
He can also be the player who offers the off-the-ball/3rd man run himself to exploit the space created, with Brighton doing a 3rd man-run combination to break down the opponent’s defensive block.
Solly March is not considered a fast winger and doesn’t have the unpredictability of Mitoma, but he has pretty good 1v1 abilities.
This video shows the quality of Solly March’s 1v1 and how he does it. March comes to the defender slowly with his small steps, he then uses his body feint to send the defender in the wrong direction before accelerating to send a cutback.
It allowed Solly March to use the cut-back zone (often used by Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta) to help Brighton create chances.
This ability makes Solly March often double up (2v1) so the opponent can prevent him from progressing. However, that can make him pin 2–3 of his opponents and open access for other players.
March is an inverted winger — a left-footed player who operates on the right side. He mostly operates on the right flank, but it’s not uncommon for him to cut inside/move to the right halfspace when he has space. The space resulted from the positional rotations that occurred between players or the off-the-ball runs (by Gross/Veltman/Mac Allister) to open up the space for March.
De Zerbi’s Brighton shows how Solly March is often used as a creator to help Brighton create chances. De Zerbi takes advantage of March’s crossing (primarily inswing) from the right flank or right halfspace.
It’s supported by Solly March’s statistics at xA per 90, xGChain per 90, shot-creating actions per 90 (93rd percentile), and key passes per 90 (94th percentile) which is quite high. Although this data might be inflated with him being the set-piece taker = Dead-ball passes (86th percentile)
(Data from Understat and Fbref)
If there is enough space in the halfspace area, he can also shoot directly or beat his man first before shooting.
Those three choices make March have various ways to hurt the opponent. If the opponent follows/tracks the runs from (ex: Ferguson), the shooting and crossing spaces will be open. However, if the opponent does not follow/track the runs, March can provide the through pass to Ferguson.
In the penalty box, Solly March has a good goal instinct. Poaching is one of March’s underrated attacking attributes, he often attacks the back post to receive the pass or rebound from another player’s shot. With his positioning at the back post, he escapes the sight of the goalkeeper and defenders and is in a more dangerous area because it’s usually the least marked area.
Out-Of-Possession
Not only in the attacking aspect, but Solly March is also quite good in the defensive aspect. He had previously been used as a wingback by Graham Potter, so defending was not something new for him. When Brighton does a high press, March is usually assigned to press the opponent’s LB/LCB.
He managed to record 0.66 tackles in the attacking third (96th percentile), which shows that he often made tackles in the opponent’s area.
Solly March also drops to the backline, usually helping the right full-back (Veltman/Gross) to defend on the right side. He is disciplined to track his runner, and he recovered well even if he got caught out on numerous occasions.
In the present era, wingers are often assigned to trackback and help their backline to be more compact. You can see other examples like Bernardo, Grealish, and Saka who helped their full-back to defend. Therefore, today’s wingers rarely only excel in the attacking aspect, but also in the defensive aspects of the game.
Solly March’s performance under De Zerbi managed to get him nominated for the Premier League Team of The Season. He is currently helping Brighton to reach a spot in European Tournament Competition, with the hope of getting into the 2023/2024 UEFA Champions League or Europa League.
Solly March is 28 years old, a number that is considered to be the peak age of wingers. Brighton has also brought in an 18-year-old player from Argentina named Facundo Buonanotte who can play as an attacking midfielder and right winger (March’s position). It will be interesting to see whether Solly March will fill the RW starting spot for next season or not.
However, I hope Solly March can continue his consistency next season so we can see more of March ‘Madness’ under De Zerbi.
That’s all for today. Thank you for reading this article.
