Sheffield Wednesday must find way to break ‘newfangled’ tactic they didn’t face against Accrington Stanley

Each time Darren Moore or one of the Sheffield Wednesday players mention it, each time it is included in media coverage, you get the same response from the same people turning up their nose. But the ‘low block’ is a tactic Wednesday have spoken a lot about this season – and it’s one they’ve had to bang their head against from time to time.

Those who deride the term as a needlessly fancy description of a team merely ‘parking the bus’ or ‘sitting behind the ball’ have got a point to a degree – though we’re told there is a difference between a low block and a ‘mid block’, for example, which can also come across in similar fashion. It comes about around what areas of the pitch a defending team looks to defend, which players move to press the ball and when.

There’s such thing as a ‘high block’, too – though that’s very Premier League and is based around rapid pressing.

So how do you beat a low block?

It’s all very nuanced, it relies on a level of tactical understanding The Star is happy to admit is a long, long way behind in terms of understanding but the broad answer is that beating a ‘low block' relies on intelligent movement and the ‘pinning’ of defenders one-on-one to create opportunities to overload areas of the pitch.

Getting wing-backs into positions high up the pitch is also an area Wednesday work hard on when faced with a low block and it is vital they move the ball with pace in order to work possibles openings in the defence, something they failed to do in particular against Forest Green Rovers.

Hard work into these areas was evident as far back as Wednesday’s pre-season training camp in Portugal and has caused the Owls a headache or two in matches this season. Lincoln were the most recent example of a team that left their clash with Wednesday with what they wanted after reverting to a low block for much of the game.

Failing that, you can ‘attack the aerial space’ or in old money ‘smash it long’, with someone like Aden Flint pushed up top. There’s been a degree of success on that front recently.

So Wednesday struggle against this?

Well sort of but not really. As per stats service Wyscout, it’s no source of shock that in matches opposition teams have lined up in more rigid formations, Wednesday’s xG drops to 1.07 from a 1.51 xG against more progressive systems.

The actual goals tally isn’t too much of a drop but in matches Wednesday are chasing the game, it has been an admission of Moore’s that they have struggled to pick the lock of low block systems - and has aused them to come away scratching their heads from matches they would have been expected to win handsomely.

It was expected that Accrington Stanley would rock up with the intention of sitting low but instead chose to press high, allowing Wednesday to bypass with a direct passing style that returned three goals.

What will Burton Albion plump for in this weekend's Pirelli Stadium clash? It’s short odds Wednesday may face another low block to unpick.

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