How Andre Breitenreiter’s experiment gave way to Watford masterstroke

The new Huddersfield Town head coach changed things up midway through the second half and reaped the rewards. But why did his initial approach start so well then stop working?

We were intrigued to see how Andre Breitenreiter would line his Huddersfield Town side up for his first game in charge against Watford on Saturday.

The answer turned out to be a slight tweak on what he had done to such great effect at Zurich. His Swiss title-winning side had usually lined up in a 3-1-4-2, with a passing defensive midfielder sitting between the back three and a more advanced midfield pair.

Here, though, Breitenreiter inverted that midfield triangle, playing Jonathan Hogg and Alex Matos as a deeper-lying pair while Jack Rudoni played as a number 10.

If you need a primer on what exactly a number 10 is, David Hartrick wrote a jargon buster for you back in December. In short, the term covers two slightly different roles: either a deeper-lying centre-forward, in the mould of Teddy Sheringham or Dennis Bergkamp, or the version we’re actually talking about here; a central attacking midfield player in the mould of Kaka or Kevin De Bruyne.

That role presents an interesting talking point that is worthy of further dissection. After all, Breitenreiter intends to continue with this shape (by no means a given, as we’ll get into later), his number 10 will be perhaps the most important player in his side’s attacking play.

Let’s start with what Breitenreiter will expect from that role – and how changing into a shape without a number 10 in the second half was crucial in delivering victory on this occasion.