I know Neil Lennon is supposedly not a big fan of video analysis, but this morning I spent a few minutes just looking through a few video clips of Ross County’s recent matches. In their most recent match, a 2-0 defeat to Hamilton, I noticed a lack of pace in their left back – Alex Iacovitti. He was exploited a few times in the highlight reel and Accies second goal came from that area of the pitch. You can see that footage below:
Looking at other line ups from County’s recent defeats, I noticed that Iacovitti sometimes starts on the left side of a back three, with Josh Reid dropping into the left back/wing back role. This was the case in County’s 4-0 defeat to Rangers and James Tavenir had so much joy getting in behind County’s defence.
I’ll spare you the highlights of that one, but three goals came from that area along with a catalogue of chances. Reid is a young lad of 18, whilst Iacovitti has been caught for a few goals of late. If I were Neil Lennon I would be looking to exploit Ross County’s weakness down their left side of the pitch, by allowing Jeremie Frimpong to overlap from right back. His pace could unlock their defence, which is something we struggled to do in the previous fixture at Celtic Park.
With Shane Duffy out injured, it makes sense to shift Ajer across to centre half and allow Frimpong to play on the right. A ball between in behind the centre back/left back could be a simple way for us to expose Ross County tonight. Although, we should of course have enough in our locker regardless!
Think the problem is that we don’t have any natural wingers available full stop. We have never really tested any teams by playing wide players to get behind defenders and crossing the ball into dangerous areas.