How Wrexham could “Box Off” League 2

With the dust settling on promotion celebrations and the retained list published, Wrexham fans are looking forward to the start of the 2023-24 season.

Social media is awash with transfer speculation, with the general consensus seeming to be that Wrexham already have a very good squad to challenge towards the top of League Two and may well look to make just a handful of high quality additions ahead of the new season. 

One thing for certain is that whichever 11 players Phil Parkinson sends out on the opening day of the new season we expect them to set up in a 3-5-2 formation. When Parkinson first arrived at the Racecourse fans of his previous clubs made it clear that this is the system we would be playing and over four transfer windows Parkinson has built an excellent squad, which is fully suited to that system. 

However, I thought it would be interesting to consider how a change in system may help Wrexham push for consecutive promotions. This is in no way meant as a criticism of the 3-5-2, but I think it only benefits a team if they can adjust their shape and style, either because of injury or to counter certain strengths of the opposition. This can be both Plan A at the start of a game or Plan B or C during a game if things are not going according to plan. We've seen Parkinson do this on occasions when we have been behind in games,  sacrificing one of the back three to switch to a 4-3-3.

An example of an effective box used by Chelsea in a Premier League match away against Southampton

Rather than bang the drum for a 4-3-3 though, what I would like to consider is how the current squad could play with a box midfield, a system that is being deployed more and more commonly in English football.

In recent seasons, we’ve seen Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City adopt a box midfield by bringing a defender up as a second holding midfield player, turning a 4-3-3 into a 3-2-2-3 formation. Thomas Tuchel also frequently adopted a box midfield at Chelsea with a 3-4-2-1 formation and with our current squad and 3-5-2 formation I think the latter of these would be the shape Wrexham would adopt. 

The main principle of the box midfield is to give numerical superiority in the middle of the pitch, therefore allowing greater retention of possession, or control in this area. This control is exactly what Guardiola wants when pushing a defender up alongside Rodri to make a double pivot in midfield.

When coming up against a 3-man midfield, it gives a numerical advantage. This can force opposition wide players to have to cut inside or defenders to push up to match the box midfield numerically, creating space in other areas which can be exploited.

When coming up against a midfield with a single sitting midfielder the box midfield with two players in that same area of the pitch offers that aforementioned numerical advantage, which can help with creating attacking opportunities, or stop the opposition building up from the back as effectively.

With two, rather than one, holding midfielders the wing-backs also have more license to push high up the field simultaneously to allow for a quick switch of play and to be in the right areas to get balls into the box more often.

How Wrexham could utilise the ‘Box Midfield’

Based on our current squad, I would look to set up a box midfield with Andy Cannon and Tom O’Connor as the holding midfield players and Elliot Lee and Jordan Davies as the front two midfield players behind Paul Mullin. I would also select Mendy and Barnett as the wide players. 

Taking each of those decisions in turn, I think Cannon and O’Connor are very well suited to the holding role, but have different strengths so would compliment each other well.

Both are good at screening the back line and have a good eye for a pass. In terms of passing options, depending on how the opposition midfield is set up the two CDMs can play across to each other, either vertically or diagonally to the CAMs or wide to the wingbacks.

Mendy and Barnett would be my choice for wing backs as I think they offer the most attacking threat and have the energy to get up and down.

With the extra holding midfield player we could utilise their undoubted ability in the final third even more than we currently do, with both capable of getting good deliveries into the box, beating a man to break the defensive line and getting shots off on goal.

The main draw back with this system can be a lack of width, with so many players stacked together in a central area, so it relies heavily on the dynamism of the wing backs to provide as much width as possible both defensively and offensively.  Fortunately in Wrexham’s case in Mendy and Barnett we have two players who I think are more than suited to the demands of this role.

Elliot Lee and Jordan Davies I think are perfectly suited to the two attacking midfield roles. Jordan had a difficult campaign with injuries and then struggled to get back into the team with the good form of those in possession of the shirt. I think this role would really suit Jordan as it would free him up to get into dangerous positions in and around the penalty area to create chances and score goals, while taking away some defensive responsibility (not totally, just less than in a three man midfield), which I feel is the area of his game he needs to work on the most. 

This is probably the sort of position that a lot of fans envisaged Lee playing in when he first signed and I think he has surprised a lot of people with how hard he works off the ball and his love for a slide tackle! However, I think pushing him slightly further forward with O’Connor and Cannon behind him would free him up to do even more damage in the final third.

I would look to play Lee on the left and Davies on the right, so they would naturally come inside onto their stronger foot, helping get them close to link up with Mullin and making it easier to get shots off on goal. Perhaps they could also switch over sometimes if we wanted to allow Barnett and Mendy licence to cut in off the flanks into the inside channel, whilst still allowing us to maintain some natural width.

Picking Mullin up top is simply because he is our best player and our top scorer, even if at face value he isn’t the best suited to the “lone striker” role. Both Palmer and Dalby could also fill this role, but I think Nathan and Rich would have sent me packing had I presented an article about a team with Super Paul Mullin on the bench!

Watching how Mullin battled with the very physical Boreham Wood central defenders on that unforgettable Saturday evening in April, I have every confidence that he is capable of holding the ball up and bringing others into play.  However, I am sure we can all remember the transformative effect Palmer had on the team when joining in January 2022. For this system to work we need to get Lee and Davies close enough to Mullin and the team to play through the lines more than over the lines, to avoid our attack regressing to the Pre-Palmer era. 

When Wrexham could utilise the ‘Box Midfield’

As I said earlier, I am not suggesting we ditch 3-5-2 for a box midfield altogether.

When I think we could use this system effectively is in an away game against a team with a three-man midfield where we want to try and have more control of the ball, perhaps looking to control the game and quieten the home crowd. We would also still hold the option to turn to Dalby or Palmer off the bench if needs be.

Another example could be in-game, perhaps to help defend a lead, by bringing off a striker for an attacking midfielder. Remember how Guardiola blew kisses at Jack Grealish for playing the simple, backward pass against Real Madrid in the Champions League? Slowing the game down and controlling possession is, for Guardiola, a way of defending. We could use the box midfield to control a game and therefore protect a lead rather than dropping deeper and deeper and inviting pressure on to ourselves. In this scenario you could also argue that leaving Palmer or Dalby on and bringing Mullin off may be more sensible, as you'd have the advantage of their physicality to help defend set pieces. 

You might also use this system because of injuries. If a couple of strikers are unavailable (based on our current four senior strikers), this system would allow you to start one with another to come off the bench. Or perhaps if the forever energetic James Jones and Luke Young were both unavailable, the box midfield would give us a system where that loss would be less acutely felt. And if last season's ever present Ben Tozer was unavailable I think this switch could work too.

Now I know changing the midfield shape because a centre back is unavailable might seem drastic on first glance, but hear me out.

When you consider how many long balls Tozer plays out to the flanks and with none of our other defenders showing that same passing range, rather than ask someone to try and do something they aren't comfortable with, we could switch our midfield to a box and play more through midfield with Cannon and O'Connor receiving the ball from the back three to build attacks from there. 

I stress that this article isn’t a criticism of 3-5-2, but simply an idea of how we could add a string to our bow.

In his recent appearance on the Fozcast, Palmer commented that compared to Notts County we have so many different styles and can score different types of goal. I think adding to that versatility only benefits us in the longer term and greater tactical flexibility and unpredictability would be an advantage going into what we all hope will be another successful campaign. 

If anyone has any thoughts or comments you can find me on Twitter (@AWGR_bw), but no prizes for telling me to get back in my box! And a big thanks to Nathan and Rich and also Tom Williams (@tomhwilliams23) for helping me put this together. 

Up the Town!