Milton Keynes Dons: A Tactical Analysis

On the 15th of January 2021 the MK Dons Twitter page sent out a tweet that congratulated Russell Martin on being at the club for two years and it’s more than feasible to say that many would not have expected that tweet to be coming at a time where he is not a player at the club, but the manager.

On joining MK Dons in January of 2019 on a short term deal after being signed by then manager Paul Tisdale Martin played a vital role in the club gaining promotion back to League One on the final day of the season. Tisdale was then subsequently relieved of his duties in November 2019 and former Scotland international Martin was given his first job in management as Tisdale’s successor Martin then decided to call time on his playing career a few days later to fully focus on the job in hand.

Martin has publicly spoken of his admiration and gratitude for the way Dons fans have accepted him and supported him in the transition from player to manager and he has also spoken in the same manner that his players and staff have also embraced his style of coaching and how that is translating on the pitch. During Martin’s later playing career he always had thoughts and ideas on how he would like his team to play should he ever get the opportunity to step into management and after gaining his UEFA A license in 2017 and then the UEFA Pro License in 2018 Martin was all set to use his knowledge gained over his 503 club appearances to accompany his 29 Scotland caps spanning a 15 year playing career.

So what exactly has he implemented at MK Dons?

Possession and Passing

It has been a varied season so far in 20/21 for Martin and his MK Dons side with players coming and going and results very much up and down but one thing that has been very clear is Martin’s possession based style of play something which hasn’t changed all season long. The Dons are ranked 1st in League One for the average possession percentage in a game with 59.8% and alongside that is their all out high volume passing game with them completing an incredible 484 short passes per game on average which again is the highest in the league, a clear identity has been implemented by Martin and his staff and this hasn’t wavered or changed at all but is it as effective as it sounds?

Below we can see a table outlining Russell Martin’s numbers from his MK Dons managerial career so far.

If we look at Martin’s win percentage for this season which is 35.4% (a slight improvement on his total career win percentage of 33.9%) this maybe isn’t a bad return for a relatively new League One manager one might say and what is expected of Martin from the MK Dons board is unclear but survival is of the upmost importance that’s for sure. If MK’s ambitions are higher than that then Martin will of course have to improve that win percentage number significantly to hit the heights of  Lincoln City’s Michael Appleton for example, who took up the head coach role at fellow League One side Lincoln City around the same time Martin did at Stadium MK but 2 months earlier in September 2019 (Appleton has a career win percentage of  40.9% for context), who has a win percentage of 61% this season a great deal higher than Martin but of course we should take into account Martin is in no way as well versed in the perils of club management as Appleton is but IF MK Dons have higher ambitions Martin will need to improve on that number as it is a pretty good way of measuring the success of a manager overall.

Impressive wins this season away at Sunderland, Swindon Town and Charlton Athletic and the more recent combative display in the FA Cup at Burnley have covered over some perhaps mediocre performances so let’s take a glance at MK Dons and their numbers in League One this season.

MK Dons: The season in numbers and possible areas of improvement

MK Dons Attacking Radar | League One | 20/21

Using our Yushu Group chosen metrics in assessing a team’s attacking output we can see here that MK Dons possession based style of play really shines through quite strongly and as we have mentioned already they top the charts in League One for average possession percentage in a game this season at 59.8% and also the pass completion percentage of 85% completes the passing areas of their play, or does it? MK rank 11th in League One for key passes per 90 at 8.7 and 13th for shots per 90 with 11yet translating all this into actual goals is proving very tricky with Martin’s team scoring at a rate of 1.2 goals per 90 (4th placed Doncaster Rovers scoring at 1.8 per 90 rank highest here). MK have scored a total of 26 goals so far this season winning just 6 league games out of a possible 22 in the process, not  a great return it is fair to say.

MK don’t seem to have a huge problem in their actual shot volume, although this of course does need to be improved upon,  but their xG per 90 of 1.29 (which ranks them around 14th for this metric in League One) suggests the chances they are creating aren’t as good as what they should be. MK also rank 22nd for completed crosses per 90 minutes,  more on that later,  yet the ones they do complete are hitting the penalty area consistently as the box cross percentage tells us. An overall summary of MK Dons attacking output would be that it is all a bit, well…steady and at the same time not overly impressive. Mid-table numbers would probably be a fair assessment at this moment in time.

Let’s take a look at MK’s defensive numbers now and see if anything jumps out.

MK Dons Defensive Radar | League One | 20/21

Here we can see that MK Dons have an excellent shots conceded ratio and in fact at 8.1 shots conceded per 90 minutes this ranks them 2nd best for this metric in League One second only to Sunderland at 7.8. But is this skewed by the fact MK tend to dominate possession in the majority of games they play in? In this instance yes I think it does to an extent as other possession based sides such as Hull and Sunderland all make up the top three for the shots that they give up.

The Dons concede nearly a goal a game from open play which ranks them 8th in League One for this metric. They have concede 5 set piece goals this season so little to be concerned about there at the moment and the same could definitely be said about the conceding of counter attack goals with the Dons having conceded not a single goal from these scenarios all season. Russell Martin, more often than not, tends to employ a fairly high press and prefers not to let the opposition build up from short goal kicks but what is probably more noticeable is that he sets his front players and midfielders up in positions where they are blocking passing lanes rather than an intense high press although they do still engage the opposition but only when the traps have been set.

Left is left: A clear attacking strategy?

Dons fans will be very much aware that, over the course of what seems like a few seasons now, a leaning towards attacking down the left hand side whether that be from Dean Lewington as a left wing back in seasons gone by or the heady days of the two George’s, Williams and Baldock, as wing backs in a well balanced side it has to be said.

This theme has continued to this day and we will examine that a little more now.

For the majority of this season Martin has set his side up in a variation of a 3-5-2 whether that be in a 3-1-4-2 with a single holding midfielder or a 3-4-1-2 with a pivot in central midfield and a player in the no.10 position but a lot of this changed for reasons only Martin will know, possibly down to his main central midfielder Jordon Haughton being a long term absentee due to injury and maybe Carlton Morris returning to his parent club Norwich City could be possible reasons, in more recent weeks anyway.

But MK had replacements at the ready, Andrew Surman a versatile midfielder , Cameron Jerome also a familiar name, and a more recent signing Ethan Laird on loan from Manchester United who can play on either flank, so the balance has been restored somewhat.

With all that being said it is Martin’s most recent set up of his team in a 3-5-1-1 formation that we are going to take a look at a little more in depth and how that affects the way MK Dons are attacking in that shape.

Firstly, and although when detailed on some sites as a 3-5-2 when setting up in the recent 0-2 away win in at Northampton Town in an EFL Trophy game, MK Dons, as they did against Burnley in the FA Cup game, resembled more of a 3-5-1-1 with In the graphic below we can see the MK Dons player’s average positions in that game.

MK Dons Average Positions vs Northampton Town

As we can see from the graphic above MK Dons had a pretty clear left sided attacking strategy and when we look at a seasonal averages (see below) of where MK Dons tend to do the majority of their attacking from we can see that the tactics against The Cobblers wasn’t a one-off. Joe Mason played in a withdrawn center forward role behind the excellent Stephen Walker, although the two were very interchangeable throughout the game. We can also see a holding midfielder in Surman and Dons also have Lasse Sorenson who can also play here so they have options in central midfield it must be said. This can be described as an asymmetrical set up and when watching the game back we can easily identify that this was indeed the case and this was a clear tactic from Russell Martin there isn’t much doubt about that.

In fact 47% of the attacks come down the left hand side compared to 25% through central areas and 28% down the right hand side.

A better way of showing the threat MK Dons pose down their attacking left hand side is by a heat map graphic and remember this is showing data over the course of the whole of this season and the sheer volume in the usage of this area is hugely evident here.

MK Dons Attacking Sides 20/21

In Summary

We have identified that MK Dons are a threat going forward especially down the left hand side with manager Russell Martin’s preferring a possession based style of play, with an emphasis on shorter passes in extended sequences rather than many long balls. If MK Dons can start to convert more of the chances that they are creating then the season will hopefully turn out to be a better one than Dons fans may expect and with the recent addition of striker Charlie Brown on loan from Chelsea to bolster the attacking options the chances of that happening may have increased, who knows. Consistency is key component of course, something that has partially eluded them this season and as we all know finding a winning rhythm is a vital component especially in a season where anything can happen.