Hogg felt formation switch worked well for Cobblers in Cambridge friendly
Cobblers boss Chris Hogg was impressed with the way his players adjusted to a new formation during Tuesday’s pre-season friendly against Cambridge United.
Town had mostly played 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 under Hogg but it was more of a 3-4-3 at the Abbey Stadium, where Joe Wormleighton and James Maxwell operated as wing-backs and Kamarai Swyer and Logan Briggs played off Elliott List in attack.
“I thought it was good,” said Hogg, who reverted to a back four in the second half. “The boys did a good job in adjusting to a few things and we built some rhythm up in different phases of the game and that allowed us to have success playing through them and around them and we created some good moments.
"It's all principle based and behaviour driven regardless of the shape or structure of the team. It's the same principles in terms of how we want to play and there are certain elements we have tried to feed in over the course of the last five weeks.
"We have different structures out of possession and I thought we did a good job of protecting our goal. They had a couple of chances but the communication and organisation was really good.
"With the ball, it's more getting used to each other and connecting with each other and progressing the ball proactively through the pitch. You can build up in various ways but ultimately we want to get the ball in the attacking third and into the box.
"We have to keep working on that. The boys are open to learning and they are showing good commitment to what we're asking them to do.
"We're also seeing a different connections and seeing people in different positions on the pitch. You look at Perks, he started in the middle of the pitch and then moved to left-back and I thought he was terrific, particularly in the first half. He was really good.
"Joe Wormleighton played as a wing-back and held the width in the first half but was then a bit more orthodox in the second half as part of a back four. It was really nice to see that.”