Low cost, high pressing: how Barnsley took the Championship by storm

12-Mar-2021 16:00:37 | The Guardian

Data-driven club were nearly relegated last season but the young team is unbeaten in 10 and in a play-off position now. How have they done it?

“Holding your nerve is a very polite way of putting it,” says the Barnsley chief executive, Dane Murphy, breaking into laughter as he recalls this time last year when the club was propping up the Championship and seven points from safety. They stayed up on the final day courtesy of a stoppage-time winner at Brentford but the sequel to last season’s miraculous escape might yet trump that climax. With 11 games to go, sixth belongs to Barnsley, a forward-thinking, data-driven club with a low-cost, high-pressing formula.

Barnsley’s style has revolved around suffocating and sapping opponents for a few years but, nine months ago, the landscape looked markedly different. “There was not a lot of sleep,” says Murphy. “The goal scored by Clarke Oduor to keep us in the division changes the stars. That really galvanised everyone involved because it proved that yes, we took a lot of risks last season by starting the youngest team in the division and having the lowest budget, and we struggled at times, mightily. But we have been able to give them time to grow into the group you see now and this is the reward.”