Gor Mahia have regularly fielded a starting eleven this season with a midfield trio of Alpha Onyango, Lawrence Juma, and Austin Odhiambo.Alpha and Lawrence are double pivots with Odhiambo as the central attacking midfielder.In terms of player roles, Lawrence is often the more defensive-minded, frequently playing as a ball winner of sorts. Alpha is tasked with ball progression and circulation while Odhiambo is the team’s chief chance creator who operates in the final third.Nani hajakipenda Chuma Cha Alpha Onyango?#FKFPremierLeaguepic.twitter.com/ZfbEiJC1nv— FKF Premier League (@Officialfkfpl) December 3, 2023 With these roles, it’s clear that Alpha is heavily involved in build-up as it is the first stage in the ball progression sequence.Gor Mahia play with a double pivot, but if you thought Alpha made up half of Gor Mahia’s double-pivot with Lawrence (Or in some matches, Ernest Wendo), think again.He is rarely found close to Lawrence, Alpha offers K’Ogalo something different, and the genius of his positioning is beating every opposition press.Opponents are understandably caught up in smothering Lawrence and Odhiambo, K’Ogalo’s two playmakers who sit between each line of the opposition press.##NAJAVA_MECA_8136651##Add that to Jonathan McKinstry’s inverted full-backs, and the pressing teams have problems in central areas.Teams quickly realized that wingers were redundant in the press and had to focus centrally against Kogalo. Most of K’Ogalo’s opponents this season have opted to press man-for-man in a sort of 4-4-2 shape.Knowing that a touch-tight full-back must simply cover the pass from center-back to winger, they’d then transition into a new shape.However, Alpha has been making the same movement all season in the build-up. He drops into the backline either in the center where he acts as the central center back or wanders over to the right side to play as the right center back acting as a bridge for that center-back to winger pass.AFC Leopards seek to bolster technical bench and squad ahead of new seasonAgainst these pressing teams, he causes a real problem, especially for the opposition left-winger (in this case, the No.11).Most teams press with two players in the first line of pressure. What this means is that a free pass into him beats the press immediately and leaves him with time and space to turn and play forward.However, if the No.11 tracks the run, leaving the right-back Rooney Onyango, this gives K’Ogalo a 5 v 4 overload in the first phase and, even better, a 3 v 2 build-up shape made up of Alpha and the two center backs as the first line and the inverted right back, Onyango making up the midfield 2 alongside Lawrence deeper marked by the white triangle.Finally, the solution most opponents came up with after halftime was to remove one of their front-two and place someone on Alpha. However, as before, this just gave K’Ogalo another 5 v 4 in the first phase.Whatever the opposition is doing in these situations, K’Ogalo can progress on the right side relatively quickly, thanks to Alpha Chris Onyango.
