How Swindon Town's new signings can revamp their attack

Paul Glatzel, Zack Elbouzedi, Harry McKirdy, Aaron Drinan, and Sean McGurk have been added to Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Charlie Austin to give Gavin Gunning plenty of options to pick from to try and unlock defences.

As yet Gunning has largely stuck to the style that we saw last season, with a narrow front three that look to combine together and get in behind the opposition defence, but even in defeat to Newport County, the introduction of the new signings off the bench displayed that the offensive signings did not merely provide depth but also variation.

Amongst the five wide attackers in the squad, Gunning now has five very different types of players that can help to come up with answers to whatever questions the opposition poses.

Against Bradford City and Newport, Glatzel and Hepburn-Murphy have started, both of whom threaten defences in behind but in quite different ways.

Glatzel is always looking to go in behind (Image: iFollow, Swindon Town)

Glatzel is quite a natural inside forward as he looks to stay narrow and run in behind at every opportunity. Whenever Swindon get the ball, he looks to stretch the pitch by running beyond the back line to either create the opportunity for a through ball or open up space in between the lines.

Hepburn-Murphy looks to dribble into space (Image: iFollow, Swindon Town)

Hepburn-Murphy can also threaten in behind with his pace, but he will generally only look to run into space during quick transitions. The 25-year-old prefers to receive the ball to feet and then dribble beyond his opponent. He is in the 86th percentile for League Two players in successful dribbles per 90, so he has been effective in causing havoc this way.

However, despite the good chances that Swindon created and spurned in the first half, it was evident that those two, particularly Glatzel, had not been as effective as they had been the previous week. Newport were doubling up on them by dropping their wing-backs in to mark them along with their outside centre-backs.

Elbouzedi wants to stay wide (Image: iFollow, Swindon Town)

And then cross from out wide (Image: iFollow, Swindon Town)

Gunning sent on Elbouzedi within ten minutes of the break and he brought a different dimension. The Irish youth international has searing pace, but his biggest impact came from being a traditional winger. He hugged the touchline, preventing him from being double-teamed, and was looking to get into crossing positions, as shown by his putting in six crosses, Hepburn-Murphy and Glatzel had one between them.

Elbouzedi helped to change the game, but the goal was still not forthcoming and 15 minutes later, Gunning introduced McKirdy and McGurk.

McGurk moves wide to allow McKirdy to roam (Image: iFollow, Swindon Town)

McGurk has been brought in more to play centrally, but his experience as a winger is clear in how he plays. He plays as a mezzala, playing centrally but drifting out to the wing as often as he can to open up space for the wingers to move inside.

McGurk and McKirdy seemed instantly to have good chemistry as McKirdy could play as the free spirit that he is. When he drifted into the middle or onto the right wing, McGurk would move out to the left. Both of them had limited time on the field but had opportunities to score as their willingness to go into different areas became difficult to track for the defenders where Glatzel and Elbouzedi were more likely to stay in their zones.

In these five players, Gunning possesses a very exciting balance of free spirits, disciplined players, goal scorers, and creators. Almost every attacking archetype is now in the squad and that gives him all the tools he should need to revive a Swindon attack that has fallen away after a blistering start.