Dorking Wanderers: How simple principles brought them to the National League
The rise of Dorking Wanderers has been nothing short of a complete success story built on foundations of a club born out of absolutely nothing, spearheaded by founder, owner, chairman and manager Marc White.
It’s the stuff you’d think about only happening on a video game, but Marc has turned a dream of a football club into reality, after falling out of love with following Football. With 12 promotions over 23 years since the club’s inception in 1999, that dream is slowly heading towards the EFL after playing grassroots football such time ago. The simple principles and tactics of a free-flowing, exciting side are clear to see, helping Marc’s side become what it is today, with the side being able to prove themselves in the top division of non-league football.
The 3–5–2 is a staple of the Wanderers shape of play, and especially gained traction in their National League South promotion year of last season. They set up purely with two wing backs on either flank, preferred to the traditional wingers or wide midfielders either side, with a midfield pivot of one behind and two in front. The two strikers stay naturally forward however depending on rotation, they could come in and sit deeper with a higher playing midfielder, and create a box forward shape up front.
The holding midfielder role (the 5 in the example) in the Wanderers pivot is arguably the most vital role for the whole team, with that sole player being reliable for dictating play and creating attacks across the full 90 minutes. Marc likes to leave the holding player deep to offer an option for the back 3 in transition (as shown in the example), and commonly allow him to get on the ball to switch the play through him, or allow him to hit diagonal long passes for a full back or a forward player to get in behind on. Playing him so deep allows the man to have time on the ball to pick those diagonals, and so having a player man mark him is incredibly tough, as you have a dilemma with letting a striker go and press him or drag a man out of midfield and stay with him the whole game. Either option still has disadvantages, as if you let the striker press, he has 3 centre backs either side of him which are able to play quickly past him. If you drag a midfielder out, that leaves gaps which Dorking are very good at exploiting, and teams like them will punish you for it. One example of a player who held this role last season was Darren Oldaker, winning multiple accolades last season, and being a major force in Dorking’s promotion run last season. Oldaker was fantastic in ball retention, carrying forward and playing early to the flanks, making him such a hard player to mark and play against. An example, against Chelmsford City, as he was man marked the entire game, however was easily to play his normal style just due to his on ball ability. This and more earned him a move to National League frontrunners Chesterfield for 2022/23 season after his contract with the Wanderers expired, where he’s excelling with his new team. 3 goals and several good performances on multiple occasions can also show for Oldakers quality after making the step up from the National League South. Since moving on, the Surrey outfit have been struggling for performances in recent weeks, however manager Marc White said survival from the National League was the goal from the start.
Their full backs play high and usually stay high, mainly to provide width for the centre backs and holding midfielder play out from the back. This allows numerical advantages to be created across the pitch as they receive long balls over the top, latch onto and drive forward. They’re usually instructed to take their man on and deliver a cross, usually beating the man before playing the ball across the face of goal. However, players like Jimmy Muitt can do both, commonly taking the option to cut inside commonly and shoot on sight early instead of delivering an early cross, compared to the likes of Barry Fuller. The flexibility of the full backs give advantages to the Wanderers attacks as they commonly mix up their attacks making them unpredictable to deal with. The wing backs are tasked with tracking back however these can vary depending on the number of players the opposition are playing up front. A central front two for example can be dealt with by 3 centre backs instead, meaning the wings back can track back less and stay higher for longer.
The three centre backs are the main line of defence for the Dorking line, and all three of them have fantastic ball playing ability, and all 3 of which are able to meet the demands of Marc White’s system in transition. On goal kicks, they split and became a wide three, with the left and right hugging the touch line, with the holding midfielder dropping in to create a back-4 in transition. This gives width to the three but also gives them more options instead of limiting them to round-the-corner balls down certain flanks to beat themselves out of a press and lose possession. A common pattern of play is being patient and going side to side in Dorking’s style, which involves playing the ball across the back-3 and holding, and waiting for pockets of space to drop balls into. This system works as it tires the forward players on the press and forces teams to drop off and hold low blocks, meaning they are easily beaten in midfield, creating golden chances for their wide players. This makes teams with narrow set-ups very vulnerable against sides like these, as they use their width to their advantage, and then when they come inside the narrow formation they like to switch early to stretch out their formation and try and work to make their shape unorganised.
Their front two centre forwards always play as a duo, with one attempting to always hold up the play and lay off other players as a usual target man centre forward. The other, smaller and pacier centre forward commonly hunts goals, in the form of Alfie Rutherford before he got injured a couple of months ago. He has a habit of always making runs into the box, following up most shots and always runs towards goal. His runs towards the goal don’t usually vary, and rather focus on being more of a poaching striker from short range areas, and making sure he’s more prolific in front of goals, increasing conversion rate. His shots within the penalty area usually outweigh the shots from outside the box, so his shots during games usually have high xG rates compared to other strikes who have a wide range of shots during games. He usually prefers through balls leading to one-on-one opportunities compared to other balls played towards in, rather preferring to latch onto passes rather than straight to feet. Compared to other strikers, such as hold up players like Jason Prior, they prefer the ball straight to feet to be able to lay off for the other strikes or the wing backs. Prior, like Rutherford, is constantly in the box, and always looking to play off the shoulder of the defence, making runs towards the box, however staying on the edge more commonly, as Rutherford looks to get on the end of the crosses. Prior usually follows up to collect the scraps if a defender might slice a cross to the edge, or someone makes a mistake.
This system is so fantastically good as it’s a very attacking minded set up, and one that created the most goals scored from a single team across every single English league during the 2021/22 season, with 104 goals. This comfortably helped seal Dorking a second place finish, 4 points clear of promotion rivals Ebbsfleet United and a whole 22 points clear of the lowest play-off qualifying team Eastbourne Borough. These simple principles also show not how effective being simple in games can be, but also how much quality can be produced. With no sign of the club slowing down in progress anytime soon, we can only assume the Marc White era of Dorking Wanderers is something that can be appreciated and admired by every football manager.
Written by: WFCHenry
Twitter: @WFCHenry
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