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Lucien Favre’s Tactics at Borussia Monchengladbach
by Jake Meador | Manager Analysis
Though they’ve received far less fanfare than Kevin De Bruyne’s Wolfsburg,Roger Schmidt’s frantic Leverkusen, or even Jurgen Klopp’s struggling Dortmund, it’s entirely possible that the most interesting team in Germany this season is Lucien Favre’s Borussia Monchengladbach.
Using a tight 4-4-2 and a fast-paced counter-attacking style reminiscent of the 1970s era Gladbach during the club’s greatest era, Favre has led his team to third place in the Bundesliga with only eight games left to play. Armed with an eight point lead over fifth placed Schalke, it’s highly probable that the Foals will be returning to Europe’s grandest stage next season with the only question being which of Germany’s two tactical masterpiece sides, Gladbach or Leverkusen, will have to advance to the group stage via the playoff as a result of finishing in fourth. Given Gladbach’s remarkable defensive record–their 20 conceded goals is second best in the division after Bayern Munich–I expect it will be Gladbach claiming third while Schmidt’s Leverkusen win the final German Champions League place.
The Basics of Lucien Favre’s Tactics at Borussia Monchengladbach
If you want to understand Lucien Favre’s tactics at Borussia Monchengladbach, you’ll need to be clear on a few basic points:
Gladbach’s 4-4-2 is closer to Atletico’sthan Manchester City’s, although Favre has certainly made the shape his own and can’t justly be accused of copying anyone.Gladbach use a limited form ofgegenpressing, but are not nearly as aggressive with it as Leverkusen or Dortmund.Defensively, the most important movement for Gladbach is not vertical, but lateral.Gladbach’s defensive system is built on a series of moves that have the appearance of being incredibly risky but are actually far safer than they first appear.
To get a better sense of how this all works, let’s start with a brief refresher on Diego Simeone’s use of 4-4-2 with Atletico. Simeone sets his side up in three lines stacked on top of each other with the back two being the famed two banks of four–four defenders with four midfielders sitting right on top of them. Simeone tends to keep those lines fairly narrow, however, as he will happily concede space out wide in order to clog the middle. The other point is that Simeone’s two banks of four tend to sitextremely deep. Against a good possession-based side it’s not unusual to see Atletico’s entire back four inside the 18-yard box and their four midfielders basically standing on the line that marks the edge of the box.
Atletico then scores goals by winning the ball and countering quickly through their two strikers (the third line that stays a bit further ahead of the four midfielders) and via set piece, where Simeone’s men are easily the most dangerous side in Europe.
Gladbach’s 4-4-2 has some basic similarities to Simeone’s approach, but they’ve introduced some more German elements to it that make the shape more unique than it seems initially.
At first glance this looks like a slightly less organized take on Atletico’s 4-4-2. The defensive line is very deep and it’s basically two banks of four sitting on top of each other. The one difference is that the space between Christoph Kramer, Gladbach’s #23 marked RCM above, and Patrick Herrmann, their number 7 marked RM above, is a bit larger than Simeone would tolerate. Conceivably, then, you could imagine Bayern getting the ball over to Mario Goetze, number 19, and Goetze doing something dangerous with that space the Foals have given to him. But that word “conceivably” is the key.
Borussia Monchengladbach’s Spatial Overloads in Defense
More than any team I’ve seen this year, Gladbach’s system relies on the players intelligently shifting laterally across the field in order to limit the passing options for the opposition and force them into risky passes forward or safe backward passes that don’t hurt the Foals at all.
View image | gettyimages.com
Trapping on the flanks isn’t a new idea, of course. Dortmund, Leverkusen, and Atletico (to name only three of the most popular practitioners) have been doing this for years. The idea is that you’re better off pressing on the edge than in the center of the park because the boundaries provide a natural assist to the defense, limiting the potential passing options for the man on the ball. This is all basic.
What’s different about Gladbach is two-fold: First, they push this idea of spatial overloads in order to pressure the ball on the wings to crazy new levels. Consider this image from early in Gladbach’s 2-0 win against Bayern Munich. Bayern has just played the ball down their right flank, Gladbach’s left, and now David Alaba is charging down the middle. Note that Gladbach’s defense has shifted so far to the left that their right back and right midfielder are basically in the middle of the park. Note also how much space Juan Bernat has down the left wing if Bayern can get the ball to him:
“If,” of course, turns out to be the key word here. Look at this frame–how exactly can Alaba get the ball to Bernat. He could try a through ball into that space in front of Bernat played between Kramer (RCM) and Herrmann (RM). But that’s going to be a really fine angle and almost impossible to get through. He can try playing a square ball straight out to Bernat but that is also going to be tricky to get through. Plus if it does get there Gladbach will simply slide toward that side of the field and now Bernat is going to be the one having to find a pass. The other option is for Alaba to play the ball back to Holger Badstuber, the Bayern player behind the ball closest to him. But Gladbach don’t care if he does that–they’ll let Bayern make those kind of passes.
SEE ALSO: A Guide to Roger Schmidt’s Tactics at Bayer Leverkusen
The key here is something I’ve written about before: The space that actually matters on a soccer field is really small–it’s just the space immediately around the ball. Your opponent can have a couple men in acres of space 40 yards away in really dangerous positions–as Bayern does here with Bernat and as they often did throughout the game against Gladbach. But that only matters if you can get the ball to them. And as we’re seeing above (and the above frame is representative of the match) Gladbach’s positioning and team movement is so good that getting the ball to those players left open is quite difficult.
So while Atletico Madrid use a compact 4-4-2 that tends to drop deep and then explode forward, Borussia Monchengladbach use a 4-4-2 that drifts side to side in order to eliminate passing lanes, press the ball, and, ultimately, win possession.
How Borussia Monchengladbach Attack
It’s in the attack that Gladbach truly looks like a German side. Since the revolution in German football inspired by Jurgen Klinsmann and Joachim Lowe, German football has been about winning the ball with aggressive pressing and then attacking vertically at pace–so you use your defensive approach to destabilize the opponent and once you’ve won the ball you hit them while they’re trying to adjust.
This ties back in to an idea discussed in this post: You can counter-attack in three basic ways:
an aggressive long ball played forward behind the defense for a forward to run ontofast direct running from wingers or center forwardsfast team movement forward combined with shorter passes
The first approach is what you’ll see in a lot of classic English football. The second approach is what Atletico does so well. The third approach is the more German approach–the entire team flows forward at pace which allows teams to combine high percentage short passes with devastating counter attacking football. As an added bonus, this kind of counter attack is also more resistant to the sweeper keeper phenomenon as the ball is never played into areas that a sweeper keeper can attack.
View image | gettyimages.com
This is how Gladbach got their first goal against Bayern Munich. The ball was played forward down the wing to Herrmann–a longer ball but played into an area where Bayern would have trouble winning the ball and where Neuer wouldn’t be able to sweep. The Foals had several players streaking toward the 18-yard box coming behind Herrmann. From there it’s a simple cross for the winger. And while they were certainly looking to score such a flukey goal against a keeper of Manuel Neuer’s ability, the buildup to the goal was not a fluke–quick, decisive passing plus numbers forward equals quality chances.
Again though what we’re seeing is this theme of Gladbach keeping the game compact. Even when they attack their players tend to stay close together near the ball. This isn’t an expansive side, but that’s because they don’t want to be. As long as their shape is compact and near the ball, they control the game–even if their opposition has 80% possession as Bayern did in the early going in their last game. If the defense is dictating where the attacker can and cannot go with the ball and is efficiently attacking the ball whenever it’s played into dangerous areas, then possession doesn’t matter. That is what we’re seeing with Gladbach who are averaging only 52% possession this season–a number comparable to that of manic Bayer Leverkusen.
Conclusion
The main themes of Gladbach’s approach are actually pretty simple:
Play the game in small, compressed areas.Use team-wide lateral movement to reduce space and eliminate passing lanes.Attack quickly with numbers.Don’t be afraid to drop deep if that’s required, but don’t get caught up in vertical movement when on defense. It’s all about spatial overloads and the best way to get those is to attack the ball laterally rather than vertically.
What makes this all so interesting is that there isn’t really another team in Europe that does this sort of thing in this way. 4-4-2 is somewhat rare in itself, of course, but the 4-4-2s we typically see are focused around vertical movement and tend to be much narrower–those two points are really the only commonalities shared between Atletico and City. Gladbach’s lateral movement introduces an entirely new variable and on the evidence of this Bundesliga campaign German sides haven’t figured out how to crack it. When you look at the images it looks like it shouldn’t be that hard–look at the huge amounts of space they give away on the wing opposite the ball. But that space only matters if the opposition can get the ball there. And for most of this season they’ve been unable to do that. So these lateral shifts may look like a high-risk gamble by Lucien Favre, but the on-field reality is anything but
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by Jake Meador | Manager Analysis
Though they’ve received far less fanfare than Kevin De Bruyne’s Wolfsburg,Roger Schmidt’s frantic Leverkusen, or even Jurgen Klopp’s struggling Dortmund, it’s entirely possible that the most interesting team in Germany this season is Lucien Favre’s Borussia Monchengladbach.
Using a tight 4-4-2 and a fast-paced counter-attacking style reminiscent of the 1970s era Gladbach during the club’s greatest era, Favre has led his team to third place in the Bundesliga with only eight games left to play. Armed with an eight point lead over fifth placed Schalke, it’s highly probable that the Foals will be returning to Europe’s grandest stage next season with the only question being which of Germany’s two tactical masterpiece sides, Gladbach or Leverkusen, will have to advance to the group stage via the playoff as a result of finishing in fourth. Given Gladbach’s remarkable defensive record–their 20 conceded goals is second best in the division after Bayern Munich–I expect it will be Gladbach claiming third while Schmidt’s Leverkusen win the final German Champions League place.
The Basics of Lucien Favre’s Tactics at Borussia Monchengladbach
If you want to understand Lucien Favre’s tactics at Borussia Monchengladbach, you’ll need to be clear on a few basic points:
Gladbach’s 4-4-2 is closer to Atletico’sthan Manchester City’s, although Favre has certainly made the shape his own and can’t justly be accused of copying anyone.Gladbach use a limited form ofgegenpressing, but are not nearly as aggressive with it as Leverkusen or Dortmund.Defensively, the most important movement for Gladbach is not vertical, but lateral.Gladbach’s defensive system is built on a series of moves that have the appearance of being incredibly risky but are actually far safer than they first appear.
To get a better sense of how this all works, let’s start with a brief refresher on Diego Simeone’s use of 4-4-2 with Atletico. Simeone sets his side up in three lines stacked on top of each other with the back two being the famed two banks of four–four defenders with four midfielders sitting right on top of them. Simeone tends to keep those lines fairly narrow, however, as he will happily concede space out wide in order to clog the middle. The other point is that Simeone’s two banks of four tend to sitextremely deep. Against a good possession-based side it’s not unusual to see Atletico’s entire back four inside the 18-yard box and their four midfielders basically standing on the line that marks the edge of the box.
Atletico then scores goals by winning the ball and countering quickly through their two strikers (the third line that stays a bit further ahead of the four midfielders) and via set piece, where Simeone’s men are easily the most dangerous side in Europe.
Gladbach’s 4-4-2 has some basic similarities to Simeone’s approach, but they’ve introduced some more German elements to it that make the shape more unique than it seems initially.
At first glance this looks like a slightly less organized take on Atletico’s 4-4-2. The defensive line is very deep and it’s basically two banks of four sitting on top of each other. The one difference is that the space between Christoph Kramer, Gladbach’s #23 marked RCM above, and Patrick Herrmann, their number 7 marked RM above, is a bit larger than Simeone would tolerate. Conceivably, then, you could imagine Bayern getting the ball over to Mario Goetze, number 19, and Goetze doing something dangerous with that space the Foals have given to him. But that word “conceivably” is the key.
Borussia Monchengladbach’s Spatial Overloads in Defense
More than any team I’ve seen this year, Gladbach’s system relies on the players intelligently shifting laterally across the field in order to limit the passing options for the opposition and force them into risky passes forward or safe backward passes that don’t hurt the Foals at all.
View image | gettyimages.com
Trapping on the flanks isn’t a new idea, of course. Dortmund, Leverkusen, and Atletico (to name only three of the most popular practitioners) have been doing this for years. The idea is that you’re better off pressing on the edge than in the center of the park because the boundaries provide a natural assist to the defense, limiting the potential passing options for the man on the ball. This is all basic.
What’s different about Gladbach is two-fold: First, they push this idea of spatial overloads in order to pressure the ball on the wings to crazy new levels. Consider this image from early in Gladbach’s 2-0 win against Bayern Munich. Bayern has just played the ball down their right flank, Gladbach’s left, and now David Alaba is charging down the middle. Note that Gladbach’s defense has shifted so far to the left that their right back and right midfielder are basically in the middle of the park. Note also how much space Juan Bernat has down the left wing if Bayern can get the ball to him:
“If,” of course, turns out to be the key word here. Look at this frame–how exactly can Alaba get the ball to Bernat. He could try a through ball into that space in front of Bernat played between Kramer (RCM) and Herrmann (RM). But that’s going to be a really fine angle and almost impossible to get through. He can try playing a square ball straight out to Bernat but that is also going to be tricky to get through. Plus if it does get there Gladbach will simply slide toward that side of the field and now Bernat is going to be the one having to find a pass. The other option is for Alaba to play the ball back to Holger Badstuber, the Bayern player behind the ball closest to him. But Gladbach don’t care if he does that–they’ll let Bayern make those kind of passes.
SEE ALSO: A Guide to Roger Schmidt’s Tactics at Bayer Leverkusen
The key here is something I’ve written about before: The space that actually matters on a soccer field is really small–it’s just the space immediately around the ball. Your opponent can have a couple men in acres of space 40 yards away in really dangerous positions–as Bayern does here with Bernat and as they often did throughout the game against Gladbach. But that only matters if you can get the ball to them. And as we’re seeing above (and the above frame is representative of the match) Gladbach’s positioning and team movement is so good that getting the ball to those players left open is quite difficult.
So while Atletico Madrid use a compact 4-4-2 that tends to drop deep and then explode forward, Borussia Monchengladbach use a 4-4-2 that drifts side to side in order to eliminate passing lanes, press the ball, and, ultimately, win possession.
How Borussia Monchengladbach Attack
It’s in the attack that Gladbach truly looks like a German side. Since the revolution in German football inspired by Jurgen Klinsmann and Joachim Lowe, German football has been about winning the ball with aggressive pressing and then attacking vertically at pace–so you use your defensive approach to destabilize the opponent and once you’ve won the ball you hit them while they’re trying to adjust.
This ties back in to an idea discussed in this post: You can counter-attack in three basic ways:
an aggressive long ball played forward behind the defense for a forward to run ontofast direct running from wingers or center forwardsfast team movement forward combined with shorter passes
The first approach is what you’ll see in a lot of classic English football. The second approach is what Atletico does so well. The third approach is the more German approach–the entire team flows forward at pace which allows teams to combine high percentage short passes with devastating counter attacking football. As an added bonus, this kind of counter attack is also more resistant to the sweeper keeper phenomenon as the ball is never played into areas that a sweeper keeper can attack.
View image | gettyimages.com
This is how Gladbach got their first goal against Bayern Munich. The ball was played forward down the wing to Herrmann–a longer ball but played into an area where Bayern would have trouble winning the ball and where Neuer wouldn’t be able to sweep. The Foals had several players streaking toward the 18-yard box coming behind Herrmann. From there it’s a simple cross for the winger. And while they were certainly looking to score such a flukey goal against a keeper of Manuel Neuer’s ability, the buildup to the goal was not a fluke–quick, decisive passing plus numbers forward equals quality chances.
Again though what we’re seeing is this theme of Gladbach keeping the game compact. Even when they attack their players tend to stay close together near the ball. This isn’t an expansive side, but that’s because they don’t want to be. As long as their shape is compact and near the ball, they control the game–even if their opposition has 80% possession as Bayern did in the early going in their last game. If the defense is dictating where the attacker can and cannot go with the ball and is efficiently attacking the ball whenever it’s played into dangerous areas, then possession doesn’t matter. That is what we’re seeing with Gladbach who are averaging only 52% possession this season–a number comparable to that of manic Bayer Leverkusen.
Conclusion
The main themes of Gladbach’s approach are actually pretty simple:
Play the game in small, compressed areas.Use team-wide lateral movement to reduce space and eliminate passing lanes.Attack quickly with numbers.Don’t be afraid to drop deep if that’s required, but don’t get caught up in vertical movement when on defense. It’s all about spatial overloads and the best way to get those is to attack the ball laterally rather than vertically.
What makes this all so interesting is that there isn’t really another team in Europe that does this sort of thing in this way. 4-4-2 is somewhat rare in itself, of course, but the 4-4-2s we typically see are focused around vertical movement and tend to be much narrower–those two points are really the only commonalities shared between Atletico and City. Gladbach’s lateral movement introduces an entirely new variable and on the evidence of this Bundesliga campaign German sides haven’t figured out how to crack it. When you look at the images it looks like it shouldn’t be that hard–look at the huge amounts of space they give away on the wing opposite the ball. But that space only matters if the opposition can get the ball there. And for most of this season they’ve been unable to do that. So these lateral shifts may look like a high-risk gamble by Lucien Favre, but the on-field reality is anything but
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DanEFC92
Player Valuation: £90m
In the Scottish Cup final, too.
Aar_the_Toffees
Player Valuation: £10m
Lucien Favre is probably the most underrated manager in world football. His work at Gladbach is breathtaking. Would actually prefer him to any other manager, except Emery.
Favre's teams play a dynamic, quick and attack-minded football where ball possession and change of tempo alternate. This attractive style of play has brought results in every club he has managed. Furthermore, Favre is very skillful tactically, leaving his opponents struggling to penetrate his well-organized sides.
Favre is also well known for his ability to develop talented young players and introduce them into the first team. Under his leadership, Blerim Džemaili, Almen Abdi, Steve von Bergen and Gökhan Inler all made their debut with the Swiss national team before signing for foreign clubs. In 2007, FC Zürich became Swiss champions with an average age of 21.5 years. He is also credited with raising the game of German starlet Marco Reus, whose fine performances procured a call up to the German national team and a high-priced move to league champions Borussia Dortmund; Marc-André ter Stegen, who eventually joinedBarcelona; and Christoph Kramer.
SIGN HIM BILL FFS
DanEFC92
Player Valuation: £90m
efc1111
Player Valuation: £500k
Or Jose's assistant/coach, again?
kithnou
Player Valuation: £70m
Your typical lazy journalism. Jose is at 8/1 now?
TheFinnFan
Finners
Benitez odds slashed to 8/1 (BV)
LO L
LO L
Nah, no way him.
TheFinnFan
Finners
Kopites throwing their money in just to mess with us x
Hong Kong Phooey
Player Valuation: £8m
Yes I noticed that late last night, the only manager to come "in" on the betting and quite a bit too.
From the outside he would probably fit the criteria and profile of someone that Moshiri would look for if as we're led to believe, he wants a man at the helm to match his ambitions.
And to be fair to Moshiri, he probably has little idea of the history and previous between Benitez and us. But you would think (and hope) that someone who does would have a little word in his ear if he was thinking of going down that road and stopped that thought dead in it's tracks!
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