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Player Valuation: £10m
Not fair to say tactically cheaper, but more of a spin off. You should all read this. Every single one of you. Explains Favre's tactics in a bit more detail.
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’s than 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 of gegenpressing, 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.
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 onto
- fast direct running from wingers or center forwards
- fast team movement forward combined with shorter passes
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.
