soccerteamtactics.com match analysis: borussia dortmund - bayern munich

© Copyright by Athanasios Terzis 2015

Match analysis: Borussia Dortmund - Bayern

Effectiveness in front of goal proved to be decisive

By Athanasios Terzis

Bundesliga’s clasico ended with Bayern as the winners. Each team tried to

dominate with its own way. Bayern was more effective in front of goal and

managed to score by taking advantage one of the few scoring chances for

both teams during the match. Dortmund didn’t achieve to score the equalizer

despite the fact that during the second half had most of the possession, as

Bayern defended effectively after Lewandowski’s goal.


1st half: Dortmund began in high tempo and pressed high, but

Bayern managed to deal with it

Dortmund: The black and yellows started with a 4-2-3-1 formation. However

as they had to deal with a three man defence, their formation during the

defensive phase was more like a lopsided 4-4-2. Klopp knew that Bayern’s

strength is their domination in possession during the matches, so pressing

intensively high up the field seemed the perfect antidote. In order to achieve

this, Klopp placed Kampl in a balanced position between the wing back

Rafinha and the side defender Benatia. By this way he could create (together

with Aub/yang and Reus) a 3 v 3 situation in front, against the 3 Bayern

defenders. On the other hand Blas/wski had a more conservative role, to stay

close to the left wing back Bernat.

At the back Schmelzer had instructions to move in more advanced positions

than Sokratis did on the right. So when Kampl moved to put pressure on

Benatia, Schmelzer moved forward to mark Rafinha.


This tactical beheviour demanded the good synchronizasion of both players

(Kampl and Schmelzer) as well as the effective dealing with the problems

related to the space that was created behind Schmelzer. Klopp instructed

Sokratis to stay close to the c. defenders (Subotic and Hummels) in order to

create a 3 v 2 situation at the back against the very dangerous forwards

Muller and Lew/wski. Furthermore Borussia tried to force the play towards the

side where Sokratis was positioned as he was the most defensive minded of

the two fullbacks, as well as there was a numerical superiority for the home

side on the right. The problem for Borussia was the positioning of Alonso in

front of the three. He was the free player for Bayern and moved constantly

towards the available passing options in order to receive and move the ball

forward. This aim couldn’t be achieved during the first15 minutes as the

intensive pressing didn’t let time and space for Bayern players to analyse the

tactical situations and make the right decisions. After the first quarter

Guardiola’s team managed overcome the pressure. Dortmund tried to close

Alonso by narrowing the passing lanes towards him, mainly with Aub/yang

and Reus, but Bayern managed to move the ball towards the weak side and

to find time on the ball.


Klopp didn’t want to move one of the defensive midfielders Gundogan and

Bender out of position and forward to mark Alonso, in order to avoid creating

space in front of his defence, as Lew/wski is very skillful in playing with his

back turned to goal. So by keeping both central midfielders close to the

defenders he tried to limited the space for the Polish international and block

him.

Bayern: Guardiola started with a 3-5-2 formation which enabled him to

outnumber Borussia at the back and build up from the GK. His intention was

to put pressure on Borussia defenders, force them to use long balls which the

three defenders of Bayern could easily neutralize. For maintaining safety at

the back he kept four defenders back according to the tactical situation. So

when the wing back of the strong side moved forward to put pressure on the

opposing fullback, the weak side’s wing back dropped back close to the three

defenders.


When the attacking midfielder moved to put pressure on the fullback and the

wing back of the strong side was in deep position, the weak side’s one didn’t

have to drop very deep.

Finally the positioning of Alonso in front of the defending trio, enabled both

wing backs to move forward at the same time occasionally.


However Alonso’s contribution was far more important. In occasions that both

wing backs were high and either Benatia or Dante were forced to shift towards

the side, he dropped between the defenders to ensure numerical superiority

inside the box and thus provided safety.


As regards the attacking phase, Bayern players after a hard first quarter

where they found great difficulties in moving the ball forward, they started

reading the tactical context and evaluating the weaknesses of the opposition.

First of all they managed to overcome the intensive pressing by moving the

ball quickly from the left towards the right side.


Additionally they found ways to pass the ball either to Alonso or to Lahm and

Schw/ger who dropped occasionally deeper either to receive and turn or to

play as link players and move the ball to the free defender. Next aim was the

exploitation of the space behind Schmelzer. This was done either by Muller

who tried to win the duels against the solid but not so quick Hummels or Lahm

who moved towards this space when the forward wasn’t close enough to take

advantage of it.


In cases that Hummels moved at the right time to fill the gap behind

Schmelzer, the defence was stretched and there were gaps between the

defenders. Bayern forwards tried to exploit these gaps and receive a potential

pass behind the defence. The first goal scoring chance was created by this

kind of a pass towards Muller. However Muller failed to find the target after

shooting over Weid/ller.


Finally Guardiola tried to take advantage of the 2 v 2 situation in the centre of

Borussia defence. This was the part of the field that Klopp tried to secure by

creating a 3 v 2 after putting Sokratis next to Subotic and Hummels and giving

him orders to avoid moving in advanced positions. However Bayern managed

to take advantage of the situation once but Lew/wski after a combination play

with Muller was caught offside. The second time was crucial for the outcome

of the game as in an indirect positive transition for Bayern, Sokratis was a few

yards forward. Despite this fact Hummels decided to follow Lew/wski’s

dropping back and left Subotic in a 1 v 1 situation against Muller. Lew/wski

managed to receive and turn despite Hummel’s attempt to stop him. Then the

former Borussia man found the time to pass to Muller who moved towards the

gap between Sokratis and Subotic. Muller took the shot and Lew/wski with a

header after Weid/ller’s save scored against his former club.


Being one goal down Borussia had to react. However despite putting heavy

pressure, they couldn’t create scoring chances until the end of the first half.


2nd half: Pressing and possession for Borussia, good

defensive organization for Bayern

The second half started the way the first half had. Borussia put a lot of effort in

pressing and gave no time on the ball to Bayern players. On the other hand

Gualdiola’s team defended passively and maintained compactness between

the lines. The team restricted the spaces especially in the centre and prevent

Borussia from using combination play within the spaces between the lines.

Additionally in cases that Borussia managed to move the ball to the flanks, the

crosses weren’t made in the first phase and behind the defence, but after the

tall defenders of Bayern took up positions inside the box. The only way for

Borussia to create scoring chances was to find Bayern’s defence unbalanced.

This could be achieved either by winning the ball high after pressing

application or by regaining possession during immediate negative transition

(counter pressing). Finally one another option was to take advantage of the

set pieces. Borussia had two chances to score the equalizer. One after a

quick negative transition where Reus failed to beat Neuer in a duel and one

after a free kick taken by the same player. The substitutes made during the

2nd half didn’t change things tactically.

Conclusion: Bayern managed to beat Borussia mainly due to the

effectiveness in front of goal. Bayern couldn’t create much during the

attacking phase despite the fact that mainly in the first half they dominated

possession. On the other hand Borussia found many difficulties once again in

breaking through the opposition’s compact defence and struggled to create as

the available spaces were limited. The team spent too much energy in

pressing and counter pressing but this wasn’t enough to score the equalizer.

Dortmund misses Lew/wski or a player like Lew/wski, who is capable in

playing both inside and outside the box and create both in tight spaces as well

as in open play.

soccerteamtactics.com match analysis: borussia dortmund - bayern munich

Sports

bayern players

bayern defenders

dortmund didnt

klopp didnt

players kampl

mark alonso

intensive pressing didnt

high tempo