Tactical analysis: TSG dominate BVB but lose
A little look why Hoffenheim dominated but how a tweak and some quality led to Borussia Dortmund's goals on Saturday
This week’s newsletter is both a little different and the sort of thing I hoped to do more of when I started at the beginning of the season.
Hope you like it!
TSG Hoffenheim outplayed Borussia Dortmund on Saturday yet lost 3-2. Sometimes that’s life, oftentimes it's football.
For this week’s newsletter I thought I’d take a quick look at some of the things that made Hoffenheim so dominate (and why they are genuine top four contenders) but also the few moments of quality that saw Dortmund prevail.
Here’s the basic setup for both sides in the first half.
The obvious thing is Hoffenheim’s extreme width, with Ihlas Bebou and David Raum on the flanks. The pair constantly caused Dortmund issues. With the Hoffenheim front three playing wide enough to occupy the entire Dortmund back four, Bebou and Raum had the freedom of the flanks.
“In phases they forced us to close spaces even though we wanted to defend on the front foot. Even then they found gaps: when we closed the half-spaces they played outside, when we defended with more width they looked for more depth.” - Marco Rose
In the examples below, Dortmund right-back Marius Wolf has moved inside and Raum is completely free outside of him. Firstly Wolf has moved across to help press as Dortmund’s first line has been played through.
Then it is the positioning of Kramarić, between Wolf and centre-back Manuel Akanji, that forces Wolf inside and leaves Raum in acres of space.
And here a similar combination appears on the left, then on the right, where Georginio Rutter binds Raphaël Guerreiro to leave Bebou unmarked on the outside.
It should come as no surprise that Raum and Bebou, despite nominally being wingbacks, had the most final third touches (33 and 31 respectively, per StatsBomb via FBRef) on the pitch.
The approach worked well off the ball as well. The Hoffenheim front three cut off access to the centre, the wingbacks pressed their opposite numbers, and man-marking saw the ball-side central midfielders tightly followed and the ball-side centre-back pressing the winger. Dortmund couldn’t find any solutions with passes forced into tightly marked players.
The wingbacks also pressed high against Dortmund’s fullbacks, Marius Wolf and Raphaël Guerreiro, with the front three funnelling the ball wide so Raum and Bebou could put their opposite numbers under immediate pressure.
Dortmund couldn’t win the ball high up the pitch, couldn’t defend against it securely in their own third, and couldn’t escape from their third under intense pressure.
The approach was perfect. Dortmund have only been pressured in the final third more times once (against Borussia Mönchengladbach) this season, ended the game with their fewest final third touches (76) in a game all season, and had their fourth lowest pass completion (79%) in a Bundesliga game this season. They lost two of the three games (against Bayern and RB Leipzig) where their pass completion was lower.
So how did they win?
Well, partly luck. Dortmund conceded just twice from 16 shots conceded (the second most they’ve conceded this season), while scoring twice from four shots (their lowest tally of the season) and benefitting from an own goal at the other end.
Credit where it’s due, though, the goals were all excellent. The first saw some beautiful combination play.
The second came from a tactical switch shortly into the second half. With his side struggling to play out, Marco Rose unsurprisingly changed things, change things in the second half, introducing Dan-Axel Zagadou for Julian Brandt and switching shape to match Hoffenheim’s 3-4-3.
“We realised realtively quickly after the break that we still had similar issues, so we changed the shape, I think that did us a lot of good. We went to 3-4-3 /5-2-3 and then Hoffenheim didn’t get into those spaces like they wanted and we could use that phase to go back into the lead ourselves.” - Marco Rose
There was an instant pay off. Dortmund’s three centre-backs took the place of the back four in build up, rather than the whole back four. Wingbacks Guerreiro and Thorgan Hazard (who replaced Marius Wolf) pinned Raum and Bebou back and the Hoffenheim front three could no longer block all access to the middle and force the ball wide. With a back three rather than a back four, Dortmund had an extra player ahead of the first line and the more aggressive wingbacks allowed Donyell Malen and Marco Reus to tuck inside. Malen’s central positioning paid off.
With the Hoffenheim front three no longer outnumbering the Dortmund defence and the wingbacks no longer able to join the press, Dortmund had more ability to stretch play and Mats Hummels found Malen between the lines, taking five opponents out of the game with one pass. Malen, now too central for Hoffenheim right-sided centre-back Omar Richards to follow him, combined quickly with Erling Haaland and Reus, and Dortmund were back ahead.
Undeservedly but ahead nonetheless.
The third goal was also well worked thanks to off-the-ball movement, something stats still don’t capture particularly well. Hoffenheim are in a pretty comfortable position with Guerreiro on the ball but a run from Jude Bellingham drags the ball-near centre-back to the wing.
Space is opened up for Malen to receive possession with a bit of time, though Kevin Vogt sees the danger and looks to shut him down.
But a combination of Malen’s clean first touch and Mahmoud Dahoud’s run in behind the space Vogt is leaving forces the defender to stop. He knows he can’t steal the ball and he knows he has to protect the space behind him, blocking off the option to Dahoud. The centre-back Bellingham’s run dragged to the wing is now far too far away to help.
The result is a race Vogt is never likely to win and a smart ball across the box from Malen for Hazard to tap in. He doesn’t, but only because Raum beats him to it and puts it past his own goalkeeper.
That should’ve been that. It wasn’t quite.
Dortmund, tired and with a lead to maintain, sat off more and defended sloppily. The shape was more secure in the first half but Hoffenheim continued to be the better side, getting one goal back before failing to make the most of their late dominance to grab an equaliser.
A fortunate win for Dortmund, then, but a few moments of class were just about enough to beat a team that look like one of the Bundesliga’s best right now. Hoffenheim may have dropped to seventh but they are just three points from fourth-placed Union Berlin and, on this showing, more than good enough to remain in the top four race until the end of the season.