{"id":62,"date":"2015-10-22T12:24:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T12:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeplyingpodcast.co.uk\/?p=62"},"modified":"2018-03-22T17:45:12","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T17:45:12","slug":"deep-lying-gegenpressing-gladbach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeplyingpodcast.co.uk\/tactics\/deep-lying-gegenpressing-gladbach\/","title":{"rendered":"Recreating The Deep Lying Gegenpressing of Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach"},"content":{"rendered":"
First of all, hello and Guten Tag. I’m Felley and I think I have just written the most hipster-titled article\u00a0of all time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As for the actual content, I have been entrusted \u2013 if that’s the right word \u2013 by Ed and George to recreate some real life tactics in the marvellous game that is Football Manager. Based in Germany, I’ve been slowly absorbing the football culture like a sort of travelling nerdy sponge. Spending afternoons soaking in both the kitschy, wheat beer fuelled discussion on Sport1 and training with a local non-league side on a sodden, sandy Aschenplatz, one quickly learns the value the Germans place on football intelligence \u2013 both on and off the pitch. It is against this backdrop that I am writing my first batch of articles for The Deep Lying Podcast as I look to recreate the tactics of the Bundesliga. In the first of what will hopefully be a long and fulfilling series, I’ll be taking a look at Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach, recreating their playing style and looking at their recent tactical exploits…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To start with, a bit of back story wouldn’t go amiss, so… Gladbach are a well-known and well-loved team in Germany, only really drawing fierce dislike from 1.FC K\u00f6ln fans. They are remembered for the rivalry they fought with Bayern in the 70’s and their successes in this \u201cgolden decade\u201d wherein they won 5 league titles, a DFB-Pokal (German FA Cup) and 2 UEFA cups. Since the mid 80’s, the record has been more mixed as financial issues and relegation (both in 1999 and 2007) contrast with a generally successful youth system, the 1995 DFB-Pokal win and the opening of the 54,057 capacity Borussia Park in 2004 \u2013 a top quality modern stadium.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In recent years under the tutelage of Lucien Favre, Die Fohlen have become famous for playing a counter-attacking 4-4-2 with pace out wide and creative forwards, it was at it’s most effective last season (2014-15) where it fired them to 3rd<\/span><\/span><\/sup> place. After a problematic start to the current season, Favre walked out, with Gladbach’s results improving dramatically afterwards. Their style has remained roughly the same since his departure with new manager Andre Schubert only starting to develop his own method in the last game or two. It is therefore Lucien Favre’s Gladbach that I will be looking to recreate…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n WHERE TO START?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n There’s only really one place to start and that’s with a 4-4-2 loaded up in FM’s tactics creator and armed with a list of analysis articles and stats to add flesh to the bones of the formation. I shall spare you all a long-winded analysis and we’ll start with a list of key propensities of their playing style:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n – They prefer a cautious, possession orientated approach with relatively short average passing length. As well as this textual summary, I will borrow some base formations from spielvelagerung.de to inform the choice of roles. We can see here a summary of Die Fohlen’s positioning against Hannover late last season (2014-15) and Augsburg a few weeks ago (2015-16):<\/p>\n
\n
\n– The team will look to frustrate the opposition by absorbing pressure with good defensive positioning and a deeper form of gegenpressing<\/em> that attempts to channel the play out wide to the touch-line.
\n– The main attacking impetus is expected to come from the flanks.
\n– Both forwards are expected to drop deep and help carve out chances as well as finishing them, swapping positions with each other in the process.
\n– Due to the team’s deep overall positioning, they are not afraid of a through ball for one of their faster forwards\/wide men to run onto.<\/p>\n