For the last 10 years, the Frauen-Bundesliga has been a tale of two teams battling it out with each other to secure the league title and to get their hands on the Meisterschale der Frauen.
Most of those years, Wolfsburg Frauen have prevailed and have held off Bayern Munich Frauen, with the former lifting the trophy in five of those years and the latter just four (not including the current season). However, the sands of time are shifting, and a changing of the guard appears to be taking place in the German women’s game, with Bayern Munich winning the title last season and on course to retain it this time around, and the good feeling around the club will have only been increased by their comprehensive 4-0 victory against their rivals at the Volkswagen Arena on Saturday.
It was a match that really summed up where both teams are at this point in time, with Bayern Munich on a run of 34 league matches without defeat, whilst Wolfsburg have had a season to forget for a multitude of reasons, and this tactical analysis will take a closer look at why the visitors were able to win in such a dominant fashion. The analysis will break down their tactics, highlight why they have been such a fearsome opponent in recent times, and point out where Wolfsburg went wrong and why they will have some tough questions to answer in the coming days.
Lineups
Wolfsburg Frauen head coach Tommy Stroot made just one change to his starting lineup following last weekend’s damaging defeat at third-placed Hoffenheim Frauen, which was a forced one as star striker Alex Popp was ruled out after sustaining a knee injury during that match. The return to action of Poland captain and the current league top scorer Ewa Pajor was, therefore, timely, with her inclusion after her own injury issue giving the home side a significant boost ahead of what was always likely to be a pivotal game. Germany midfielder Lena Oberdorf was facing Bayern Munich Frauen for the final time in the league, with next season seeing her play for them after agreeing a switch earlier in the campaign.
Stroot’s Bayern Munich counterpart Alexander Straus opted not to tamper with a winning formula following his side’s dominant win at home to RB Leipzig Frauen last weekend, with no changes made to his starting lineup as he aimed for consistency in his team’s bid to take another step towards successfully retaining their crown. Denmark captain Pernille Harder and Serbia forward Jovana Damnjanović were included against their former club, with the former returning for the first time since moving back to Germany from Chelsea Women last summer.
Bayern Munich Frauen’s early game plan
Whilst the first half ended goalless, there was no doubt that Bayern Munich Frauen were the team with a better idea of what they wanted to look like on the field, with it clear that they had arrived in Lower Saxony with a game plan that would exploit Wolfsburg Frauen’s weaknesses but that also allowed for a significant amount of adaptability as the game went on.
From the early stages, it was clear that Straus and his backroom staff had looked at where they could gain advantages and put pressure on their opponents. One of those was at left-back, with Wolfsburg missing several big names, and so starting Netherlands defender Dominique Janssen in that role. Whilst it is not an unfamiliar position for her to be in, she is definitely more comfortable further inside the pitch, and that showed in the opening phases of the match as Bayern Munich constantly looked to build chances by moving the ball down her side of the field.
However, it wasn’t simply making runs and hoping for the best because there was a cleverness to the way that the away team tried to make good use of that area of the pitch. The way that Straus looked to force Janssen into difficult decisions was by pushing right-back Giulia Gwinn as high up the wing as possible whenever Bayern Munich had the ball and by simultaneously asking Harder to occupy the space inside her, with the result being situations like this when Janssen has a player either side of her.
At this point, Bayern Munich knew that Janssen would need to commit to one player or the other and could not cover both, and so it was a case of being patient and then shifting the ball into whichever she didn’t move towards. Whilst it only lasted for the first 24 minutes of the game due to an injury to centre-back Marina Hegering and a defensive reshuffle, it made life very difficult for the Dutch player, and it was one reason that Bayern Munich settled into the game much quicker.
Gwinn’s role in that tactic is indicated clearly in this graphic. The Germany international had plenty of touches inside her own half but also got on the ball inside Wolfsburg’s, showing how vital she was in and out of possession.
It is not something that she is unfamiliar with, given that it has been common to see her in those areas throughout her career for club and country, and it is one of the reasons she has become one of the most highly rated right-backs in the global game.
However, there appeared to be a particular emphasis on her taking up these advanced positions in this game because of the effect it would have on Janssen and, therefore, the chances it would create for the team, which is the crucial point to make here.
Once Wolfsburg had made their defensive change, which saw former Barcelona Femení left-back Nuria Rábano come on and Janssen move back into the centre-back role to partner on-loan Juventus Femminile and Sweden defender Linda Sembrant, this tactic was never going to have the same effect. Rábano is a left-back by trade and so, on paper at least, more suited to dealing with the demands that come with managing opposing attacks.
With that in mind, Straus altered the focus of his team’s attacks, and they started to play more directly and centrally instead, with the double pivot of Austria midfielder Sarah Zadrazil and England midfielder Georgia Stanway both having an essential role in facilitating that, but others helped out too. Here, Damnjanović has dropped back and is in the process of sending the ball over the top for Germany striker Lea Schüller to run onto, with Wolfsburg playing with a high back line, and so inviting Bayern Munich to make these runs behind them.
It was a tactic that worked well for the visitors and gave them a lot of positivity to go in with at the break, with this being one of several opportunities they created with runs in behind. This one could well have led to the opening goal of the game, with Schüller’s shot heading on target and only kept out by a strong hand from her international teammate Merle Frohms. Therefore, again, Bayern Munich would have been happy at the break and would have known that keeping faith in what they were doing was vital.
Bayern Munich Frauen’s second-half dominance
This is not to say that they were perfect, though, and one thing that had been prominent in Bayern Munich Frauen’s play was a tendency to not give away as many easy chances to Wolfsburg Frauen, with there being several situations when loose passes had crept into their play and had handed the home side chances to punish their occasional lapses in concentration.
To better protect themselves and to eradicate those moments, Bayern Munich once again made slight tweaks and looked to keep a few more players back than had been inside there in the first half, with them looking to sit back before hitting their hosts with quick transitions as soon as they managed to regain the ball.
In this case, they have won possession back quickly and have instantly looked to progress up the field at speed, with the ball now at the feet of Schüller and in a position from which they are in control, and Wolfsburg is lacking any shape. As a result, Schüller can time her pass and does so, feeding it out towards forward Klara Bühl on the nearside, and this ends up in the corner that set up Bayern Munich’s second goal.
The fact that their first goal also came off the back of an attack in this manner, with Bayern Munich winning a corner and then counterattacking at speed, showed how effective this proved to be for them. It was a constant feature of their second-half play, and this situation has once again seen the ball move through the thirds through Zadrazil, Stanway and Damnjanović before heading infield towards Harder, who has it here.
Again, Wolfsburg have been left without a defined shape as it was clear that they weren’t communicating with each other to defend in a unified manner, with centre-back Kathrin Hendrich coming out to win the aerial battle with Damnjanović but failing to do so and now finding herself out of the game as a result.
That then forces Rábano to come inside to help cover the space, but the run of Schüller puts her in the same position as Janssen had constantly found herself in before her arrival, with her needing to decide between staying tight to the other defenders or moving out to mark Schüller. In the end, she did neither, and the pass from Harder travels through the gap, leading to the striker scoring and further cementing Bayern Munich’s ascendancy in this match.
As the match neared its end, Bayern Munich’s focus turned towards ensuring that they didn’t tarnish a good performance with a late goal being conceded, and the decision to introduce former Chelsea captain Magdalena Eriksson in place of Bühl was made with that in mind.
Her arrival paved the way for the away team to stretch out horizontally and to ensure that Wolfsburg had fewer chances to utilise the pace of their wide threats, with Iceland forward Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir, in particular, having a few chances in front of goal and responsible for a number of their missed opportunities. Again, they played with clarity and understood what they needed to do and where they needed to be, which was in stark contrast to their opponents and, therefore, shows once again why they were the ones celebrating at the final whistle.
Wolfsburg Frauen’s disappointing day
For Wolfsburg Frauen, it proved to be a day to forget in front of their own fans and another sign that this season has been filled with misery, with their Champions League adventure ending in the qualifying rounds (after they had been last season’s beaten finalists). Their league campaign being built on inconsistent results and several disappointing performances.
Despite the obvious negativity that came out of the game for them, it should be noted that they, too, had some early positive signs and that it was apparent what they were looking to do, with a press being triggered from the front and every player picking an opponent up to make it as difficult as possible for Bayern Munich Frauen to play the ball out from the back and increase the chance of an error being made.
In this case, it did just that, with the home side winning possession and getting into a position from which they could test their opponents, and this was certainly one of the reasons that Bayern Munich conceded so many chances in the first half. Therefore, whilst there will be a lot to criticise Wolfsburg for, no one can deny that they looked in the mood in the early moments, with every player recognising that this was a game that they simply had to win if they were to keep their fading Bundesliga title hopes alive.
However, what let them down when they did get into those promising positions was their constant lack of accuracy and composure, with them often being caught in two minds whenever they did look like creating or shooting and ending up doing both at the same time, leading to chances being wasted whenever they looked like getting on the scoreboard.
It has already been mentioned that Jónsdóttir was guilty of missing a guilt-edged opportunity when she was played through and had the goal at her mercy, with her firing wide under little opposing pressure, and forward Jule Brand was another to have a disappointing day in front of goal. In this case, she needed to decide between attempting a cross towards Pajor and shooting at the goal herself, but she didn’t and ended up doing a bit of both, with the ball here travelling beyond the Poland striker and out of play as a result.
Brand had been a player who has been in relatively good form in recent games, with her being Wolfsburg’s best player on the field against Leipzig and causing numerous problems for her former club Hoffenheim in their two previous outings through her mazy runs and ability to drift between the channels in tight spaces. However, like so many of her teammates, she has not been that consistent overall as the season has gone on, and this was one of those games in which she had little effect on proceedings.
Their lack of accuracy was not only shown when the ball was high up the field, though; it is just as prominent in build-up play, too. Here, Netherlands right-back Lynn Wilms, who came on in the second half for the ineffective Joelle Wedemeyer, is looking to deliver the ball into the area behind the Bayern Munich back line and to give Pajor a chance to shoot at goal, and this is something that she would ordinarily not have many issues doing. However, she too was having an off-day and her ball forward was overhit, adding to the tally of missed opportunities that Wolfsburg were racking up as the match went on.
Therefore, whilst there will be strands of their performance that the home side can take some comfort from, such as the way that they looked to press early on and did force mistakes from Bayern Munich, there were just too many errors from the home side and a general lack of cohesion around the pitch both in and out of possession, and it is that that ultimately led to this game and, in all likelihood, the league title evading their clutches.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at the much-anticipated Frauen-Bundesliga clash between Wolfsburg Frauen and Bayern Munich Frauen, highlighting the reasons for the former struggling to get anything going in their favour and the latter extending their lead at the top of the table to seven points with just 15 left to play for.
As has been shown throughout the analysis, Bayern Munich were very good and deserve credit for their performance, but this was a self-inflicted defeat, with Wolfsburg not taking the chances that they did have and then leaving themselves too open as the game went on and not demonstrating any clarity as they tried to keep the damage to a minimum. In many ways, it highlights how their season has gone, with them struggling with a significant injury list but also not showing enough in their games to prove that they can compete at the top level this season.
Mathematically, the title fight is not over yet, with there still being a chance that the defending champions could slip up and that Wolfsburg could put a run together and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. However, this result has, in the eyes of many, put the destination of the trophy beyond any reasonable doubt, and it is hard to disagree when looking at the form that both sides are currently in.
Wolfsburg will look to recover from this defeat when they face SGS Essen Frauen in next week’s DFB-Pokal Frauen semi-final before travelling to Freiburg Frauen after the international break. Bayen Munich also have a cup semi-final next up, with Eintracht Frankfurt Frauen facing them at the weekend. They, too, are on the road as they visit bottom side Duisburg Frauen in their next league outing.
Comments