Maximiliane Rall is actually one of the most consistent and talented German full-backs and wingers since she interprets both positions well and contributes a lot in her teams’ build-up and attacking phases.
She started her footballing journey at VfL Sindelfingen in Germany in 2010 before moving to 1899 Hoffenheim and lately to Bayern Munich. After two relatively successful seasons at Bayern, Rall is about to come to the end of her contract and she will very soon become a free agent if Bayern Munich won’t negotiate with her for a new contract.
And knowing that Rall has become a very useful player for the Bavarians, it will be very improbable for the team to not try to renew the player’s contract for a couple of seasons. If this doesn’t happen or if Rall decides to change the team and have a new experience in a different league, numerous clubs will surely be ready to negotiate with the German international especially when considering that she is an effective player who can be useful both in an attacking or in a defensive position. Her versatility is therefore much needed and can’t be found easily in Europe nowadays.
In this tactical analysis scout report, we will be mainly providing an analysis of the player’s abilities and qualities, before exploring her most suitable position on the pitch and assessing which teams suit Rall the most in terms of tactics.
Playmaking and goalscoring
What makes Rall a very special player is her ability to provide the needed attacking support when playing as a right-back and the excellent physical abilities that allow her not to neglect the defensive side as well.
She is a player who doesn’t like to complicate things and usually aims at passing or crossing accurately without necessarily trying to look for dribbling situations as she is a player who prefers to keep things simple and relies mainly on accurate first-time passes, especially during the build-up phase when playing as a RB. This doesn’t mean that Rall is not a good dribbler but rather a player who doesn’t rely on dribbling a lot compared to other RBs and wingers.
But at the same time, she is an intelligent player who thinks well before making passing decisions and becomes creative and accurate whenever providing the final pass/assist. A perfect example of this final pass mastery can be seen in Bayern Munich’s game against Bayer Leverkusen during which Rall received the ball inside the box from the left wing and was blocked by two defenders as soon as she received the ball. She immediately covered the ball with her body and instead of trying to shoot using her left foot, she opted for an unexpected back-heel pass towards her totally unmarked teammate at her back and this pass was the key to scoring a goal.
What was even more remarkable during this action is the fact that Rall didn’t get the chance or time to look at her back and notice if there is an unmarked teammate or not, yet, she passed the ball accurately and showed that she can deal very well with complicated situations and marking.
In order to further assess Rall’s attacking attributes and wing contributions when playing as a RB or as a RW, we used this graphic in order to resume her crossing and dribbling statistics mainly. In fact, the graphic clearly shows that Rall doesn’t rely too much on dribbling but rather on crossing and passing towards the box and sometimes towards the other wing. The arrows also show that Rall alternates between early crosses and deep crosses while mastering both of them. It is true that many of these crosses are orange and therefore not successful, yet Rall is not the only one responsible for this but the receivers of these crosses are the first responsible too if they don’t finish the action as needed.
Rall tends to dribble less in her team’s own half and uses her dribbling techniques in the opponent’s half mainly because she often needs to dribble in order to be able to cross the ball without issues.
But in terms of crossing/passing accuracy, she has got the highest rates in the Frauen-Bundesliga and that’s one of the reasons why she is holding a regular spot as a RB at a team like Bayern Munich and can potentially move to any other big club like Chelsea, Barcelona, PSG, Juventus or others.
Assist-making is one of Rall’s most excellent qualities and we can state that she is one of the most consistent right-backs at the moment in terms of attacking contribution. One of Rall’s most recent assists in the UEFA Women’s Champions League showcases her crossing ability and excellent vision/decision-making on the right-wing. In fact, this was one of the best examples of Rall’s excellent and effective early crosses and what made the action look more beautiful and smooth was Rall’s decision to cross the ball first-time without controlling the ball or trying to complicate things.
This means that Rall is one of the players who spot the pitch and make their passing decision in advance prior to receiving the ball and this helps her get the advantage over her opponents and creates a favourable situation for the team in general.
In terms of goalscoring, Rall can finish both using her right or left foot depending on the situation and on her position. For instance, she tends to score using her left foot when playing on the left wing, which rarely happens. But mainly, she uses her right foot very well to score goals and shoot on target with different techniques.
Even when she plays as a right-back, she usually joins the final third and the box, especially during counterattacks and positions herself very well to receive assists and help her teammates with goalscoring even though this is not necessarily one of her missions.
This picture allows us to discover that Rall has got a wide range of shooting techniques and can use them depending on the situation and on her decision-making. Here, she obviously made the right choice by going for a shot with the exterior part of her foot, making the trajectory very difficult for the goalkeeper to predict, especially when accompanied by power.
As mentioned above, Rall can score using her left foot in difficult situations especially when playing as a left winger or as a left wing-back. Being able to shoot accurately and without missing the goal is already great for a “weaker foot”, but succeeding in doing so when being marked is actually more valuable and deserves the praise.
Most fitting position
Rall has been used to the RB role during the last period at Bayern Munich and Germany and is actually doing very well in this position since she has the attributes needed to succeed at it. Nevertheless, it should be said that she participated a lot as a right winger and as a left winger at Hoffenheim and did well in these positions because she has got some powerful attacking qualities. It is also true that she was used as a defender in a back-three and as a wing-back in the 3-5-2 formation on numerous occasions and therefore she can interpret these roles well too.
However, according to the pizza map, Rall’s characteristics are more of a winger than of a right-back and positioning her as a winger would benefit herself and the team she plays at more, especially from an attacking perspective. Therefore, we believe that the best strategy with Rall is to deploy her as a right winger mainly and use her as a backup for the RB, LB and LW positions. And since this was not really possible at Bayern Munich due to fierce competition on roles, moving to another club needing an excellent right winger would be a very suitable choice for Rall.
Most suitable destinations
Manchester United and PSG
In fact, Rall has got plenty of good options if she is planning to continue playing as a right-back because she can represent an upgrade for this position for many teams. Teams like PSG and Manchester United for instance will have their regular RBs wave goodbye at the end of the season and they will most probably get in contact with Rall to try to sign her.
But more importantly, Rall will have to think carefully before making a move mainly by determining her intentions and desires in terms of positions. If she would like to keep playing as a right-back most of the time, then it would be more suitable for her to not move to play as a backup right-back. Moving to play for Barcelona for instance would more likely be a non-successful decision because the team has got excellent starters already and it would be very complicated for Rall to compete with Marta Torrejón for a regular spot.
Arsenal
if Rall desires to play continuously as a right winger and find herself more comfortable in that position, it would be better for her to opt for teams that need her in that position and perhaps one of the most suitable options in this regard would be Arsenal Women. The team relies mainly on Victoria Pelova and sometimes on Katie McCabe for the right-winger role and Rall can surely battle with Pelova for a starting spot and it is more likely for her to get more playing time in this position at the expense of Pelova, knowing that McCabe plays as a left-back mainly.
Conclusion
Maximiliane Rall has been an excellent right-back for Bayern Munich and can improve even further to become a more decisive player both in playmaking and in defence.
At the same time, playing a little bit forward as a right winger seems to be a better-fitting position for Rall given her excellent attacking abilities and her intelligence in terms of decision-making and creativity.
Therefore, making the most adequate decision following her contract expiry this summer would be extremely important to decide Rall’s future and her possible change of positions, with Manchester United, PSG and Bayern Munich being the most adequate destinations for the RB role, and Arsenal being the most fitting team for the RW role, especially if the mentioned teams will be interested in the German international’s services.
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