Bayern Munich Frauen and Wolfsburg Frauen may have been sparring with each other for several seasons at the top of the Frauen-Bundesliga, but it hasn’t always been those two that have dominated the German women’s game. Back in the noughties and early 2010s, there was another powerhouse in the mix, with Turbine Potsdam winning six top-flight titles between 2003 and 2013 (the only former East German side to win the league) and finishing as runners-up on four other occasions. They also lifted the Champions League trophy two times and were finalists in two different editions of the tournament during that period.
Sadly, the club’s more recent history will not be looked upon with as much fondness, with them being one of Germany’s last independent women’s clubs and last season seeing their run finally come to an end as they finished bottom of the table and saw their 26-year stay in the top flight come to an abrupt end.
Their maiden campaign in the 2. Frauen-Bundesliga threatened to see them carry on with that poor run after three defeats in three at the beginning of the campaign, but things have started to look up for the former champions with a run of six straight victories (all of which have been clean sheets) and them now sitting just four points off leaders Hamburg Frauen at the time of writing.
What has been especially noticeable during that run is that they have attained those results without being exceptionally productive in front of goal. They have only found the net once per game on average during their opening nine matches (with their nine goals the lowest in the top half of the division), and, as this tactical analysis will show, that makes for an interesting story as to how they are managing to stay in the promotion race.
Accuracy in transition
When watching Turbine Potsdam play, what becomes immediately clear is that there is a heavy reliance on transitions as a way of moving the ball up the field in the most efficient manner possible, and this is certainly one way that they can dominate games and ensure that their opponents don’t have a great chance of taking the points.
More often than not, their immediate focus is on creating space and making the pitch as big as possible, with their tactics based on being expansive with the ball and not making it easy for their opponents to attempt interceptions. That is immediately obvious here, with Potsdam negating Bayern Munich II’s attempt to surround the ball by giving themselves width and allowing them to play the ball out of danger before any significant pressure is applied.
The accuracy with which Maya Hahn passes to Lina Vianden (out of shot) here is essential to note because, whilst there is a sizeable gap for the ball to travel through, there is still the risk of the pass going astray and an interception being made, and the lack of Potsdam players between the ball and the goal, if that were to happen, would mean that any counterattack could end up in a goal.
Fortunately for Potsdam, this is rarely something that they have needed to worry about, with mistakes like that so far a rare occurrence in their matches, and their 76.2% passing accuracy for the season and 71.4% accuracy specifically for progressive passes so far indicates how they don’t often fail to find their intended target when moving the ball around the pitch.
However, it has not always been possible for them to play with that amount of width, with there being some instances when they have been forced to operate in tighter spaces. This has not phased them, though and has instead allowed them to show a different side to their game, with them looking here to keep the ball moving forward, but this time in a straight line.
To do this, they have set up a simple passing sequence through the Weinberg Frauen ranks here, with Alisa Grincenco instigating the move by feeding the ball into Mia Schmid before running forward to run behind the defensive line, whilst Viktoria Schwalm provides the link between them. When all three players are in position, the only obstacle is a potential mishit pass, but they again are rarely troubled by that and manage to move the ball forward with no issues to allow Grincenco to run towards the goal here.
They were aided in this situation by Weinberg taking the bait and moving towards the ball at the wrong moment, with Julia Brückner moving out of line and making it easier for Grincenco to run into the gap behind her. However, the fact that Potsdam managed to execute this transition with the same quality as they demonstrated when in open space does show how they have been adaptable and can play with the same mentality and tactics regardless of how their opponents set up against them, which is a huge positive for them as they look to maintain their promotion bid.
Playing in this progressive manner does require players to have a strong awareness of where the spaces are and how they can aid the rest of the team in moving the ball through the thirds, though, which is where some teams might struggle to make it work to its full effect.
For Potsdam, though, they do have members of their squad who have that quality, which is why they can play with the level of composure that has been shown so far in the scout report. One who has really stood out when moving the ball around the pitch is former AC Milan Femminile midfielder Noa Selimhodzic, with the Israel international often drifting around the field and positioning herself in pockets of space in order to connect the play and to allow her team to stay on the front foot where they can.
This graphic indicates how many areas of the field she has moved into during the nine matches in the 2. Frauen-Bundesliga season so far, and it is already clear just how significant a role she will continue to play as the campaign continues. What is also important to note is that she not only makes forward passes but also sends balls into the goal area, indicating how important she is in keeping opponents pinned back and in creating space for her teammates to operate in.
Whilst the analysis has so far looked at Potsdam’s ability to remain composed when moving the ball around the field, what is important to note is that the calm mentality actually starts from the back, with the defenders just as critical to allowing the team to retain the ball as those in the middle and top of the pitch are. Here, it would be easy for the ball to be sent directly towards Schwalm from its current position, with Carl Zeiss Jena Frauen not committing to any kind of press. Still, she has instead pointed towards Irena Kuznetsov and has indicated that the ball should go through her in order to minimise once again the risk of the ball going astray. The opposing side winning possession in a dangerous area.
For many sides, this would be seen as an unnecessary pass to make, given that it would slow the ball down and allow opponents to attempt an interception, but what it shows is that Potsdam’s mentality is very much on not taking risks and on retaining the ball at all costs. The fact that they have averaged 55.12% possession during the season so far shows that it is paying off in allowing them to control matches and, therefore, go on their current winning streak. Therefore, when looking at how the former champions are managing to take maximum points whilst scoring as few goals as they are, this certainly has to be taken into account.
Defensive adaptation
Whilst transitions are something that Turbine Potsdam have taken too well during their short time in the second tier, something that has taken time to adjust to is their new defensive setup, with them looking to adapt their shape in order to make them more robust and to prevent the story of last season, when they conceded the highest number of goals in the Bundesliga (68), from reoccurring.
During that fateful campaign, Potsdam tended to favour a back four, with their preferred formations being either a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1, used 56% and 19% of the time, respectively. The reason that they proved to be so problematic was that players constantly moved out of line and allowed opposing attackers to play through them. Some of those issues did persist at the start of this season as Potsdam continued to make themselves far too easy to score against.
In this case, Sand Frauen have looked to take advantage of Potsdam’s lack of organisation, with their players combining with each other very tidily to create the space and then making the right decisions at the right time to ensure that the chance was converted, with a one-two between Emily Evels and Poland forward Julia Matuschewski here leading to Leonie Kreil finding the back of the net.
The ease with which Sand were able to break his team down was partly why they wanted to change to a back-five setup for this season, with him so far deploying a 3-4-1-2 formation more often than not (in 64% of their games to be exact) as he tries to make those gaps less prominent whenever Potsdam don’t have the ball. As the season has gone on, it has proven to be the right direction to go in tactically, with Potsdam now looking a lot more secure inside their own half and capable of defending with more organisation as they try to win games by not conceding simple goals.
Altering to a back five shape has also allowed them to implement a player-to-player marking mentality, with each player picking up an opponent here and staying tight to them so as not to enable Gütersloh 2009 any opportunity to shoot at goal. The result is that the cross from midfielder Finja Kappmeier on the far side of the field fails to find a teammate, and this is not the only time that Potsdam have succeeded in ending threats early with their new system in place, with them winning 70% of their defensive duels so far and 44% of their aerial battles.
What has also been vital to their defensive success is keeping the same tactics in mind regardless of where the ball is whenever they don’t have it, with Potsdam this time defending on the front foot but once again picking a player each and ensuring that they again limit what Bayern, in this case, can do as they try to play out from the back.
Here, the intensity of their unified press means that Bayern concede possession inside their own third due to Carlotta Schwörer seeing her options limited by former Birmingham City Women full-back Adrienne Jordan, and that then allows the quartet of Jordan, Kuznetsov, Selimhodzic and Bosnia forward Ena Taslidža to combine as they take Bayern out of the game and set up a shot on goal for Schwalm in the middle.
Therefore, this is another essential thing to factor in when wondering how Potsdam have managed to win so many matches without being as productive as others around them in the table.
Mixed attacking success
With that in mind, it would be easy to imagine that everything in Turbine Potsdam’s attacking play lacks quality, but that is not the case, and there are, in fact, moments here and there when they have got themselves into promising positions and have looked like finding the back of the net.
Their build-up play is generally not an issue, with it already mentioned that finding spaces when in transition is a critical focus in their game plan, but there is also a sense of unpredictability in their play, which has served them well when moving the ball around the field. Here, Potsdam have regained possession in the middle of the field through Laura Lindner and are now in the process of launching a counterattack, with Pauline Deutsch in possession and trying to find her way beyond the Bayern defenders ahead of her.
She has a decision to make, though, with her needing to opt between sending a diagonal pass towards Grincenco or continuing her run up the pitch and around the outside of the narrow Bayern defensive line. Both of these would be viable, and it is for that reason that Bayern have to cover both off because they know that simply pushing towards the ball here would not solve the issue.
In this case, Deutsch selects the latter and ends up taking a shot at goal, but it is this ability to put doubt into opponents’ minds that has again allowed Potsdam to control so many of their matches and to keep the other team guessing and therefore not applying as much pressure as Potsdam might have been under previously.
Rotation, too, is a vital part of Potsdam’s tactics, and it has already been hinted at during the analysis when examining how they win the ball high up the field. In the previous section, when Jordan forced Bayern into giving the ball up, it was Schwalm who was in the middle and receiving the cross, and she has again made her way into the central channel here in order to give her team a chance to shoot at goal.
Schwalm is usually found on the wings, with her charged with giving Potsdam the width they look for when playing out from the back. Still, her ability to move into the middle as well is indicative of Potsdam’s desire to play a free-flowing style of play that sees their players rotate positions and work together to both create and take goalscoring opportunities. Selimhodzic’s role has already been highlighted in that, but Schwalm and others play their part in it too, and it is another reason that they have been able to keep their opponents on the back foot and to go on their positive run of results in recent weeks.
In this case, Schwalm didn’t manage to make the most of her chance, but her ability to drift infield again highlights how a lot of what Potsdam do well comes down to the freedom that their players enjoy and the reliance that the team has on individual members of the squad demonstrating in-game intelligence and recognising where they can have an impact on their play.
Where everything breaks down for Potsdam is mainly in the final shot on goal, and it does often come down to poor decision-making and players simply not connecting with the ball in the right way. In this case, Kuznetsov has made her way up the field from the back and is looking to shoot at goal, but she ends up firing high and wide and squandering the opportunity.
Whilst this is frustrating enough, with 69% of Potsdam’s counterattacks ending in a shot but only 34.8% of their overall shots being on target so far, what makes it even worse is that the Israel defender had both Deutsch and Lindner available as potential passing options inside her and both had a better angle from which to try their luck. Therefore, whilst Potsdam might not be as reliant on goals at the current time, these are the chances that any team would be annoyed about missing.
It should be mentioned, though, that this is not the first season that the former champions have lacked a cutting edge in front of goal, with them only averaging 0.6 goals per game in 2022/23. That is still not a significant statistic, but what has changed this season to make it less of a concern this time around is that they have tightened up in other areas of their play, such as their defending and control of the ball, and the fact that they have only conceded 0.6 goals per game this season, less than their one goal scored, is why they are still in a strong position for a promotion fight.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at Turbine Potsdam, one of the most historically successful teams in the German women’s game but who have not had a time to remember of late.
Nevertheless, despite the dismay that their relegation brought to so many who follow them and who know the club’s history, the analysis has shown that there are now clear signs of revival as they try to find their way back to the top flight, with them sitting third in the 2. Frauen-Bundesliga table and very much involved in the race for a top-flight berth next season.
They may be going about it unusually by focusing on defending and possession control as ways to win matches, lessening the burden on those at the top of the pitch to score goals, but it is a strategy that is proving to be fruitful for them at the time of writing. There is still a long way to go, and anything could happen, but, as things stand, Potsdam could well make their hiatus from the Bundesliga last just a single season, and it will be interesting to keep an eye on their progress as the campaign goes on.
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