Tabea Waßmuth is a German international player who started her career at 1899 Hoffenheim II in 2014 before playing with the 1899 Hoffenheim first team from 2015. In 2021, she joined Wolfsburg and proved that she has the potential to become one of the best in her position. Waßmuth is actually very close to her peak, as she is helping her team win games in a very concrete way, meaning that Waßmuth is often contributing to scoring goals whether by finishing or by making the assist.
One excellent attribute of this player is that she has got a strong character that helps her during big games. She’s proven on numerous occasions that she doesn’t fear her direct opponents even when she is playing against some of the biggest teams in Europe such as Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, etc. She delivered some really impactful performances against all of these teams and was key in helping her team defeat them. We will analyse episodes from those games below in the article. This tactical analysis scout report will mainly explore Waßmuth’s roles at Wolfsburg and Germany while identifying what characterises her as an attacking player and what makes her stand out as one of the most talented players in her position at the moment.
Position and roles
It is fair to say that Waßmuth is a “goal contribution machine”. This means that she is very efficient in terms of goal contribution with Wolfsburg and Germany, since we can always find her at the heart of her team’s attacking actions, either providing the assist/the key pass or finishing the action on goal. And that’s very important in terms of tactics.
This characteristic not only highlights Waßmuth’s attacking efficiency but also shows that she is worthy of more playing time to help the team even further in terms of goalscoring. She is a reliable player when it comes to passing and winning offensive duels to reach the box and serve her teammates.
That’s why she is usually crucial inside the final third in general. Waßmuth has been used as a right winger in the 4-3-3 formation and as a striker in the 4-4-2 formation with Wolfsburg and she was useful in both cases. At Germany, she is often used as a right or a left winger in a 4-3-3 formation.
These details show that Waßmuth can be useful in all attacking positions and this will serve to her advantage since it will guarantee that she gets more playing time season by season. At the moment, Waßmuth has been playing as a right winger most often, giving her experience interpreting this role very well and providing a huge addition to this wing.
According to the following pizza map, Waßmuth’s goal contribution stats are more than outstanding, and if she keeps having these same stats regularly, she might become the best in her position in terms of numbers. Even when it comes to shooting, Waßmuth has got an exceptional stat per 90.
The pizza map also shows that Waßmuth does not rely too much on dribbling and often goes for passing, accelerating and shooting rather than trying to surpass her direct opponents. If she is planning on working further to improve her weaknesses, it would be beneficial for her to work harder on increasing her dribbling rates and passing accuracy as well, knowing that she provides numerous dangerous passes per match.
Yet, improving the passing quality even further would guarantee a better outcome. Moreover, enhancing her defensive performance and helping in the defensive phase more concretely would make Waßmuth a more complete player.
Goalscoring
Waßmuth has been a very consistent goalscorer lately and the fact that she usually scores on big occasions makes her goals more remarkable and her performances more fruitful. The following goal scored against Bayern Munich just highlights her goalscoring instinct and her excellent decision-making and courage in complicated situations.
She received the ball in a counterattack and saw the defender coming towards her as soon as she received the ball. Instead of panicking or thinking about what to do, she immediately thought about shooting the ball towards the upper corner and did so successfully with great technique. Such episodes also prove that she can deal with difficult situations in the final third with a high success rate given that she doesn’t fear shooting from distance and knows how to direct her shots.
Moreover, Waßmuth can also be useful in the air since she has already scored goals using her headers, especially when playing as a striker and receiving crosses. She did score a header against Arsenal in the UEFA Women’s Champions League after receiving an accurate cross from the right wing and beating her direct marker in order to make an impact on the ball first. Her physical abilities allow her to be even more impactful in duels and especially during such decisive and dangerous situations. Succeeding in improving this aspect would help Waßmuth a lot in the future in terms of numbers since it would give her an additional goalscoring alternative.
Waßmuth can also use her left foot with power and precision and this helps her in dealing with situations that require using her left foot such as in the following occasion when Wolfsburg met Barcelona. In fact, being able to shoot with power and precision from outside the box with the “weaker foot” is a great asset for Waßmuth which allows her to be extremely dangerous inside the whole final third, given that she doesn’t think twice about shooting on goal when she gets the opportunity to do so, which is not something to be taken for granted because most players nowadays tend to avoid shooting from distance due to fearing errors. Moreover, many of those who shoot from distance do not try doing so frequently. And that’s why Waßmuth stands out as a special attacking player.
Playmaking
In addition to her goalscoring skills and addition to Wolfsburg, Waßmuth is a great playmaker who usually provides accurate passes to teammates even when put in complicated situations. Her ability to use her left foot to provide accurate creative passes as well helps her a lot in remaining dangerous no matter where she is positioned on the pitch. The following goal action against Chelsea highlights Waßmuth’s vision and excellent decision-making during complex situations. She was tightly marked by Jess Carter but despite that, she was still able to advance and cross the ball towards her teammate using her left foot to create a clear goalscoring opportunity almost from scratch. Having the ability to surpass opponents in offensive duels and still provide accurate and key passes helps Wolfsburg a lot in creating and alternating their attacking methods.
More importantly, Waßmuth’s consistency in providing accurate crosses when playing on the right wing makes her a very useful part of Wolfsburg’s tactics, since they rely on her a lot in terms of crossing to strikers, as she has the quality needed to always deliver crosses and passes that create dangerous opportunities for her team. The following example shows one of Waßmuth’s successful crosses in the sense that this cross was accurately delivered and well-finished by the striker. Waßmuth’s great crossing technique helped the striker economise her movement efforts and just focus on directing her header in the right way to put the ball inside the net. Therefore, it is fair to say that having a player with the passing quality of Waßmuth can only be beneficial for teams that rely on crosses or early crosses towards the box.
Conclusion
Tabea Waßmuth is actually one of Germany’s most talented attacking players, and if she keeps performing at this level, she is destined to improve a lot more and become a more complete player. Her attacking versatility and her ability to interpret different attacking roles and positions in a very efficient way make her an even more valuable player for both Wolfsburg and Germany. Her teams can exploit her well as a right winger, left winger, a second striker and even as a main striker since she has the necessary characteristics to excel at these positions and she has already proven that she has the adequate mentality and a strong personality to succeed in interpreting these roles and make a considerable impact even on big occasions.
