Last summer, Freiburg lost their legendary coach, Christian Streich.
The 59-year-old had been with the club since 1995–starting with the U-19 team before taking over the senior side in 2011.
Under Streich, Freiburg achieved some remarkable results: They won the 2. Bundesliga title in 2015-16, were promoted back to the Bundesliga, finished in the top five, reached the DFB-Pokal final, qualified for the Champions League, and made a Europa League last-16 appearance.
These are huge achievements for a club of the calibre of Freiburg, which doesn’t have a glamorous history and comes from a small town.
So, when Streich decided to retire rather than continue as Freiburg’s coach, there was a lot of talk about the club’s future because it is hard to replace a legendary manager who has led a club so successfully for such a long time.
When Freiburg decided to appoint Julian Schuster as his successor in March 2024, another question was asked.
Schuster is well-known within the club.
He’s a former player who has been a member of the coaching staff under Streich and has occasionally stepped in when Streich has needed to be replaced.
However, he doesn’t really have any professional experience as a club manager.
This season is his first in charge of Freiburg, a team with a good reputation in the Bundesliga, and he’ll have to replace the legendary Streich.
The pressure is no joke.
But so far this season, Schuster has shown that he can handle the pressure.
He is also showing that he can make Freiburg as successful as they were under Streich.
Freiburg are currently fourth in the table and have a great chance of qualifying for the Champions League final stage for the first time.
They have 39 points from 23 games, more than previous Champions League spot finishers such as VfB Stuttgart, RB Leipzig, and Borussia Dortmund.
So, it’s really interesting to see what’s behind it.
What is Schuster’s secret recipe?
This tactical analysis will explain Julian Schuster tactics at SC Freiburg in the 2024/25 Bundesliga.
Julian Schuster Unique Pressing Approach
“I felt like I was quite isolated for the whole game,“ said St Pauli’s Eric Smith after his team faced Freiburg.
In that game, St. Pauli lost 0-1 at home and managed to have just 0.17 xG.
The reason? Freiburg‘s pressing.
I can tell you that Freiburg’s press is really good, but their PPDA (passes allowed per defensive action) is the highest in the Bundesliga.
That sounds contradictory, right?
PPDA is usually used as a measure of how good a team is at pressing and how intense they press the opposition—the lower the PPDA, the higher the intensity of the press.
However, this logic does not apply to Freiburg.
Why is that? Because they have a unique pressing system.
Freiburg have mostly used a man-to-man approach to press their opponents, which sounds intense.
However, the main purpose of their pressing is not to speed up a defensive action to win the ball back and launch a counterattack.
The purpose of their pressing system is to neutralise the opponent’s attack first.
Neutralising the opponent’s attack doesn’t always require a defensive action (which is why PPDA can’t measure this).
