TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Under Christian Ilzer Tactics 2024/2025: What’s Improved & What’s Needed – Team Analysis

As we go into the middle of February, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim are hovering just above the relegation zone in the Bundesliga, four points clear of 1. FC Heidenheim who occupy the relegation play-off berth, with just thirteen games left this season.

With just 18 points accumulated, its the lowest points return for the Sinsheim-based club at this stage of the season since the 2015/16 season and the second-lowest overall since their promotion to the top flight way back in 2008.

Only the 2012/13 campaign saw worse than their current record.

Its been a tumultuous year for the club, with exits from the DFB-Pokal and UEFA Europa League compounding their poor league form.

In addition, they have cycled through two different managers and quite possibly a third soon if results dont improve under Christian Ilzer.

Its quite a downslide for a club that finished in seventh position just nine months ago, which earned them a fourth-ever European qualification and first in four years to begin with, especially given that their squad boasts nearly a dozen international players across Europe and Africa.

They have had their share of misfortune with injuries, with a long and growing list of players currently out of action, but is the explanation for their struggles this season that simple?

This tactical and data analysis will uncover whats not clicking this year for Hoffenheim despite the team having gone through two managers relatively early on in the campaign.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Summer Investment & Problems Under Pellegrino Matarazzo

After leading the team back to European football last term, Pellegrino Matarazzo was given the opportunity to continue his work with the team this season as he went into the final year of a two-and-a-half-year contract he signed when taking the job back in February 2023.

The biggest reason for TSG Hoffenheims success last season was undoubtedly their offensive production.

They posted sixty-six goals, the highest in the league outside those who finished in the Champions League slots, for an average of nearly two goals a game.

They also possessed two of the leagues top six goalscorers throughout the campaign: Maximilian Beier and the clubs all-time top scorer, Andrej Kramarić.

Beier ended up leaving in the summer for Borussia Dortmund, as the club reinvested some of his commanding €28.5 million transfer fee in Czech forward Adam Hložek from title-winning Bayer Leverkusen and joint 2. Bundesliga top scorer Haris Tabaković from Hertha Berlin.

In fact, Hoffenheim ended up spending twice the amount they received from Beiers transfer, for a total of €57 million, which is the most the club has ever spent in a single transfer window in their entire history.

Coming off a good season, qualifying for Europe, investing the most they had ever done and brought in some quality players, it seemed like everything was set for Hoffenheim to build on last year with another solid campaign.

But things just havent panned out all season, especially in the Bundesliga.

Under the American manager up until his dismissal in November 2024, Hoffenheim continued lining up in their usual 3-4-1-2 formation from last year, with some variations to a 3-4-3 and 5-3-2 on occasion.

Besides Beiers departure, players like Wout Weghorst, Robert Skov, and John Brooks also left the club, but they brought in plenty of reinforcement in those positions.

More than half of their spending came in the defensive department, understandably so after they shipped as many goals as they scored last season for the fourth-worst defensive record in the league.

So why did things not improve after all the investment they made?

Itd be difficult not to mention the injury problems they have faced all season long, right from the very start, when three key players, Ozan Kabak, Ihlas Bebou, and Grischa Prömel, all went down with serious knee injuries in the summer.

Their fortunes in this area have not improved until now, either, with twelve players currently on the injury list as of mid-February.

While this has obviously made things difficult from a squad management standpoint, as the team balanced three competitions during the first half of the campaign, other issues with the teams performance on the field prior to Matarazzos departure also contributed to their struggles.

Pellegrino Matarazzo Inconsistency

When the club released an official statement to announce Matarazzos departure, one of the main factors in the decision that was cited was the lack of consistency in the teams performances leading up to that point.

The bloew graphic shows just how evident that was in his final weeks, with multiple goal games followed up by blanks on a few occasions there.

While the injuries and balancing act of playing on three fronts made matters difficult for the New Jersey-born manager, his inability to find any real consistency ultimately proved fatal to his job.

By mid-November, the Hoffenheim board had decided it was time for a change and went down south to find their next manager.

Hoffenheim Performances After Christian Ilzer Took Over

On November 1