Last season, VFL Wolfsburg finished 7th in German Bundesliga as TSG 1899 Hoffenheim won their away game against Borussia Dortmund on the last matchday. This means that Hoffenheim is directly qualified for the Europe League whereas Wolfsburg need to play a qualification round. Even if this does not seem to be a difficult task, it means more matches and even one match before the regular Bundesliga season will start. It is obvious that with an anyway tight schedule, these qualification matches will not be very helpful for the players´ recovery. Nevertheless, they will try to play a good role in all three competitions (Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, Europe League) as long as possible.
In this data analysis, we will take a closer look at Wolfsburg´s squad, their players´ data and statistics. Furthermore, this analysis will provide you with Wolfsburg´s playing style.
Squad depth
First of all, we will look at the squad structure and the depth within the team. As you can see in the image below, Wolfsburg´s current squad list has 30 names. This looks like a good squad depth. But, just as an example, Bundesliga competitor Eintracht Frankfurt have 33 players in their squad with one competition less as they did not qualify for Europe last season. This might be a decisive factor next season since there will be no long breaks.
Adding to that, by taking a look at their squad structure, it is striking that the team is unbalanced. Four out of these 30 players are goalkeepers. This is the same number of players as they have for their both full-back positions. Five centre-backs are necessary regarding the high number of matches. The same thing applies for five central midfielders. All in all, they have five wingers (three for the left-wing and two for the right-wing) as well as five forwards. Two central offensive midfielders complete the squad.
Goalkeepers
Koen Casteels (28) and Pavao Pervan (32) are two experienced Bundesliga goalkeepers who are supported by Niklas Klinger (24) and Lino Kasten (19). Casteels is a goalkeeper of a very high Bundesliga standard as he conceded the sixth-less goals last season (46 in 34 matches). This can be also seen in the image below. The Belgian international player has quite good rates in both cross stopping and goals saved above average. In both categories, he performed better than former world-best goalkeeper Manuel Neuer (FC Bayern).
