Christian Streich is a rare breed. He is a manager who has been backed by his clubs board and allowed to work for a number of years and build something. Under his tenure, Freiburg have experienced everything from the highs of Europa League qualification to the lows of relegation into the 2.Bundesliga.
However, they are now a side thriving in the league. They are this seasons surprise packing, finding themselves only two points off the top of the table in the current campaign.
Admittedly they have had a relatively easy schedule, playing and beating the likes of Mainz, Paderborn, Fortuna Düsseldorf and Augsburg. Yet they still managed to draw with Borussia Dortmund and beat Hoffenheim suggesting they are a team that could compete in the upper echelons of the league this season. Disappointingly their only loss came in a home loss against relegation favourites Köln.
This tactical analysis will look into the tactics used by Streich with Freiburg.
Performance under Streich
Streich has overseen a total of 292 games winning 37.33% of these games. As mentioned earlier Freiburg were relegated in the 2014/15 season finishing 17th, but bounced back immediately the following season as champions finishing above RB Leipzig. In their six seasons in the Bundesliga under Streich they have only had two top-half finishes, finishing fifth and seventh in the 2012/13 and 2016/17 seasons.
Currently, they sit in fourth-place but statistics suggest they are perhaps fortunate to be in their current position.
Freiburg have been incredibly potent in front of goal so far this year, with only Bayern and Dortmund scoring more. But their xG for the season is just eight goals, but they have actually scored 15. Defensively they have only conceded less than top two, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Wolfsburg, with seven goals, but have an xGA of 8.9.
The expected points table has them sitting in ninth-place with a negative-one goal difference rather than their current fourth-place with a plus-eight goal difference.
Formations
Streich has grown in flexibility with formations as time has progressed in his Freiburg career. The 4-4-2 was used in 83% of Freiburg’s games in 15/16 and although he has continued to use this formation frequently in recent years, he began to show a proclivity for a 3-4-3 or even a 5-4-1. In fact this season he has only played with three at the back.
He has his front three play close to one another, leaving the flanks free for his wing-backs to provide width in attack as well as protect their own back three. By leaving so much space in the wings, this allows space for players to run into as Freiburg move forward. Streich likes to use the flanks to buildup attacks and Freiburgs front three, as well as their centre-midfielders, are able to move into the spacious wide areas and link-up with their wing-backs.
Long-ball football
Streichs philosophy revolves around playing in a direct but efficient manner. They rank fifth in the league for number of long balls played with 45.75 per 90 minutes, with a respectable if not outstanding 55.1% completion. They play a relatively similar amount of long balls to previous seasons under Streich but have never ranked in top five in the league before this year. This suggests that although Streich continues to use the long ball, the rest of the league are moving away from any such tendencies.
Streichs team look to exploit space in behind defences and will use a traditional long-ball to the forward line looking for a quick header behind the backline. Subsequently one of Freiburgs forwards is able to run onto the flick on and get behind the opposition defence.
But it must be made clear that although this is an option they have used in the past, this is by no means their regular attacking intention. Regardless of what the passing statistics imply, Streichs side are not a traditional long-ball team in any sense.
Streich looks to have his teams play out from the back but they are very purposeful in playing forward.
They dont play a lot of passes. Last
