The billionaire Bill Gates once said, “to win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.”
Borussia Mönchengladbach can be condemned for taking the relatively safe option last summer when Marco Rose moved to Borussia Dortmund to become the next permanent manager at the Signal Iduna Park.
Mönchengladbach appointed the former Eintracht Frankfurt coach Adi Hütter as Rose’s replacement. Hütter had done a very solid job with the Eagles and was now preparing to take on the Foals.
However, Hütter’s reign was a disaster, and the Austrian was dismissed at the end of the 2021/22 campaign, having won just 14 of his 37 games in charge. Instead of playing safe once more when appointing the next man to sit on the throne at Borussia-Park, the Mönchengladbach hierarchy took an eyebrow-raising risk.
Daniel Farke, formerly of Norwich City, was the chosen one. Having led the Canaries to consecutive Championship title victories, Farke has so much to prove in top-flight football. In 49 Premier League matches, the German-led Norwich to six wins.
Farke has experience in Deutschland, from his tenure at Borussia Dortmund II in the lower divisions. However, Mönchengladbach are taking a massive leap of faith by handing the 45-year-old his first Bundesliga job.
This article will be a tactical analysis of Daniel Farke, looking at the tactics that observers and fans alike can expect from Mönchengladbach during his reign based on his time at Carrow Road.
Preferred formation
When it’s all smooth sailing for Farke, the abeyant manager sticks with his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation. The conventional structure is Farke’s little symmetrical baby, providing balance in offence as well as defence.
In the former SV Lippstadt manager’s final full season in charge of Norwich City, which was in the side’s 2020/21 promotion campaign, his use of the 4-2-3-1 was constant and overwhelming.
There were times when a shape change was necessary for the Canaries, but given that Norwich were undoubtedly the strongest team in terms of quality in England’s second division, Farke was able to keep the formation he so loved.
In the 2018/19 Championship season, Norwich deployed the 4-2-3-1 in 80 percent of their matches. Again, the Canaries were the best side in the league and so opponents would bend for them, it wouldn’t be the other way around.
