Oliver Glasner Tactics At Wolfsburg 2019/2020 – Tactical Analysis

Despite a sixth-place finish last season, Wolfsburg and Bruno Labbadia decided, with four games to play, that come the summer, they would part ways.

The German side moved swiftly to announce that 44-year-old Austrian coach Oliver Glasner would be next in the hot seat.

Perhaps an unfamiliar name to many, Glasner has been quietly building a reputation in his own nation, bringing LASK Linz up from the second division to be title contenders in the Austrian Bundesliga.

This tactical analysis will delve into Glasner’s philosophy at LASK Linz and provide an assessment of its progress so far with Wolfsburg, as well as what sort of football Die Wölfe can expect to see in the new season.

Oliver Glasner Tactics At LASK Linz

Glasner took over LASK Linz in 2015/16 and took them to a second-place finish in the Austrian second division.

The following year, they went one better and comfortably won the league by a 17-point margin.

In the 2017/18 season, a fourth-placed finish in the Austrian Bundesliga followed, and clubs around Europe began to notice what Glasner was doing at Linz.

However, it was last season that the teams performance really caught the eye.

They finished in second place in the Austrian Bundesliga.

Admittedly, this was 12 points behind first-placed Red Bull Salzburg, but nine points ahead of third-placed Wolfsberger.

Their xG last season would suggest they overperformed, scoring 2.12 goals per game with an xG of 1.57.

However, upon further scrutiny, there were several games throughout the season where they scored far higher than their xG.

These included a 6-0 win over St Pölten and an 8-0 win over Stadl-Paura.

The xG was perhaps misleading, and Glasners side fully deserved their final league table position.

The mixture of excellent results with eye-catching, efficient passing football was enough to convince Wolfsburg to give him the job.

Oliver Glasner Formation

The biggest change Wolfsburg fans will see this year is the formation.

3-4-3 is Glasner’s preferred formation and was used, in some variation, 93% of the time last season.

Glasner only started using the 3-4-3 once Linz were promoted to the Austrian Bundesliga, and has experience with playing four at the back.

However, Wolfsburg have nevertheless played three at the back in every pre-season game thus far.

With this particular formation, the wing-backs naturally have to be combative, energetic, and incredibly disciplined.

These are adjectives that are often attributed to right wing-back Kevin Mbabu, who Glasner brought in from BSC Young Boys this summer.

Glasner has played seven different players in the left wing-back position so far for Wolfsburg.

However, if he wants his team to play with a more reserved approach, then Jérôme Roussillon will be given the nod.

Whereas, with a more attacking intent, Paulo Otávio will be played here.

Glasner believes Mbabu can attack as well as he can defend, and will likely be an ever-present in the side this year.

It’s hard to predict what players will be in the starting XI come the first day of the season, but the formation is for certain.

The line-up may well look something like this.

Oliver Glasner Defensive shape

Glasner likes his side to press with intensity and win the ball back as quickly as possible.

This was a key component of his Linz side, and he will no doubt be instilling his own pressing ideals onto his new players.