How To Smash A Deep Block: Man City Legend Uwe Rösler Tactics & Principles At Aarhus GF

Coaches usually have their breakthroughs in the countries they were born in, sometimes even for their hometown club.

For some coaches, it is the country they have played the majority of their career in, like Mikel Arteta and England.

For Uwe Rösler, it is nothing like that.

The former striker was born in East Germany and grew up playing in the closed-off country.

After Germany’s reunification in 1990, Rösler went off to have a decent career in the Bundesliga before making a transfer to England, playing for the likes of Manchester City and Southampton, making 102 appearances in the Premier League and becoming part of the Citizens Hall of Fame.

Personal health struggles unfortunately led to the end of his playing career.

After his recovery, the opportunity to work with the club as a coach opened up, which started off his long coaching career in 2005.

After multiple years in Norway at clubs like Lilleström, Viking and Molde, he went on to coach in England at clubs like Brentford, Wigan Athletic and Leeds United.

After his stint in England, he went on to become the manager of Malmö FF in Sweden and helped the club qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

In 2020, 15 years after making his managerial debut, Rösler finally got his first and only job in Germany, coaching Fortuna Düsseldorf for 53 games.

Since July of 2022, Rösler has now been the Head Coach of Aarhus GF.

The club had stabilised itself in the top half of the league, and currently, Rösler has his men sitting in third place in a tight Superliga title race, only losing to the big clubs FC Copenhagen and FC Midtjylland.

In this tactical analysis and head coach analysis, we will analyze Uwe Röslers tactics and principles, which he has brought to Aarhus, and explain why they have been so successful this season. 

Uwe Rösler Tactic #1  Width & Presence In The Final Third

Aarhus is not just sitting in a very decent third place right now; they are also tied with Viborg and Midtjylland for first place in goals scored in the league.

They are not just a force in attack.

With only 13 goals conceded, Rösler and his men have conceded the fewest goals in the Superliga, even better than teams like Copenhagen or Randers.

For this piece, we are going to examine what makes Aarhus so dangerous in attack, showcasing some tactical principles that Rösler, a former striker, has incorporated into his playing style.

What stands out about Aarhus’ attack is that it is the highest-scoring in the league, with only eight attempted shots per game.

This leads to Aarhus only ranking average in expected goals created in the Superliga, but they have the third-best value in terms of expected goals per shot.

This simply means that Aarhus does not often shoot at goal, but when they do, those shots are from very dangerous positions.

Aarhus are one of the teams that like to dominate possession in the Danish league.

They average 54.9% of possession per game, ranking fourth in the league and on par with league leaders FC Copenhagen.

This means Rösler and his men face deep blocks rather often, and we are going to examine their first big and vital principle to see how they still create big scoring chances against these types of defences.

In every single game this season, Uwe Röslers formation has been a 3-5-2 setup.

In the build-up, Rösler has his middle centre-back drop back a bit and has his outside centre-backs push up the field in the half-spaces.

From then on, Rösler prioritises tw