The final matchday of the Bundesliga season saw Borussia Monchengladbach face Hertha Berlin at Borussia-Park. Marco Roses side needed at least a draw from the match in order to secure UEFA Champions League football for next season. While the end result did not impact Hertha Berlins season, they wanted to carry on their clear improvement since Bruno Labbedias appointment especially after their impressive win against Bayern Leverkusen last weekend.
It was Borussia Monchengladbach domination in the first half of the match and this saw them go into the break 1-0 up; it couldve easily been more though. Even though the second half was more even-sided, Hertha did not have much success in the final third. A second Gladbach goal in the 78th minutes looked to solidify the win, though Hertha managed to get a consolation goal in the last minutes of the game.
This tactical analysis will be looking into the tactics used by both managers. It will analyse the passive approach from Hertha, the direct transition from Gladbach, Gladbachs overloads in defence, and also how Hertha tried to take advantage of those overloads.
Line-ups
Rose was missing two of his best players in Alassane Plea and Marcus Thuram, the attacking duo that contributed to 38 goals between them this season. Nevertheless, Gladbach set up in a 4-2-3-1 and still had Breel Embolo to lead the line. The Swiss striker was supported by Patrick Herrmann and ex-Borussia Dortmund player, Jonas Hofmann on the flanks and Lars Stindel in the #10. The midfield pivot included Christoph Kramer and Florian Neuhaus. In defence, from left to right, was Ramy Bensebaini, Nico Elvedi, Matthias Ginter, and Stefan Lainer; in goal, as usual, was Yann Sommer.
Labbadia had his side in a similar shape. Between the sticks was Dennis Smarsch, who was making his first start of the season for the club. His backline consisted of Marvin Plattenhardt, Jordan Torunarigha, Dedryck Boyata, and surprisingly, Alexander Esswein, due to injuries. Niklas Stark and Marko Grujic made up the midfield pivot, Dodi Lukebakio and Matteus Cunha operated on the flanks. The #10 position was occupied by Vladimír Darida while Krzysztof Piatek was the lone striker.
Herthas passive approach
Gladbachs build-up strategies usually consist of ball retention in the first phase, to lure the opposition in so that there can be space exploited further up the pitch. In order to attempt to stop this, Labeddias tactics changed from what was usual for his side instead of a high press, Hertha barely pressed the backline of Gladbach and would only engage into a press when the ball was in the middle third of the pitch, as shown in their PPDA of just 16.5. This, however, was not a successful approach in the end.
