Bundesliga 2019/20: Hoffenheim vs RB Leipzig – tactical analysis

On Friday night RB Leipzig travelled to Hoffenheim, winning 2-0, and in doing so, with the title looking all but wrapped up by Bayern Munich, they took one step closer to at least clinching a Champions League place as the Bundesliga season nears its finish. It was an open game where Hoffenheim started the fastest of the two sides, spurring a couple of excellent chances as well as having a penalty overturned with the score at 0-0 for a handball in the build-up. It could have been so very different.

The penalty decision seemed to rock Hoffenheim and kick the visitors into gear and Leipzig played some truly electric football at times, most notably in the first half, and went into the break two goals to the good.

They were unable to build on their lead in the second half, and there seemed to be a theme running through the game of sloppy finishing. 

This tactical analysis will give an analysis of the tactics used in this game.

Lineups, formations and notes

Hoffenheim had to reshuffle due to Benjamin Hübner’s sending off in the previous game. They opted to play with a 3-5-2 with Florian Grillitsch flanked by Stefan Posch and Ermin Bičakčić either side of him as part of a back three. However, he was given a fair bit of freedom to roam forward in attack and was really used in the back three as the player to launch attacks for Hoffenheim, making long passes to either flank to switch play to the left and right wing-backs Steven Zuber and Pavel Kadeřábek.

Moanes Dabbur was played as the furthest forward striker, despite the above formation, with Christoph Baumgartner playing alongside him but having the freedom to drop into midfield more or shift across the width of the pitch. Dennis Geiger seemed to struggle to influence the game in this role, and with Diadie Samassekou being brought off at half-time and Sebastian Rudy struggling to have an impact on the game himself, it perhaps would have been more pertinent to take advantage of Geiger’s abilities as a ball progressor from a deeper role. Hoffenheim struggled to deal with Leipzig attacking centrally and didn’t create a great deal of attacks themselves from this area either. Marcel Rapp will want to look at this area in the final stages of the season.