Bundesliga 2020/21: Hertha Berlin vs Borussia Dortmund

The Olympiastadion held an exciting tie between two Bundesliga sides, Hertha Berlin, and Borussia Dortmund. This tactical analysis will take a deep dive into the game that finished 5-2 to the away side.

Hertha, led by Bruno Labbadia, currently position themselves in 13^th place, eight games into the new season. They are a side who look lethal going forwards, with Matheus Cunha scoring at a particularly dazzling rate, but their defence lets them down too often. In this analysis, we will discover how Labbadia’s tactics resulted in such a chaotic rear-guard against Dortmund.

Dortmund, managed by Lucien Favre, have had an electric start to the Bundesliga campaign. Heading into this game, they were looking to recuperate after the international break and a 3-2 loss to Bayern Munich just before that. This analysis will explore how they managed to open up Hertha’s defence with frequency.

Lineups

Hertha (4-4-2): Alexander Schwolow; Peter Pekarík, Dedryck Boyata, Omar Alderete, Marvin Plattenhardt; Vladimír Darida, Niklas Stark, Mattéo Guendouzi, Matheus Cunha; Dodi Lukebakio, Krzysztof Piątek.

Labbadia had a couple main injury issues to contend with for this game, namely Jordan Torunarigha and Jhon Córdoba. Torunarigha is an especially tough pill to swallow, consider the level of defender he is growing to be, after suffering from injury setbacks in the past. This is the first time this season that Labbadia went with a 4-4-2 formation, so it was interesting to see a more traditional approach from the German coach.