The Bundesliga returned after the international break and league leaders Bayern Munich took on Werder Bremen on Saturday in a battle between two teams that have had very different seasons last year. Bayern went on to win the treble while Werder staved off relegation; however, Werder have found more success at the start of this year. That success continued on Saturday as they held the reigning UEFA Champions League winners to a 1-1 draw.
This tactical analysis will examine the tactics used by both Hansi Flick and Florian Kohfeldt. The analysis will look at how Bayern overloaded the half-space, how Werder looked to pull Bayern up the pitch to exploit space in behind, and how Bayern tried to take advantage of Werder’s compact defensive structure by playing forward crosses.
Lineups
Hansi Flick sent Bayern out in a 4-1-4-1, although it primarily functioned as a 4-3-3. Manuel Neuer started in goal with David Alaba and Jérôme Boateng as his centre-backs. Lucas Hernandez started as the left-back while Benjamin Pavard started on the right side. Javi Martinez started as the holding midfielder with Jamal Musiala and Thomas Müller in front of him. Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman started on the left and right flank respectively, with Robert Lewandowski starting as the striker.
Kohfeldt started Werder in defensive 5-4-1 formation with Jiří Pavlenka in goal. Marco Friedl, Ömer Toprak, and Christian Groß started as centre-backs with Ludwig Augustinsson as the left wing-back and Theodor Gebre Selassie as the right wing-back. Werder’s two central midfielders were Maximilian Eggestein and Kevin Möhwald. Milot Rashica started on the left flank as Leonardo Bittencourt started on the right, and both players looked to support their striker, Josh Sargent.
