How Adi Hütter’s Gladbach is starting to take shape vs Mainz 05 – tactical analysis

The summer of 2021 saw the dawn of the manager carousel, where the chopping and changing of head coaches were commonplace between clubs such as Bayern Munich and Juventus. A more unnoticed managerial appointment was Bo Svensson, who previously took charge of FC Liefering before taking the reins at FSV Mainz 05. Many might have taken a blind eye to the 42-year-old’s change of club, but spectators are now taking notice as Mainz are currently punching at the top of the Bundesliga table as they stood 5th place, with a marquee win vs RB Leipzig.

Adi Hütter was also a part of the manager merry-go-round as he vacated his position at Eintracht Frankfurt and has replaced Marco Rose at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Adi Hütter has not been as influential as the former as his Gladbach currently sat in 9th place with poor performances against Bayer Leverkusen, Union Berlin, and Hertha Berlin. Gladbach clearly has the talent to set the pace and progress, but Bo Svensson’s Mainz have clicked into gear, so this matchup should be a tight affair.

This tactical analysis will discuss Gladbach’s in possession tactics and the different variations utilised when trying to break down Mainz’s medium block. In addition, I will delve into qualities and downfalls when they have the ball and Gladbach’s use of Matthias Ginter to accommodate Joseph Scally.

Line up

Mainz made use of a 3-5-2 formation with Robin Zentner in goal, a back three, which comprised Stefan Bell, Alexander Hack, Moussa Niakhaté. In the wing-back positions was Aarón Martin on the left side and Silvan Widmer on the right. Within midfield positions, Lee Jae-sung, Dominik Kohr and Jean-Paul Boëtius. Mainz’s striker partnership comprised Karim Onisiwo and Jonathan Burkardt.

Gladbach traded their usual 4 at the back formation for a 3-4-2-1 formation with club captain Yann Sommer in goal: former Dortmund defender, Matthias Ginter, Nico Elvedi, Ramy Bensebaini. Luca Netz and Joseph Scally were placed at wing-back, with Kouadio Koné and Denis Zakaria as a double pivot. Within attacking positions, Jonas Hofmann, Alassane Pléa with Breel Embolo leading the line.

Gladbach’s build-up patterns

Coming into this game versus Mainz, Adi Hütter’s team had a coherent plan of how they were going to progress the ball forward and through the thirds. As mentioned prior, Gladbach utilised a 3-4-2-1 formation within this game, but during previous outings, set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

During the first phase of play, Gladbach employed different iterations for playing out. Within these different iterations, a common theme that was shown throughout was creating superiorities to beat the opposition press. For example, using a 3-2 build-up structure. Mainz pressed their opposition with a narrow front 3 and high midfield line, with their aim to deny space and time into the centre-backs on the ball and keep Gladbach’s double pivot within their cover shadow and in-result, stop passing lanes to Kouadio Koné and Denis Zakaria in midfield. Gladbach’s 3-2 structure was effective due to creating a 5v2 scenario within this phase.