Last weekend the Bundesliga finally returned after a long break due to the corona crisis. While last week we got with Borussia Dortmund vs Schalke 04 probably the greatest derby in the history of German football, this week Hertha Berlin will meet Union Berlin in the Olympiastadion. Normally this game would be especially interesting due to the atmosphere in the stadium as it is the derby of Berlin. However, without the fans, it will be quite interesting to see if the players can keep their emotions under control since it is for both teams an important game. Hertha BSC Berlin have got 31 points (11th position) after the opening 26 games while Union Berlin have collected one less (12th position).
But while the margin between Hertha and the seventh position (last one to qualify for the UEFA Europa League) is only six points, Union Berlin is just seven points ahead of Fortuna Düsseldorf and therefore the 16th place (relegation spot). In other words, the season can go either way for both teams and this derby could be a decisive game as the winner could go into the next weeks with a lot more self-confidence and momentum.
In this preview in the form of a tactical analysis, we look at both teams’ performances in their respective games last weekend to then examine what this could mean for tomorrow’s clash between them in the derby of Berlin.
Their line-ups
Since both teams performed quite well last week in their respective games, we can expect them to use about the same starting eleven. Also, no player is suspended and the injured ones wont return for this game. Therefore, in this tactical preview, we will use the eleven players from each team as they played last weekend. There is only one change which could be likely as Sebastian Andersson probably replaces Anthony Ujah, but we will talk about this in more detail later on in this tactical analysis.
Hertha Berlin used in their 3-0 victory over Hoffenheim a 4-4-2 formation with Rune Jarstein between the sticks and a back four which consisted of Marvin Plattenhardt, Jordan Torunarigha, Dedryck Boyata, and Peter Pekarík. Marko Grujić and Per Ciljan Skjelbred were the central midfielders. Maximilian Mittelstädt and Dodi Lukébakio played in the wide areas while Matheus Cunha and Vedad Ibišević were the two strikers.
Union Berlin lost 2-0 against Bayern Munich, but played way better than the result would tell. Rafal Gikiewicz was the goalkeeper and had five defenders in front of him in Christopher Trimmel, Florian Hübner, Keven Schlotterbeck, Neven Subotić, and Christopher Lenz. Marius Bülter and Marcus Ingvartsen were the wingers while Robert Andrich and Grischa Prömel played in the central midfield. Ujah was the only striker. We will now look at both teams’ tactics in the respective games to see how the derby could look like
Union’s man-orientation and the area Hertha could exploit
Throughout this tactical analysis, we need to consider that Union Berlin faced Bayern Munich who have a higher individual quality compared to Hertha, but we can still expect Berlin to play with similar tactics. The team of Urs Fischer have on average 40.8% possession which is the second-lowest value of all teams in the Bundesliga and due to that, we can expect once more that they will defend deeper.
Union Berlin defended in their 5-4-1 formation and Ujah mostly started to put pressure on the opposing centre-backs at about the halfway line. The height of the pressing line changed throughout the game slightly as there were periods when Union tried to play riskier and in other moments Bayern were just so dominant that they forced them even further back.
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