UEFA Champions League 2022/23: How Nagelsmann’s half-time adjustments led Bayern Munich to victory over Barcelona

Julian Nagelsmann has long been lauded as one of the most interesting young coaches in football, at least from a tactical perspective, but there was always a sense that he had yet to show this at the very highest level of football. Indeed, this season there have been rumblings of discontent coming from the Bayern Munich supporters as, despite an impressive start to the season, they had drawn their last three league matches. Despite underlying data that suggests that they should be doing much better in the league the results on their own have led to some wondering if the young German coach would see out the season in Munich.

This was the backdrop in which this weeks Champions League matches were played and, as Bayern prepared for the visit of the Spanish giants Barcelona, there was a degree of uncertainty around the squad not least due to the fact that Bayerns former talismanic forward Robert Lewandowski would be lining up in this match for the opposing side. It felt like a bold move in the summer when Bayern agreed to sell the Polish international striker to the Spanish side and it has since emerged that Nagelsmann played a role in the decision by telling the decision makers at Bayern that he believed they would be just as successful without Lewandowski and that he did not actually need a fixed striker in his squad.

In isolation, a 2-0 win for Bayern Munich in this match looks like business as usual, at least in the context of the last few seasons in the UEFA Champions League, but in this instance, the scoreline very much fails to tell the whole story. Indeed, this match appears to epitomise the term a tale of two halves as Barcelona under their Spanish coach Xavi will feel extremely aggrieved to have not gone in at the half-time break at least a goal ahead. In the end, however, Nagelsmann came out on top with some intelligent changes from a tactical perspective to give his side the edge and create space in the final third in the second half of the match.

In this tactical analysis, we will break down the key tactical concepts from this game. It will be an analysis of the tactics from the game, looking at how Nagelsmann got one over on Xavi.

Team News

Team news first and there was an immediate surprise from Nagelsmann in the starting positions of his attacking players. While Thomas Muller, Sadio Mane, Jamal Musiala and Leroy Sane have been regular starters in the attack for Bayern so far this season they have typically played with a more fluid front three of Sane, from the left, Musiala, from the right and Mane, through the centre, with Muller as the 10.

In this match, the positions were switched with Mane and Sane on the left and right of the attack respectively and Thomas Muller playing as the more advanced forward. These moves were likely deliberate by Nagelsmann to ensure that Bayern had speed in the wide areas to deal with the threat posed by the Barcelona wingers.

For Barcelona, the lineup was pr