Borussia Mönchengladbach are currently leading the Bundesliga under their new coach Marco Rose.
The Fohlen collected a solid 25 points in their first 11 matches and are four points ahead of RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich, and SC Freiburg.
Since the seventh matchday, they sit on top of Germany’s major league.
One of the most important players of the team is surely Denis Zakaria.
Even though the Swiss international just scored two goals and assisted once in the first eleven league games, his value gets visible in other aspects of the game.
In this tactical analysis, we’ll look at Denis Zakaria style of play and examine hsi role in Marco Rose’s tactics.
Denis Zakaria Player Profile
Marco Rose already used different systems and formations this season while the tactics stayed mostly the same.
Borussia Mönchengladbach want to build up their attacks from the back with short passes; for that, Zakaria is one of the most important players as we’ll see throughout this analysis.
The Fohlen have mainly played with a back four this season.
Occasionaly, they opted for a double pivot in front of it, when using a 4-2-3-1 formation.
In other matches, they just had one defensive midfielder in front of the four defenders.
Additionally, Mönchengladbach also played with a back three in some games.
Denis Zakaria played every Bundesliga match and was a starter in almost all of them, the exception being the game against Bayer Leverkusen, in which Marco Rose brought on the Swiss in the 69th minute to replace Nico Elvedi.
Zakaria was either the lone defensive midfielder or, for the most part, the left part of the double pivot.
The two images below display both these options.
In either case, he’s important for the Borussia Mönchengladbach’s build-up play and tries to support the back four.
Denis Zakaria always tries to create a passing lane to give the defenders a safe option.
Above, the 22-year-old is the only defensive midfielder and runs on the right side of the pitch to provide right-back, Stefan Lainer, a passing option into the centre.
In the second image, he’s the left defensive midfielder while Christoph Kramer occupies the right side.
The Swiss positions himself in the free space to receive a pass.
Above, Zakaria is the only defensive midfielder and runs on the right side of the pitch to provide Mönchengladbach’s right-back, Stefan Lainer, a passing option into the centre.
Here, Zakaria is the left defensive midfielder while Christoph Kramer is the second one.
The Swiss positions himself in the free space to receive a pass.
However, Denis Zakaria has also played as part of a back three this season.
In the example below, the 22-year-old is the central man of the back three during the final minutes of the UEFA Europa League game against Roma.
We’ll now look at Denis Zakaria’s defensive abilities which are, besides his playmaking-qualities, the main reason why he can play in the defensive midfield and as part of the back three.
Denis Zakaria Defensive Skills
The Swiss international is one of the best players in the Bundesliga when it comes to defence.
On average, Zakaria makes 10.01 recoveries and 5.88 interceptions per game.
As well as his ability to win one-on-one situations, the 22-year-old has two other great strengths that help him being such a hard opponent to play against: pace and stamina.
He has good acceleration to keep up with his opponents on the first yards.
On the other side, he is also incredibly fast for a player of his size and muscular physique.
These two factors help him to defend against players with high speed as wingers or full-backs have nowadays.
His pace also allows him to get into duels and try to win the ball or clear it.
This can be perfectly seen in the example below.
Firstly, Zakaria is in his typical position in front of the back four of Gladbach.
Marco Reus plays a great through pass to Thorgan Hazard.
The 22-year-old defensive midfielder uses his pace to catch up with the Hazard and is able to get a touch on the ball to clear the situation.
On the other hand, Zakaria has a lot of stamina due to his muscular physique which helps him win defensive duels against other players with similar strenght.
He often wisely puts his body between the ball and the opponent to recover possession for his team.
This can be seen in the image below where he blocks Nicolò Zaniolo away to get on the ball.
The majority of professional footballers are either fast or physically strong.
It’s not that often the case that a player possesses both of those abilities.
Zakaria combines these aspects and, most importantly, is able to exploit those qualities.
We can often see him using his pace to get into a one-on-one situation and then getting on the ball with the aid of his stamina.
In the example below, we see exactly such situation as the opponent wants to pass the ball past him on one side and run on the other side.
However, the Swiss international has the acceleration to be as quick as the opponent and then makes use of his physical strength to get on the ball in his own penalty box.
Marco Rose’s teams are well-known for their aggressive work against the ball.
We can often see how his players almost hunt the opponents to win back possession.
To do this, the players need to be aggressive and willing to get to the ball.
It seems like Zakaria has these two mental abilities and knows what Marco Rose wants to see from him.
He always seems to go with determination and will in every single duel since he wants to recover possession for his squad.
The image below is a perfect example of that.
The opponents have just kicked off, but Zakaria advances towards his opponent, who doesn’t see him as he is standing with his back to the Swiss international.
The 22-year-old surprised his opponent and managed to win the ball.
Build-up Play And Attacking Role
We already saw in this Denis Zakaria scout report that he permanently tries to provide the defenders with a short passing option during the first stage of the Borussia Mönchengladbach build-up play.
However, he is also important for the Fohlen in the opposition’s half.
In these situations, he dictates the game with short passes.
Overall, the Swiss international averages 33.8 passes per game.
The only Gladbach players with more passes per 90 minutes in this Bundesliga season are the centre-backs Elvedi and Matthias Ginter and right-back Lainer.
Anyways, when the Marco Rose’s side have possession in the opposition’s half, Zakaria stays outside of the opponents defensive block to be a safe option for a back pass.
Also, from there he has a good overview and can organise the attacks.
Additionally, Zakaria also likes to get into a higher position and be part of the attack.
In these situations, he shows his ability to find and position himself in free spaces to receive the ball freely.
The Swiss also has a good understanding of the game.
This gets visible in the image below as he receives a pass from his teammate Marcus Thuram who instantly runs into the free space behind the defence of Dortmund.
Zakaria makes a perfect first-touch pass to the French winger, creating a goal-scoring opportunity.
His aforementioned speed helps him outpace his opponents when dribbling.
Zakaria has the technical ability to execute a successful dribble, but his acceleration and speed clearly help him to make it even more effective.
Also, Gladbach likes to hit their opponent on the break.
In such situations the pace of the players is a central aspect since counterattacks are more dangerous when they are executed as quickly as possible.
In the image below, Denis Zakaria receives a pass from Kramer shortly after the German midfielder won back the ball.
Zakaria could instantly play a forward pass to Patrick Herrmann since he and Lars Stindl would have two-on-two situation.
However, the Swiss international decides to dribble forward by himself to join his two teammates and eventually creates a three-on-two situation or plays a through pass to one of his two teammates.
He even manages to dribble past the two defenders, but makes the pass too late which causes Herrmann to be ruled offside.
Considering this, Zakaria’s decision-making was good, and he also executed it well, but just played the pass too late.
Nevertheless, this example shows that he can use his pace in such counterattack opportunities.
Lastly, we’ll look at one of the two goals he scored so far in this Bundesliga season.
In this situation we can clearly see his intelligence and how he finds free spaces.
In the first image, Oscar Wendt is on the ball and Zakaria is positioned in the central space, as usual.
Wendt plays a forward pass and Gladbach is able to progress the ball further up the pitch.
Meanwhile, Zakaria permanently stays behind his opponent Daichi Kamada and moves into the free space in the centre.
Kamada can’t track him since he doesn’t see him and just moments later, Stindl is on the ball in the penalty box.
Zakaria is completely unmarked, allowing him to receive a simple pass from his German teammate and simply place the ball near the near post with his first touch, scoring the decisive goal to make it 4-2.
Conclusion
This Denis Zakaria scout report showed that the Swiss has got several abilities which make him so important for Marco Rose’s tactics.
The combination of his pace, stamina, aggressiveness, and defensive ability all makes him a very difficult opponent to get past.
He is also important for Borussia Mönchengladbach’s build-up play and always tries to provide a safe passing option to his teammates.
The remaining games of this season will show how long he and his team stay at the top of the table.
Regardless of that, Zakaria is already an outstanding player even though he’s just 22 years old.
In light of this, he’ll surely get even better.
It will be interesting to see if he’ll move to a bigger European club since there are already rumours that several Premier League clubs and Bayern Munich are interested in signing him.
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