Dominique Janssen 2023/24: Wolfsburg’s defensive dynamo ready to shake up the transfer market – scout report

Dominique Janssen has expressed her disinterest in signing a new contract with Wolfsburg Women, knowing that her current contract ends in the summer of 2024. Janssen might be looking for new adventures in or outside Germany after having spent almost five seasons with the German team and won two Frauen Bundesliga titles in 2019/20 and 2021/22, in addition to winning the DFB Pokal three times and reaching the UEFA Women’s Champions League final in both 2022/23 and 2019/20 and getting eliminated in the semi-finals in the 2021/22 season.

Indeed, Janssen was not lucky enough to lift the UWCL trophy despite playing two finals with Wolfsburg. However, playing at the biggest stage each season and reaching advanced phases with Wolfsburg allowed Janssen to acquire a lot of defensive and playmaking experience, knowing that she was selected among the best defenders in numerous editions of the tournament.

This tangible experience and positive results at one of the most important competitions can only confirm Janssen’s value as an outstanding defender who can represent a significant addition to any of the “big” European teams, especially those who are in need of a powerful centre-back at the moment.

Therefore, in this tactical analysis and scout report, we will explore Janssen’s excellent defensive abilities and study her playmaking traits and their importance to Wolfsburg’s and Netherlands’ tactics. Moreover, the analysis will shed some light on her set-piece taking and suggest the most suitable next destinations for the Dutch international.

But first of all, we can introduce Janssen as a centre-back and sometimes a defensive midfielder who uses both feet and is one of the most versatile defenders in the game, given her excellent abilities in defence, playmaking and set-piece taking. This combination of traits is rare among defenders, especially at the highest level, making a player like Janssen so valuable and “wanted” by most of the top teams.

Janssen started her career at SGS Essen in 2013 and played for two seasons in the German league before making a big move to FAWSL’s Arsenal, where she was able to showcase her abilities more globally since she played with the Gunners from 2015 to 2019 and was able to lift the FAWSL trophy in 2018/19 as well as the FA WSL Cup and the FA Womens Cup.

This experience in a powerful league like the FAWSL gave Janssen much more experience. In addition, the participation with the Netherlands national team in the UEFA Womens Euro 2017 consolidated this experience. It paved the way for Janssen to become one of the most reliable defenders in Europe, knowing that the Netherlands were able to lift the UEFA Womens Euro 2017 trophy by beating Denmark in the final.

Furthermore, Janssen progressively became a pillar in the national Netherlands team and was able to participate in numerous continental and international competitions like the 2015 World Cup and the 2019 World Cup, during which Janssen played in all seven of the Netherlands games and did not miss a minute until reaching the final. She also had a significant impact with the Netherlands during the 2023 World Cup, the 2020 Summer Olympics and Euro 2022. She is expected to give a lot more to the Netherlands national team during the upcoming games and to her next team.

Defensive abilities

Janssen’s defensive abilities are world-class since she has the tactical maturity needed to read different attacking initiatives and plans and intercept passing combinations inside the final third. She combines this tactical maturity with physical strength and ability to win defensive duels consistently and impressively. With 4.15 interceptions per game, she constantly proves that she can read passes well and moves in anticipation to intercept those passes, especially inside the box.

This example shows Janssen’s crucial defensive positioning during an action that could have led to a goal for Fraknfurt if not for Janssen’s interception of the through pass directed towards the team’s striker. Janssen was reactive enough to look at her opponent when she was about to provide the pass to guess its direction and, therefore, have more time to react and intercept the pass, knowing that she was initially marking the player behind her in the picture.

Janssen can also be extremely useful when the team plays with a high defensive bloc and opt for high pressing as she times her interceptions/anticipations very well and has a fairly reasonable decision-making in this regard. In other words, she usually takes risks when she notices that the opponent did not control the ball well or is in doubt/hesitation/lack of balance.

As you can see in the following picture, Janssen spotted the right moment to intercept the ball from Alba Redondo as soon as she noticed that the latter was not very balanced when moving towards the ball after a not-very-successful first control. The experience in this kind of situation and knowing when to risk the interception and when to avoid it is very valuable since it makes the team win more attacking situations and avoid conceding counter-attacks with a lot of space left behind.