Over the last 18 months or so, Marco Rose, at Borussia Mönchengladbach, has developed a clearly defined system, with distinct individual roles which require a high level of tactical understanding. Each player has to recognise his role in the team, and how that fits into his team’s tactics.
It may then be surprising to hear that, Jonas Hofmann has been trusted by Rose to be selected in a variety of positions, from defensive-midfielder, all the way to a centre-forward, as we saw in Gladbach’s most recent fixture versus Borussia Dortmund. In this analysis, we will explore how he utilised all over the pitch.
Standing at 5’9” / 175cm, Hofmann mixes a great gas tank with agile body movement to help his team in and out of possession. He reads the game incredibly well, he nips in with interceptions in both wide areas and central zones and once the ball is won back, he takes his time on the ball to reel opponents in, before finding a teammate in space with a clever pass. This scout report will analyse further where he excels and where is limited.
In this tactical analysis, we will cover his different roles in Rose’s system, where he stands out statistically, and in-game examples of how he provides great value to this Gladbach side.
Player profile
Hofmann was born in western Germany, in the town of Heidelberg in 1992, and was then scouted by Hoffenheim at the age of 12. After spending seven years with the club, rising through the ranks at their academy, he switched to Borussia Dortmund in 2011, where he would go on to make his professional debut under Jürgen Klopp in the 2012/13 season, after their back-to-back Bundesliga triumphs. Although it would never really work out at Dortmund, he earned a move to Gladbach in 2015/16, and he has been with the Foals ever since.
In Rose’s 4-2-3-1 system, Hofmann has formed one half of a double pivot, left-midfield, left-wing, right-wing, and as a centre-forward. Predominantly, (just about) he has been used as a winger on either side of the pitch, though he is not your typical wily wide operator who looks to receive the ball and take it past his opponent. Hofmann prefers to make runs beyond the opposition’s defensive line, either down the half-space, or an angled run from a wide zone into a more central area. This is not to say he is an incompetent dribbler though; he certainly is not.
Depending on his position within a match, Hofmann can either be the football equivalent of a ‘quarterback’, occupying the ball in deeper areas and hitting vertical passes towards wide men in space, or he might be the wide man in space himself, being found by a fellow teammate. Regardless of which position he plays in; his mindset is to attack the opposition as quickly and directly as possible. He possesses decent pace and remarkably steady balance, allowing to turn on the dime in swift fashion, which is useful in more crowded central areas.
Hofmann’s player profile, created by the wonderful Sathish Prasad (@SathishPrasadVT on Twitter).
Hofmann’s many roles in Rose’s system
Under Rose, Gladbach mainly use a 4-2-3-1 formation, but they have experimented with a 3-4-3, 3-5-2, and 4-4-2 in a few matches. Therefore, let it be understood that when we speak about Rose’s tactics in this piece, we will be referring to a 4-2-3-1 system. In this system, they revert to a 4-4-2 out of possession, where the attacking midfielder and the striker will work in tandem as the first line of press.
