After a few years in which he played brilliantly, Julian Brandt went through the expected change of environment with his move from Bayer Leverkusen to Borussia Dortmund. He was the main player of the Peter Bosz’s squad in the past season, becoming one of the most exciting players to watch there is, and keeping up with the potential that was clearly in him from the first day.
Now, he will go to the Bundesliga’s runner-ups and will be one of the keys for them to twist Bayern Munich from the throne, especially after their activities in the market which resulted in a highly strengthened team.
Lucian Favre’s men will surely play a very concrete attacking football with Brandt as one of the crucial gear wheels for them to make a step forward in the national championship. This tactical analysis will show you what are the strongest points that the German is bringing to his new team, and what his role could be.
Brandt’s development becoming a midfielder
As from the half of the last season, Peter Bosz was appointed as the Bayer Leverkusen’s boss and he has changed the 23-year-old’s game for 180 degrees. After the Dutchman came to BayArena and did the analysis of the squad, Brandt’s role in the team became much more important and all kinds of different since he went from the wing, which was his natural position at the time, to play in the midfield as the main creative force for them.
The new coach reformed the player’s approach and made him the man that is in control of an almost every happening on the pitch. Even though his position now is the central midfielder, the German is a very attacking-oriented type of one and spends most of his time in the high parts of the inner-corridors.
As it is shown in his heatmap, the manoeuvre space for Brandt is most taking place in the half-spaces on the opponents’ half but with a clear tendency to pull himself out to the flanks. He also often comes lower on the pitch to participate in the build-up, mostly positioning on the left-hand side while doing it.
In this role, he has 90.7% per cent of the pass accuracy with 1.78 shots per game and makes 59.2% of his total recoveries in the opposition’s part of the field which makes him important in both attacking actions and defensive set up for his team. At Signal Iduna Park he will probably play with the same tasks and will bring the directness to Borussia’s squad.
