The Austrian Marcel Sabitzer played until now every possible second in the Bundesliga this season under the new coach Julian Nagelsmann. RB Leipzig is the only team which were able to win the first three games of this new campaign and so they’re logically currently in the first position. The 25-years-old player is also one of the best players of his motherland Austria and their third most valuable player with a market value of £22.5 million. Only David Alaba and Marko Arnautović are the two Austrian footballers who have a higher market value than Sabitzer.
In this tactical analysis in the form of a scout report, we will look at Sabitzer’s all-round abilities and examine why he fits in RB Leipzig’s tactics.
Positioning and movements
In the first three matches in the Bundesliga, Nagelsmann used three different formations and Sabitzer played in two different positions. When they used a 3-4-3 and a 4-4-2 he played as the right-winger both times, while on the second matchday the Austrian was a central midfielder. This brings us to his first quality.
The 25-years-old can play in every offensive position. At his former clubs, Rapid Vienna and RB Salzburg he played as striker, offensive midfielder or a winger. However, since he joined Leipzig, he made 148 appearances for them and just five as a striker. In the remaining 143 games, he was either a central midfielder or a winger. This statistic perfectly shows Sabitzers versatility.
When you look at his heatmap for the first three Bundesliga games this season, you can clearly see that he was mostly positioned on the wing to provide width for his team. However, it also gets visible that the Austrian likes to drift inside as we will see now in this analysis.
The 25-years-old player isn’t permanently in the same position during games but likes to move between the lines and always looks for free spaces to provide a passing option for his teammates. Since Leipzig is among the favourites to win the Bundesliga this season and they are among the best teams in this league, most teams have huge respect and let Nagelsmann’s team dominate the game.
Considering this, players like Sabitzer who move between the lines and don’t just stay in their position, are really important to progress the ball further up the pitch. However, he makes these movements also when he plays for his national team, as you can see in the example below.
