Manchester Citys Pauline Bremer brings us a player with an interesting skill set. Through analysis, we see that Bremer is a dangerously dynamic forward and on an individual level has the quality to improve any team’s attacking tactics. Although her time with City has been marred by gruesome injury, tactical analysis shows us that Bremer excels not just with her feet, but with her mind. This scout report will look into how Bremer is able to score goals at such a high rate, but also touch on why she has not made a bigger impact in the City squad. We will then look at what the future may potentially hold for her.
Background
Born in Ossenfeld, Germany, Bremer progressed through the youth system of SVG Göttingen 07 before signing a senior contract with 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam in 2012. After a few years, perennial powerhouses Olympique Lyon took notice of her and landed her signature in 2015. By 2017 Manchester City were looking to elevate their squad and having just lost to Lyon in the Champions League semi-final signed Bremer to a contract through summer 2020.
Bremer has excelled within the German women’s national team as well. Her first splash on the international level came when she was a major component in the German squad that won the UEFA Women’s U-17 Championship. A year later she was the top scorer in the 2013 UEFA U-19 Championships. Another year after that, she helped Germany to win the 2014 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Since 2014 she has struggled to find a foothold in the German starting XI, featuring with the German first team 21 times and scoring 4 goals.
Tenure with Manchester City
Bremer’s tenure with Manchester City is an interesting one. Bremer made her starting debut with City in October 2017 in a match against Everton. She scored within the first twenty minutes of the match and the future looked quite bright. However, late in the first half, Bremer suffered a broken leg after a heavy challenge by a defender. This left Bremer out for thirteen months.
After a long bout of rehabilitation, Bremer began to find her form on the pitch again. She has shined brightly this season by scoring the third-most goals in the league with 10 and ranks highest in goals per 90’ with 1.44. She also ranks fifth in the league for shots taken with 45, with an enormous 6.47 shots per 90’. To put that in perspective, the next highest shots per 90’ is Beth England with 4.03.
Bremer is obviously an attacking force in the English first division, but there are a few alarming follow-up statistics. Of Manchester City’s 1,440 minutes played in the 2019/20 FAWSL, Bremer has only been present for 576 of those minutes (40%). Additionally, out of the 16 matches played, Bremer has only started 6 of them.
This leads us to wonder, why would City not play Bremer, who is ranking in the top ten in the league in multiple key scoring statistics? Why is she present less than half of Manchester City’s time on the pitch? In a Goal.com interview with Nick Cushing in January 2020, we find some insight:
“I’m not being critical of her goal-scoring but her all-round build-up play, it has to improve,” manager Nick Cushing added. “We want to work on it, we want to get her better. Between the two boxes, she can be a better player, but in the box, she’s showing that she’s an incredible goal-scorer. She’s scoring a lot of goals, but she’s missing a lot of chances as well, so she can score even more! And she knows that. But, like I say, we can’t be critical of her goal-scoring.”
This leads us to believe that despite Bremer’s tremendous skill set, she is not an ideal fit for City’s desired tactical system. This is not unusual; we see players all the time that don’t fit well with one team’s tactical format and then flourish in another tactical format (a good example being a comparison of Kevin De Bruyne’s tenure with Chelsea and Manchester City).
In late February 2020, it was announced that Bremer would be leaving City at the end of her contract in the summer to join VFL Wolfsburg. We will take a look at some of the ways Bremer is able to score so many goals and how she might fit in within VFL Wolfsburg’s tactics.
Off the ball runs
Bremer is quite skilled at confusing and disorienting her direct defender. By allocating different runs based on her direct opponent’s range of vision she is able to lose her marker in vital moments to create chances on goal.
Studies across different mediums (athletics, office work, etc.) have shown that when people are interrupted and have to switch their attention back and forth from a task to task they take, on average, 50% longer to accomplish their task and make up to 50% more errors. If a person is forced to focus on multiple things, their quality of thought and execution is diminished. Add the intensity and speed of a football match and an attacker can use this cognitive confusion to their advantage.
Bremer can be seen doing this by using different types of runs against her direct opponent. She uses a mix of runs within the defender’s vision, out of the defender’s vision and sometimes both within one run.
Bremer is constantly aware of the eyeline and body shape of her marker. This allows her to choose when to stay in her opponent’s blind spot and when to appear. She often lurks in her marker’s blind spot to force the defender to take their eye off the ball to find her. When the defender observes her, she remains in her position, knowing the defender is taking a mental snapshot of Bremer.
The moment the defender turns her vision away from Bremer, Bremer moves into a new space. By doing this throughout her play, she is able to confuse and disorient her direct marker. Because of this disorientation, the marker is prone to more mistakes and Bremer finds more opportunities to score. Sometimes this happens even when Bremer is directly in the vision of the marker.
Below we can see a few examples from a single match in September 2019. Bremer remained in a high position alongside the Reading centre-backs throughout the match. When the ball was not near her, she constantly moved to create awareness issues for the Reading backline.
When the ball came near and it was time to make an attacking run, she used an alternation of different runs to keep the defenders guessing.
Above is a run in the second half in which Bremer chose to remain in the view of her marker and make a run into space behind. It must be mentioned that Bremer is certainly a top athlete as well and her bursts of speed make her additionally dangerous. She is able to get away from her marker and create a chance on goal.
Later, the ball is on the Manchester City right flank. Bremer is aware that her marker’s vision (blue) is fully attached to the ball on the flank. Bremer stays in her direct opponent’s blind spot to move to the top of the 6yd box practically unmarked. A cross is sent in and Bremer’s one-touch shot narrowly misses.
