Sebastian Bornauw has been steadily growing his reputation as an impressive ball-playing and defensively sturdy defender in the Bundesliga at FC Koln.
It wasn’t surprising to see him depart Koln this summer, with plenty of teams linked with the centre-back over the past 12 months.
With Wolfsburg pipping a Champions League spot, the chance to play in Europe’s premier competition is likely what gave Die Wolves the lead in the chase for the Belgian’s signature.
Bornauw will provide competition for John Brooks and Marin Pongracic, and may have been pre-emptively signed with Maxence Lacroix expected to generate heavy interest this summer, having been heavily linked with Tottenham.
Whatever the reason, the 22-year-old has plenty of potential, and along with Pongracic and, potentially, Lacroix if they can retain him, Wolfsburg have an outstanding, young defensive core.
This tactical analysis and scout report will highlight some of the key strengths of Bornauw and will provide an analysis on what he can bring to Wolfsburg in the forthcoming season.
Sebastiaan Bornauw Position and use in different formations
Bornauw is right-footed, but is perfectly able with his left too, and as such this gives him a flexibility within the centre-back position.
He can play right-sided or left-sided in a centre-back duo, but equally so, he can play across all three positions when playing as a centre-back in a back three.
Generally speaking, he will play as a right-sided centre-back though, and while Koln predominantly played with a back four, as we can see in the image below Koln also used a back five on a number of occasions.
With this formation, Bornauw was most often seen in the centre of a back three.
Bornauw’s flexibility is represented in his heat map from the 2020/21 season, which is shown underneath.
The Belgian’s average positioning varies between both half-spaces and the central channel, albeit with a slight leaning towards the right side, and understandably so, given this was his most common position.
