Julian Nagelsmann Tactics At Germany 2024/2025 – Mads Buttgereit Innovative Attacking Corner Tactics

After losing against Spain in the quarter-final of UEFA Euro 2024, Germany have won four and drawn one in five matches to top their group in the UEFA Nations League.

Offensively, Julian Nagelsmanns side has been superb, scoring 17 goals in five matches at the time of writing.

This is the highest score in the competition, with a four-goal difference over Italy, who scored 13 goals with one more match played.

Defensively, they have achieved reasonable stats, conceding three in five matches, the second-strongest defensive line after Spain, who conceded three goals in six matches.

We have noticed that they are excellent at set pieces and have the potential to improve even more in the future, knowing that Mads Buttgereit is Germanys assistant coach for set pieces.

In this tactical analysis, we will examine their tactics in attacking corners and how they respond to various defensive systems.

Germany Tactics Against Man-Marking Systems

We will begin by discussing how Germany behaves against man-marking defending systems under Julian Nagelsmanns tactics and then proceed to discuss their corners against Hungary in detail.

Flat Passing Lane

The first idea Julian Nagelsmann implemented is the Flat Passing Lane, which sends a direct pass or a grounded cross to the area shown in the photo below.

As shown below, Hungary defends with a man-marking system, utilising only two zonal defenders (green) and two short-option defenders (blue), in preparation for the 2v2 situation for which Germany is famous, as discussed later.

To start explaining any routine, it is important to tell you who the targeted player is and where the targeted area is, so it is shown that the yellow-highlighted player will attack the black circle with a grounded pass.

To hide their intentions, Germany asks Nico Schlotterbeck (yellow) to start in the rebound zone next to the targeted player.

This drags the marker, who will focus on Schlotterbeck, neglecting the targeted player who pretends to just wait for the second ball.

To implement this plan, we have many obstacles; lets clarify them step by step.

As shown below, the first obstacle is naturally opening the lane for the pass itself, so Jamal Musiala (pink) runs towards the taker, pretending to receive a short pass, which prompts the first short-option defender to move forward and open this flat passing lane.

This also motivates the second s