Wolfsberger AC have been a mainstay in the Austrian Bundesliga ever since earning promotion by winning the 2. Liga title in 2012.
This was the first promotion to the top flight in the club’s 81-year history and the biggest honour the club had ever won.
Until this year, that is, as they claimed the ÖFB-Cup, Austria’s equivalent of the FA Cup and Copa del Rey, by beating TSV Hartberg 1-0 in the final last month.
With just two league games remaining in the Austrian Bundesliga championship round, the club known as WAC for short is just six points away from adding to that triumph with a league title and completing a historic and remarkable domestic double.
The tough task of beating both of the remaining sides left in the title picture in Austria Wien (home) and reigning champions Sturm Graz (away) stands in their way from an unlikely championship.
But as the only unbeaten team in the championship round after eight rounds and on the high of tasting success in the cup, they will fancy their chances of doing the improbable with the pressure firmly off their shoulders, European qualification and that cup title already in their bag.
This tactical analysis will examine WAC’s late-season form and how Dietmar Kühbauer‘s men have reached the point of being just two wins away from a league and cup double.
Wolfsberger Formations & Tactics
When Kühbauer arrived last summer to replace the outgoing Manfred Schmidt as manager, he tried to employ his preferred 4-2-3-1 scheme at the beginning of the season.
This setup is common worldwide, but particularly so in the German-speaking nations of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
However, WAC is a club that was historically built to play mostly with a three—or five-man defensive line.
Following a bumpy start with five losses in the first 12 rounds, Kühbauer decided to revert to what the team knows best.
Since then, Wolfsberger have gone from strength to strength, with just two losses in the last six months and going unbeaten en route to their cup triumph and championship round in the league as of this writing.
All while playing some of the most fluent and productive football in their recent history.
Since he’s largely abandoned his preferred base structure, he’s mostly mixed it up between playing a 3-4-3 and a 3-4-1-2, depending on the opponent and circumstances, whether he goes with one centre-forward or two, with another partnering up front.
Despite having to change his initial approach at the start of the campaign, Kühbauer is known for his tactical flexibility, as he was during his time at Rapid Wien a few years back.
This helped him adapt to the personnel and dynamics of his current squad while maintaining his teams’ main principles—direct attacking play, fast transitions, and pressing to win the ball back when they lose it.
Wolfsberger Offensive Tactics
Wide-Oriented Offense
One principle that’s been a key element for WAC in recent weeks and months is their ability to attack down the sides and find consistent success through their wide players.
With a large portion of their goals starting from wide areas or at least going through them at some stage, this is their main tool in their locker when it comes to breaking opposing defences down and finding the back of the net.
Their first-choice wing-backs, Adis Jašić and Maximilian Ullmann, have nine direct goal contributions between them in domestic play.
In contrast, their go-to man in attack, Thierno Ballo, who is a left winger by trade and often moves out there when used in a two-forward setup, has 20 in total, which should tell a story in itself on how important the wide players are to WAC’s offence.
As mentioned, Ballo often moves into the wide areas, particularly when Wolfsberger attack in transition, changing the team’s shape from a 3-4-1-2 to a 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-3.
This gives them up to four players between the wide channels and half-spaces, depending on playmaker Dejan Zukić’s movements.
This helps them create offensive numerical overloads on either side of the pitch.
Use Of Cut-Backs & Late Runs Into The Box
Their other main weapon in terms of attacking prowess is the movement of the rest of their attacking players when the players mentioned above receive the ball in wider areas.
Typically, WAC’s wing-backs join the attacks on the overlap when the team is in possession and are given the license to make offensive plays themselves rather than looking to just lay it off to a forward player.
This means that whoever comprises the front three is tasked with finding space in and around the opposition’s penalty area with the aim of being picked out in a position where they can make a dangerous play and perhaps a scoring opportunity.
Because of the rotations in their frontline regarding movement patterns and the fact that they usually don’t play with a traditional centre-forward in the side, with the exception of veteran Markus Pink and the young Erik Kojzek, who have only had a handful of starts in recent months, it is difficult for opposing defenders to mark and predict which spaces they’ll move into.
When they do find those spaces in the box, they’re usually picked out by a low cutback or cross, and it’s usually the spare man running into the penalty area from behind, with opposing defenders more attentive to those who were already there in front of them.
Let’s look at a few of their goals in the Austrian Bundesliga Championship Round, which highlight how they create and score from these sorts of runs and situations.
The one above is from their most recent win against Blau-Weiß Linz.
First, we can see Ballo on the right wing, drifting to receive possession from the wing-back and beating his man on the dribble.
Further down the image, three Wolfsberger players slowly make their way into the penalty area as Ballo moves towards the byline—Pink and Zukić form the rest of their frontline, alongside Max Ullmann from the left wing-back position at the bottom, while Emmanuel Agyemang is joining from midfield at the top.
As Ballo gets into position to play the final ball, six Linz defenders are in the box against WAC’s three attackers.
A pair of them are looking to close Ballo down, one noticing Pink’s run towards the near post just in time, and the rest caught in the middle of nowhere.
While Zukić makes his run towards the far post on the blind side of the right back, this leaves a gap down the middle, which Ullmann spots and runs into.
Ballo notices his movement and plays the cut-back to him before Ullmann finishes on his weaker right foot the first time.
It’s a slightly different situation here for WAC as the ball is once again coming in from the right side, with Jašić on the ball after a quick one-two off a throw-in.
With Rapid in their default defensive shape and three players moving closer to close him down, Ballo once again makes the run to that flank to support the player in possession.
This leaves just two players making the run into the penalty area, once again Pink and Zukić, with Ullmann again inverting from the left side to support from behind.
The difference from the previous example here, though, is that instead of going for a low cross or cut-back, which wasn’t available, Jašić instead lifts the cross traditionally into the box for a heading opportunity.
He ends up picking out Zukić, who makes another unchecked run to the far post.
This time, he is picked out and headed in to give WAC the lead.
Despite holding the numbers’ game in their own penalty area, Rapid defenders were unattentive to his run and didn’t predict the danger he posed, highlighting again how the movement of Wolfsberger’s attackers stumps the opposition to their advantage.
One more example of WAC scoring through an unmarked player picked up from a wider spot also comes from a game against Rapid, but in the 1-0 away win this time.
Agyemang offers a quick release pass that goes to Ballo, who operated in more of a #10 role here with Zukić not on the field, behind Pink and substitute David Atanga.
Joining from the left here is centre-back Cheick Diabaté, who continued his run forward after helping his side regain possession, which led to this counterattack opportunity.
Ballo notices his run and picks him out, before Diabaté cuts it back for Atanga, who opted to hold his run rather than marauding towards the post amidst the chaos in front of him.
Rapid were unable to react quickly enough to close him down before his shot found the bottom corner for the eventual winner.
Wolfsberger Defensive Improvement
Another aspect that warrants mentioning regarding WAC’s championship round form, which has played a key part in bringing them to the point where they are now, is their improved defensive record.
After the 22-round regular season was completed before the league was split in two, Wolfsberger had the worst defence of the six teams set to make up the championship round group, with 30 goals allowed.
Now, eight games into the final ten rounds of the season, they’ve performed best of all six sides defensively, with only five goals conceded across those fixtures.
While their offence has been potent, their consolidated defence has given them a fighting chance to compete for the title and laid the foundation for their attack to shine and do its thing at the other end.
Recovering Possession
One way they’ve done that is through their improved pressing structure, with two ball-winning midfielders alongside their central and lateral defenders supporting them in attempting to intercept and recover balls as soon as they lose them.
With their 3-4-3/3-4-1-2 shape, there is always enough cover at the back, which allows them a little more wiggle room in trying to defend higher up the pitch and win possession back, particularly in transitional phases.
Above is a field map of all their ball recoveries within five seconds of losing possession over the last eight games.
There have been 156 recoveries in total, most of them coming down the sides or in the areas between defence and midfield and between midfield and attack.
Above, from the Rapid home game, you can see an example of their ability to recover the ball quickly, which even led to their third goal.
As the Rapid player tries to move infield after the side in green regained the ball on the left, he is quickly closed down by four WAC players who successfully manage to nick the ball off of him without fouling.
This is then followed by a quick release into the attacking third, where WAC take advantage of Rapid’s underhanded defence to score and effectively kill the game off.
Another one here also against Rapid, where the home side look to get a fast break going from their own half.
WAC’s three central defenders are also positioned deep, but the crucial moment here occurs as the pass is played towards Dion Beljo in space at the halfway line.
Chibuike Nwaiwu, who is in the centre of WAC’s defensive three, senses the pass coming early enough to get close enough to Beljo by the time the ball reaches his feet.
Thus, he positions himself well to make a defensive play and attempt to win the ball.
It was a gamble that he could have lost, but his bravery ended up being rewarded.
He recovered possession cleanly, and all of a sudden, it was WAC looking to break on the other end.
Defending is truly a team effort for this team, and they don’t shy away from it, even if it means taking risks like in this last situation.
But they wouldn’t be where they are now if not for it, and finding the right click between their high-scoring offence and the defensive efforts they’ve had recently has been paramount to their current run.
Wolfsberger Defensive Stats
Below, we can also compare their defensive numbers across these eight championship-round games to their season average.
If we look across all 30 rounds, they have conceded 1.17 goals per game, but over the last eight games, that average has dropped to just 0.62.
With shots on target against, they’ve only had two games in which their percentages match up with what they had over the entire year of 37.2%, both of which their offence pulled them through anyway.
Although their aerial duel-winning rate has gone down, they have seen more success in tackles, interceptions, and clearances when comparing their recent numbers to their season averages by those metrics.
Defence wins championships, as the saying goes, and WACS have done their bit to step up lately, offering them the chance of pulling off an unlikely double.
Conclusion
With only two games left, Wolfsberger’s aspirations to win the Austrian Bundesliga title are in their own hands.
Six points, and they will complete the fairytale of becoming the Österreichischer Meister for the first time in their history.
As we’ve covered in this article, with their solid mix of a productive offence and improved defence, they are in with a chance of doing so, having hit championship-level form at just the right moment in the season.
The ÖFB-Cup title and a top-four league finish already make this season a success, but they are now just 180 minutes away from making it a fantasy turned into reality.
