Marwin Bolz’s Impact: Hamburger SV’s resurgence on the road back to Frauen-Bundesliga – tactical analysis

Hamburger SV currently sits on top of the Frauen Bundesliga 2. However, that is a stark contrast to the last decade for the North German side.

With the side established in 1970, they enjoyed relative levels of success and were a mainstay in the Frauen Bundesliga between 2002 and 2012. However, in 2012, the club decided to announce the disestablishment of the first team, and in 2013, the reverse side was placed in the German Regionalliga Nord division.

However, you might expect that a club with its resources will just bounce back, right? No. After four seasons in the division, they were facing relegation from this division. Their fortunes only began to change in the 2018-19 season as they were promoted into the regionalliga. After another four seasons in the division, where they faced back-to-back promotion playoffs, they finally reached the Frauen Bundesliga 2.

Following promotion, they have started this season in red-hot form and currently sit top of the league at the mid-way point. With the side close to back-to-back promotions and looking to return to Germany’s top flight for the first time in over a decade, we chose to provide an analysis of them in more detail for this tactical analysis. In this scout report, we will break down some key statistics and tactics that have helped Hamburger have success so far this season.

Outlining attacking play using data

The first thing to look at is the in-possession principles that underpin Hamburger’s success so far this season. The first thing to look at is attacking productivity.

This first graph details the xG against goals scored so far this season. We did this to demonstrate how Hamburger has created the most goal-scoring opportunities so far this season. We also used this graph to illustrate that they not only create the most chances but also convert the most chances, with them actually exceeding their xG of 26.88 by 5.12 goals, scoring 32 goals so far this season, with Hamburger leading the division in both categories.

Ok, so having provided some baseline attacking stats, let’s look at some more data which might help to provide additional context to help explain this attacking proficiency. This graph illustrates the relationship between key passes and touches in the box. The reason we chose these two variables is that the more key passes you are able to execute, the more goal-scoring chances you are able to create. We also picked touches in the box as a second variable, as this will help to indicate the quality and danger of those key passes, with the expected threat of possession in the box being considerably higher than that by the halfway line, for example.