Wolfsburg 2019/20: Dynamic build-up strategies – scout report

The 2019/20 season was a promising one for Wolfsburg in Oliver Glasners first season in charge, they finished in seventh place and secured Europa League qualification. The Wolves had a brilliant start to the campaign, going nine games unbeaten in their three-at-the-back formation, looking like they were in contention to finish in the UEFA Champions League places. However, due to the fact that their centre-backs had poor mobility, Wolfsburg were vulnerable to teams in transitions, this was most apparent in the back-to-back losses against RB Leipzig in the cup and Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. This caused Glasner to change his tactics to a four-at-the-back formation mid-way through the season.

However, one aspect of their game which has been consistent across the campaign is their dynamic build-up strategies. Glasners side has multiple different ways of progressing the ball into the opposition third and this ultimately makes it more difficult for the opposition team.

This tactical analysis, which will be in the form of a scout report, will be dissecting the different build-up strategies that Wolfsburg have used throughout the 2019/20 campaign.

Direct & vertical passes

One of Wolfsburgs main build-up strategies across the season has been playing direct and verticle passes. This tactic of building up is effective because they have had two impressive progressors of the ball in the middle, Maximilian Arnold and Xaver Schlager, they average 10.47 progressive passes per 90 between them. They also have dangerous wingers such as Josip Brekalo, who is impressive when it comes to running in behind for direct passes.

Wolfsburg mainly look to play vertically when the opposition are in some type of defensive transition, as they look to exploit the spaces. As the centre-backs that Wolfsburg have are not great passers of the ball and cannot break lines often enough when a team is in their settled shape. We can see that Wolfsburg focus on direct progression in the build-up through their season ball possession statistics. The Wolves had 1155 possessions which lasted less than five seconds, 135.9 more than the average, showing they do not keep possession for very long, as they prefer the more direct route of play, including playing long balls which I will look into later in the analysis.

Here is a clear example of this direct build-up. David Brooks receives the ball after a long ball from Freiburg, meaning that the opposition are not in a settled shape, this means that Brooks can play vertically into Arnold, who is in the half-space, very easily.

Arnold can the