Young Violets 2019/20: Their possession tactics – scout report

The second team of Austrian Bundesliga club Austria Vienna which is also known as Young Violets are one of the most impressive teams in Austria’s second division. The 43-year-old Harald Sucher formed a team which is able to dominate opposition for most parts of the game even though they are behind FC Liefering (second team of RB Salzburg) the team with the second-lowest average age. While Liefering’s squad have according to Transfermarkt an average age of 19.1 years, Young Violets have a value of 19.2 years.

Still, they finished in the 2019/20 season in the fourth position behind Liefering, Austria Klagenfurt and champions Ried. Additionally, they are according to many statistics the most dominant side of the league with on average 59.2% of possession (best value of the league), 454.99 passes per 90 (best value of the league) and additionally 33.35 dribbles per 90 what is the second-highest value of all teams in Austrias second division.

In this scout report and tactical analysis, we will look at the possession tactics of Young Violets to understand how they are able to dominate the opposition and finish in a solid fourth position in the second Austrian tier.

System

Basically, Sucher lined up his team in the recent season in different formations and didn’t always choose the same. However, he clearly prefers the back four compared to a backline with three and five defenders respectively since the only time he went with this was when they received a red card.

Otherwise, he mainly lines his team up in a 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 (not really much of a difference between these two formations) and also sometimes used a 4-2-3-1. In the final match of the 2019/20 season against Kapfenberg, he decided to line up his team in a 4-1-3-2 what is quite unusual as they played with two strikers. We can see in the image below how often Young Violets used which formation in the 2019/20 season in Austrias second division.

The positioning of the players during the opening phase

We will go through the several principles which are the basics for the whole style of play of Young Violets to break down the tactics in its different parts. For each principle, we will have an own part and subheading respectively, but still, it is very important to note that the combination of all these principles is what makes them so strong.

In the first part of the scout report, the positioning of the deeper players during the first stage of the build-up will be the subject. Therefore, we will focus on the defenders and midfielders.

Basicall