How Heynckes Worked Against Dortmund's Pressing: Limiting Effectiveness then Taking Advantage

Pressing, the latest tactical trend in football, is becoming increasingly popular following the success of teams such as Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. The idea of counterpressing, is that as soon as you lose the ball in attack, the forwards work mercilessly to retain possession for a short period of time (Barcelona: 5 seconds). This allows the team to put great amounts of pressure upon a team's defence, and as we saw in the opening 30 minutes of the Champions League Final, stops them from getting a foot in the game.

In said final however, we saw how Jupp Heynckes' Bayern Munich dealt with the intense pressing of Die Schwarzgelben which lead the BundesLIGA champions to redeeming themselves after last year's final.

Limiting Effectiveness

Deep Passing

With the Dortmund forwards pressing both Dante and Boateng well throughout the opening periods of the match, Heynckes was faced with relieving the pressure off of the two centre-backs. To do this, they simply dropped deeper than their usual line; whilst they weren't allowed to advance and were confined to passing in their own half, they still managed to reduce the effectiveness of Dortmund's strong start.

Also by dropping deeper, Bayern made Dortmund's forwards chase further, which lead to them becoming more fatigued later on which made the defence's job considerably easier come the latter periods of the games. This is especially so considering that Klopp's plan was to primarily attack through Reus, who created the most chances in the game (4).

Comparison of Shots in the final 25 minutes

As you can see from the shots, Dortmund definitely struggled when going forward during the final 25 minutes of the game, whilst on the other hand, Bayern thrived.

The influence chalkboard also reflects this, as forwards Reus, Schieber and Kuba Blaszczykowski all struggled late on.

On top of minimising the attacking threat, it also lead to Dortmund's closing down tiring in the latter stages of the match. Employing a counterpressing philosophy takes a great deal of fitness regardless of what the opposition do, and Jupp Heynckes increased it's demands by having his defence drop.

In the first half of the game, Bayern struggled to get the ball through midfield due to the pressing of Dortmund, and were often forced to pass backwards towards their own goal. In contrast, the final 30 minutes saw them carry possession through midfield much more easily, due to Klopp's men being too tired to press to as greater extent.

The backwards passes in the first half were as a result of Dortmund's pressing and the lack of said passes in the second half show how the men in yellow and black were forced to drop off late in the game due to fatigue.

Left: Backward passes in the first half / Right: backward passes in the final 30

This is also shown in Bayern's influence stats, in the first half (left), no central midfielders had a great deal of influence in their side's play apart from Bastian Schweinsteiger, who saw a lot of the ball alongside Dante, Boateng and David Alaba. In the final 30 minutes however, Dante and Boateng saw little of the ball whilst Ribery and Robben (who had been instructed to come inside more) saw much more in comparison. Schweinsteiger also saw a similar amount of the ball whilst Muller a lot more when contrasted to the first half.

Another change you can see is the positioning of players. Philipp Lahm played much higher up on the right flank, as a result of Kevin Grosskreutz tiring, when he was in charge of containing the German full-back and supporting Marcel Schmelzer. Robben and Ribery were also positioned narrower in order to cause Dortmund's defence more trouble (which I will come to talk about later on).

 

Schweinsteiger Dropping Deep

Marco Reus occupied the central spot and worked high up with teammate Robert Lewandowski who is expected to join the Bavarians over the summer. The duo's work rate created a 2 v 2 battle against Dante and Boateng over possession of the ball.

In response to this, Jupp Heynckes had Schweinsteiger drop frequently into defence, creating a 3-man defence and a numerical advantage over Dortmund.

With Schweinsteiger in the centre, Dante on the left and Boateng on the right, there would always be a man free to pass to, with a similar effect of passing in triangles which Barcelona and Spain do to great effect.

Kuba was always watching Alaba

This allowed Bayern to control the tempo through Schweinsteiger, who passed the ball well from deep and finished the match being the most frequent passer, completing 65 of the 76 he attempted. Although with Dortmund's pressure, Bayern were never going to be able to attack much in the first 30 minutes, they could be sure that they could at least keep possession well.

Under the principle that they can't score if you have the ball, Bayern started reasonably well, in context of the match as a whole.

Had either Blaszczykowski or Grosskreutz come inside to support this battle in the centre, then Lahm or Alaba would have been free, leaving the Dortmund full-back against a very strong wide attack. If Gundogan was given the order to support Reus and his Polish strike partner, Bender would have been left alone against Muller and Javi Martinez - the latter of the two who could potentially have dominated the midfield as well as he did versus Barcelona.

 

Taking Advantage

 

Using Robben to Exploit the High Line

Dortmund are renowned for their pressing system, with which comes the high defensive line, which is susceptible to pacey forwards. In order to exploit this, Bayern started the second half with both Robben high up alongside Mario Mandzukic with the Dutch forward looking to get himself behind Subotic and Hummels.

This plan worked brilliantly, as Robben got into 1 v 1 situations on numerous occasions, and finally produced the goods in the 89th minute to win the match and redeem himself after last year's abysmal performance.

With both wingers now inside and positioned nearer Mandzukic and Muller, the use of Grosskreutz and Blaszczykowski became less effective, as they couldn't fulfil their defensive duties as well as before.

Attacking Strongly in the Second Half

In contrast to Klopp, Heynckes looked to attack much more aggressively in the second half, in order to take advantage of the tired Dortmund players. This was ultimately the better plan, as they made Dortmund create their disadvantage (becoming tired) which they exploited later on and took the upper hand whereas Dortmund had to work hard themselves to have the advantage in the first 30.

Left: First Half / Right: Second Half

If you compare Bayern's final third passes in the first half to those in the second, you see how much more they attacked in the latter. They made 148% more passes and 161% more were completed, but I feel the biggest difference was how those passes were made.

In the first 45, around 10 of the passes were long, and from deep which equates to 17% of the total passes. In contrast, 7 long passes made up the 89 in the second half, which is just 7% - the difference shows how easily Bayern could put pressure on a tired team in comparison to an energetic, pressing one.

What Could Have Klopp done to Counter Heynckes' Plan?

With the majority of the match being played at a frantic pace, it was difficult for Jurgen Klopp to counteract Bayern's game plan in taking advantage of their pressing. However there were still some simple measures that the energetic coach could have taken.

Substitutions

One thing which surprised me was how late on Klopp made changes to the initial starting line-up, making two substitutions both in the 91st minute. I think the reasoning for this is because it will have been very difficult for a player to get used to the tempo of the match, however it would've helped in allowing them to maintain the pressure on Bayern through pressing.

The Rayo Vallencano side which was talked about on Zonal Marking had players on the bench who were very energetic and could be brought on in order to continue the strong pressing up field. Klopp could have prepared for this since it seems he was aiming to exert a lot of pressure on Bayern earlier on - it seems strange for him to do this without thinking about the consequences...

Properly Sit Back in the Second Half

Though their pressing tired in the second half, Dortmund still attempted to hold a high defensive line, which worked against them greatly. Without pressure in midfield, the Bayern players had the time to pick out passes aimed behind the high defensive line, which was probably the biggest factor in their loss, as they let Robben in particular get into too many 1 v 1 chances.

Start Less Aggressively

Though Dortmund played brilliantly in the first 30 minutes, they didn't capitalise on this and that cost them at the end of the day. At half time, they had a great territory stat of 61%, showing their dominance over Bayern in attack, however by the end of the game, that stat had dropped to 52.2% as they let their rivals back into the game.

Against Neuer, who is (in my opinion) the best 'keeper in the world, surely Dortmund were better to have a steady approach and create chances throughout the match instead of just have a 30 minute window in which they must make the most of.

In the final 35 minutes, Dortmund had just one shot inside the box, which was Ilkay Gundogan's penalty. If you contrast that to the first 35, they had five shots inside the box out of the 7 made. This just shows how by spending so much energy on making an explosive start, they significantly reduced their chances of having any form of upper hand late on, which they payed for.

Thanks for reading! I've got more time to write now so expect more frequent articles, you can follow me on Twitter to keep updated!