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Coach Ole Werner and SV Werder Bremen had no chance against FC Bayern Munich. The tactical plan of defending compactly and countering quickly didn’t work at all. © IMAGO/foto2press/Oliver Baumgart
Bremen – SV Werder Bremen had no chance against FC Bayern Munich – in the truest sense of the word. The Bavarian possession game pushed Werder to their own penalty area and their pressing did the rest for Bremen. The tactical analysis of the game.
January 21, 2024 is a special date in the recent history of Werder BremenFor the first time since 2008, Bremen managed to defeat the overwhelming FC Bayern Munich However, this luck does not seem to be repeated any time soon. Werder lost 5-0 to Bayern on Saturday afternoon. The Bremen team could neither cope with Munich’s possession game nor with their pressing.
Werder Bremen against FC Bayern Munich in the tactical analysis: Bayern let the ball and opponent run
Trainer Ole Werner had to restructure his starting eleven. Amos Pieper returned to the team for the suspended defender Marco Friedl. In attack, Marco Grüll took over the position of the injured Justin Njinmah. Werner changed his tactical formation slightly: Romano Schmid dropped back into midfield. Werder Bremen against the FC Bayern Munich in the 5-3-2 system and not in the recently practiced 5-2-3.
The FC Bayern Munich fought against the overwhelming FC Bayern Munich on the triad that helped them win last season: compact defense, quick counterattacks, courageous action when in possession of the ball.
However, Bayern have changed compared to the last encounter. The new coach Vincent Kompany wants to develop his team further in possession play. Werder Bremen first hand: From the first minute, the FC Bayern control. The Munich team played a controlled possession game, they repeatedly broke off attacks and shifted the game. Their ball possession rate quickly exceeded 75 percent.
Werder Bremen against FC Bayern Munich in the tactical analysis: Advancing full-backs put Werder to the test
Werder Bremen withdrew against the possession game of the FC Bayern Munich in the 5-3-2 formation. They rarely dared to attack the two center backs in Munich’s 4-2-3-1 system. Instead, the strikers made sure to block the passes into the midfield. Werder closed off the center.
Dem FC Bayern Munich The only way to attack was through the wings – and the record champions used this consistently. The Munich full-backs did not hold their positions on the wings. Instead, they moved into the center. They occupied the spaces behind the Bremen midfield.
This forced Bremen’s midfielders to make difficult decisions: Should they pursue Alphonso Davies and Konrad Laimer or should they keep an eye on Joshua Kimmich and Alexander Pavlovic? Especially since the jack-of-all-trades Jamal Musiala kept leaving his position as number ten and falling back into midfield.
The midfield trio of the FC Bayern Munich had to defend with concentration in order to close the center continuously. At the same time, they could not allow themselves to be pushed too far back, otherwise the FC Bayern Munich simply played the pass into the backcourt – like before Konrad Laimer’s shot hit the crossbar in the eighth minute.
Werder Bremen against FC Bayern Munich in the tactical analysis: Werder is countered despite only 25 percent possession
In the first half hour, Bremen’s midfielders often opted for the correct formation. Werder Bremen defended compactly, offering Bayern hardly any space. The midfield had to wear itself out in its own defence. Winning the ball or even counterattacking was out of the question. Bremen practically never had the ball. After twenty minutes, the ball possession value of the FC Bayern Munich at 82 percent.
Ironically, the FC Bayern Munich the first goal after one of his rare phases of possession. Bayern blocked Bremen’s build-up play man-oriented. In doing so, they forced the pass out to the touchline to Mitchell Weiser. Werder usually solves such situations with a pass into the center or a direct ball into the front. The FC Bayern Munich However, these options were closed. Weiser lost the ball and Bayern completed the counterattack in a few seconds (23′).
After that, the pressure from the guests increased noticeably. Werder Bremen received the constant relocation of the FC Bayern Munich no access. The guests stood out with their clean positional play, they always found a free teammate. At halftime the score was 13:0 in terms of shots on goal and 2:0 in terms of goals.
The graphic shows the positional play of FC Bayern Munich: Davies and Laimer went into the middle and created a numerical advantage, the midfield trio of SV Werder Bremen was faced with the challenge of covering numerous players. © DeichStube
Werder Bremen against FC Bayern Munich in the tactical analysis: Brief flare-up after the break
After the restart, the best phase of the FC Bayern Munich. Ole Werner dared to make a radical change: Marvin Ducksch left the field, and Mitchell Weiser came in against the FC Bayern Munich into the attack. He was supposed to create depth alongside substitute Keke Topp.
Werder Bremen was now able to better control the pressing of the FC Bayern Munich They were lured to the wings when in possession, but from there they played much more directly into the center. It helped that Romano Schmid and Jens Stage now moved to the wings. This allowed Bremen’s full-backs to start playing deep at speed.
The Sturm und Drang phase of the FC Bayern Munich but did not last 15 minutes. In the 56th minute, Vincent Kompany with Serge Gnabry and Raphael Guerreiro (replacing Konrad Laimer and Kingsley Coman) two new players. They increased the pressure in the pressing, which promptly resulted in a ball win. The FC Bayern Munich scored the 3-0 via a counterattack (57.).
Werder Bremen against FC Bayern Munich in the tactical analysis: A used afternoon
After that the game was practically over. Werder Bremen hardly defended themselves anymore. The Green-Whites retreated to their own penalty area in the 5-3-2 system. FC Bayern Munich shifted the game from one side to the other, only to increase the tempo with a sudden dribble by Jamal Musiala or Michael Olise. Werder’s defense line was unable to counter Olise’s quick changes of direction. In the end, it was only due to Munich’s ability to exploit opportunities that the game ended only 0:5.
Werder Bremen did not have a single chance to score during the game. This was not a repeat of the match from January, but of the 2014/15 season: In the 0:6 defeat against Pep Guardiola’s FC Bayern Munich Werder also failed to score a single goal. Many Werder fans would have preferred to avoid this repeat of history.
