FEATURE TACTICAL strategies
TACTICS TALK
JULIAN NAGELSMANN IS SPEARHEADING RB LEIPZIG’S CHARGE BY ORCHESTRATING SOME BRILLIANT, INNOVATIVE FOOTBALL – ROOTED IN
WINNING CHESS STRATEGIES. MARTIN MORK EXPLAINS...R
asenBallsport Leipzig have never
been more competitive as they
establish themselves as true
title contenders in Germany and
compete in the knockout stages of the
most prestigious tournament in Europe –
the Champions League. The appointment
of young Julian Nagelsmann represents
another step in a highly successful route
towards supremacy.
The former TSG Hoffenheim tactician was
brought in to fill the huge shoes left by the
former instructor Ralph Rangnick at the
Red Bull Arena, but the 32-year-old has
proven fearless. Even though he wasn’t
brought in to reinvent the club yet another
time, he was targeted as the perfect fit by
a consortium that continue their quest to
conquer another sporting venue.
When Red Bull lurked around in Germany,
looking to invest in a football team, it took
them three years to realise their dream and
they finally found a source to supply with
their heavy cash flow in the fifth tier back
in 2009.
SSV Markranstadt quickly became RB
Leipzig, the R and the B representing the
initials of their corporate name. But seeing
as the German FA (DFB) wouldn’t allow
them to bring a corporate name into a
football team, they had to come up with the
clever RasenBallsport to help commercialise
their new investment and keep their initials
in the name.
A decade later and we are all familiar with
the Leipzig locomotive, extending their
tracks from a small community with no
other option than to follow this one club,
eventually stretching all the way to Europe.
Nagelsmann was a late-comer to the
already successful project and represents
a style that suits a system trying to change
the norm, as the club itself represents
something revolutionary.
The controversy around RB Leipzig and
their corporate business running a football
club in a country where the fans are usually
the board members and have voting rights
has not only created debate and hatred in
a footballing community ran on tradition,
but it has challenged the establishment of
German football. When the politics around
RB Leipzig’s business model can lead
to endless discussions concerning what,
why and who, the tactical approach by
Nagelsmann can so far only be applauded.
His 3-5-1-1 formation is barely revolutionary
per se, but the melding of possession
control and free-flowing conclusions
has sparked new life into a conservative
German game, ruled by slight adjustments
to a conventional principal throughout
decades.
Arguably, it could be revealed as a
combination of old tactics, seen through
aspiring and youthful eyes, combining
the work of legendary Herbert Chapman
from the 1930s and all the way through to
the modern approach of Pep Guardiola.
Spice it up with the German efficiency, also
represented by Jürgen Klopp at a high-
flying Liverpool, and a decade-old team like
RB Leipzig are facing last year’s finalists
Tottenham Hotspur over two games in the5 TACTICAL
INNOVATIONS
The history of football is bookmarked
by numerous tactical innovations.
Martin Mork looks at five of the most
pivotal...THE SWISS BOLT
Swiss coach Karl Rappan created what
came to be better known as catenaccio
in response to the W-M formation.
Rappan wanted to adapt a style that
depended less on individual talent and
turned the 2-3-5 of the WM into a 1-3-
3-3 set-up, the first documented use of
the sweeper – the eponymous bolt of
its name.WINGLESS WONDERS
England might have codified the sport
of football but it’s not been a home
of innovation since. Sir Alf Ramsey
was one of the few to do something
different and his 1966 World Cup-
winning team were considerably
narrower than teams of the day, in
what 2020 would know as a diamond
formation. The so-called wingless
wonders delivered England’s only senior
international trophy.TOTAL FOOTBALL
Less a tactical innovation, more a
philosophy. Total football is most closely
identified with the Netherlands team of
the mid-1970s and boils down to every
outfield player being able to play in
every outfield position. Through Johan
Cruyff, it directly influenced Barcelona’s
tiki-taka, and continues to be central to
the Catalan club today.SACCHI KEEPS IT CLOSE
Arrigo Sacchi’s ideas created one of
the greatest club sides there’s ever
been – Milan in late 1980s and early
1990s. Insisting that the lines of the
team – the four-man defence, four-man
midfield and two forwards in a 4-4-2 –
need to be kept close together, Sacchi
wanted no more than 25m between
defence and attack. It’s something of a
forerunner to today’s gegenpressing.THE MAKELELE ROLE
Few players have a position named
specifically for them but such was
the influence of how Jose Mourinho
used Claude Makelele at Chelsea. The
defensive midfield screen in front of the
back four was crucial to the Blues’ first
period of success under the Portuguese,
allowing the more attacking players to
flourish and paving the way for different
interpretations of the role from Sergio
Busquets to Andrea Pirlo.‘Julian Nagelsmann
has earned himself a
great reputation at
a very young age’