Tactical analysis of Niko Kovac’s Wolfsburg
Although ‘Die Wölfe’ have not yet won in this 22/23 Bundesliga season, Niko Kovač's style is already tangible if we look at the first three matches. Is it the road to success?
| Niko Kovac. | Photo: Sven Mandel / CC-BY-SA-4.0 |
After finishing in the upper half of the table three seasons in a row, ‘Die Wölfe’ slipped down the table in quite abrupt manner.
The white and green expect Kovač to change the momentum as he did in his last stint with AS Monaco, whom he transformed from relegation survivors into Champions League spot contenders.
Kovač and the board elected to reinforce with very young legs, all U-23, with Mattias
Svanberg and Patrick Wimmer being the club’s star signings.
The Croatian coach decided to continue the style he developed at Monaco, wanting to mix possession-based style with verticality and displaying his flexibility with formations, but always under the same idea.
In the opener against Werder Bremen, the team lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation; on
matchday 2, when they visited FC Bayern, Wolfsburg used a 4-3-3 that transformed into a 4-3-2-1 at half-time.
But despite these different formations, the ideas Kovač is trying to implement are clearly visible, both on offense and defense.
In attack, Wolfsburg try to build up from the back, trying to sort the pressure from there with Maximilian Arnold coming down to lead the build-up.
Usually, in the construction phase, Bornauw and Lacroix try to play short to Arnold and start the play from there.
There is a tendency to start through the left flank and finish on the right, starting from the setting positions.
Micky van de Ven goes low while Ridle Baku pushes quite high as soon as the play does not start from his side.
Bornauw opens a bit more to make up for Baku’s run as Arnold goes to the base to pick up the ball.
Svanberg pushes up and isolates from the build-up to take pressure off Arnold or take advantage of the space left if the opponents decide to push aggressively, at times even going near Lukas Nmecha.
Van de Ven tends to act more as a third center-back or a more positional fullback than Baku, whom does provide depth.
Against Schalke on Matchday 3, van de Ven played as center-back and looked a lot more comfortable.
The right-back has the whole flank for himself as Wimmer goes into the inner hall and
pushes up almost as a second striker.
Wimmer has the freedom to decide when to stick near the line to offer Baku a passing option and when to go into the half-spaces.
The Austrian youngster is developing into a threat between the lines and assisted
Wolfsburg's first goal of the season from a central position.
Without Wimmer against Schalke, Kovač commanded both wingers to play inside to pin the half-spaces between center-backs and fullbacks, and starts their movements from the pockets; the Fullbacks were in charge of giving depth and width.
It seems the Croatian coach wants to take advantage of those positions, but the team still needs time to adjust.
Nmecha poses as a target man when the team cannot play from the back.
Once the team progresses into the second third of the pitch, he starts looking for runs behind the line or offers support on the side where the ball is.
Defensively Kovač demands the team to press high and quick.
Whenever the possession of the ball is lost, Wolfsburg players jump quickly into the
Gegenpressing to eliminate passing options as soon as possible.
When the defense is set, Kovač orders to lead the ball into one of the flanks, electing to block the ball from getting into the central or defensive midfielder and instead letting the center-backs have the ball.
Once the ball is played into one of the sides of the pitch, the team activates the pressing and overloads that side.
Nmecha and Wimmer act as the first two pressing triggers as the team sets defensively in a 4-4-2 or a 3-4-1-2.
As an example, If the ball is moved to the right-back, Nmecha and Marmoush go to press while Wimmer closes into the central midfielder that offers help.
Then Baku occupies a space closer to the center of the pitch, but still high to be ready for any potential pass into the area, or goes down to cover the back of the center-backs if the opponent is playing with two strikers.
The rest of the team close in on their man and push towards that side.
Still not there
However, the team clearly needs time to keep learning the concepts.
Wolfsburg have had some problems in both games sorting the pressure and progressing
comfortably and constantly into the attacking third of the pitch.
The defensive overload has not been executed properly.
Die Wölfe have allowed too many changes of side, especially when pressing the right side of the opponent.
In each Matchday, the opponent could find their left midfielder or their left back unmarked.
Either due to a late pressing on the side of the ball or a bad positioning from the players doing the balance.
One of the goals against Bremen came like that.
Van de Ven jumped late to press the ball holder and failed to stop him, Svanberg covered his back, and Arnold had to move to the middle to cover the space.
Bremen changed the side, first catching Baku backtracking and then making him stick to the line to cover the overlap while Bornauew did not step up.
Werder Bremen caught this and started to position an attacker in the half-space between Baku and the Dutchman, creating doubts.
This developed into Bremen’s left back creating the numerical advantage with the winger and the forward as Wimmer was too high to return in time.
Baku’s performances have been underwhelming for the first three matches.
Even against Schalke, he was on the bench as Bornauw played as RB.
The experiment went wrong and the German entered the pitch in the second half.
Visiting Bayer München, knowing they wouldn't have ball possession, the Croatian coach inserted Guilavogui in between Arnold and Svanberg to create a more solid 4-3-3.
But despite adding an extra defensive midfielder, Bayern’s interior players, especially Musiala, found spaces in between the lines with quite an ease.
This is partly due to the wonderkid’s skill and partly due to Wolfburg’s unbalanced pressing.
The team has also shown problems to overcome pressing on the construction phase of
plays.
Lack of control and intensity
Another key aspect the ex-Bayern coach has not been able to change is Wolfsburg’s
emotional/personality aspect.
In all three matches so far, with an emphasis in the first two, Die Wölfe did not seem to be quite comfortable yet with the pace and intensity demanded.
Whenever Bremen increased the intensity, Wolfsburg couldn't keep up and started to look desperate.
The same thing against Bayern, were in control until moments before the first goal and then got rattled.
Against Schalke, there was an improvement, but the green and whites still had moments of doubts and nerves.
They lack control of their intensity and emotions, as well as dictating the game’s tempo.
Improving requires time and patience, understanding an idea is one thing, and executing it's a whole different one.
Despite his disaster at Bayern, Kovač has proven that he has the quality to make it work, the question is if the team will respond fast enough before the patience runs out.
