Nagelsmann’s substitution cracks Frings’ cipher
Darmstadt travelled to Sinsheim on Saturday to face Julian Nagelsmann’s Hoffenheim after beating Borussia Dortmund the previous week with a 2–1 scoreline, this win gave Torsten Frings and co a slight hope in survival as the gap to the relegation playoff position dropped to 4 points after Bremen lost to Mönchengladbach. Hoffenheim on the other hand are still in the race for a top four spot with all the lights on them and their young coach Julian Nagelsmann who was younger than the average age of Darmstadt’s starting eleven.
Hoffenheim playing in their regular 3–1–4–2 were hoping to continue their record of scoring in every home game par one against Wolfsburg in September, and against one of the worst defences in the Bundesliga, it was supposed to be an easy task for them. However, a resilient performance from Darmstadt made it one hell of a task for Nagelsmann and his players, Torsten Frings’ main methods were, pressing boxes to nullify Rudy, Demirbay and Amiri, maintaining Zuber and Kaderabek, and stopping Wagner and Terrazzino from dropping and receiving passes that would allow the flow of Hoffenheim’s attack and open space for Amiri or Demirbay.
Frings used a press box of 4 players mainly using either one of the forwards or both of them. Neither Boyd, Rosenthal nor Vrančić who replaced Rosenthal after half an hour pressed any of Hoffenheim’s back three, and their main focus was maintaining their positioning to prevent passes towards Amiri, Demirbay or Rudy. If a player inside the press box receives the ball, he is immediately pressed by two players to try and force him into a back pass to reset the build up or retrieve the ball. A simple illustration in the figure above, Amiri is in the press box which forces Süle into a pass to Kaderabek who would need a movement from Amiri or Rudy to open another option other than reseting the build up, Rudy approaches but he is immediately pressed and loses the ball. The main one was Rudy’s box — you can see it in the first figure — nullifying Rudy would eliminate a huge threat as it takes out the long passes to Kaderabek and Zuber, also it forces Rudy into the safest decision to not lose possession which is mainly to reset the build up.
The other methods were assigning Heller and Sam to track back Kaderabek and Zuber respectively, with Sam focusing more on keeping his position in midfield to contain Demirbay. Heller’s impressive anticipation of balls to Kaderabek helped him to always be one step ahead of the Czech, only once Heller failed and that resulted in arguably the first half most dangerous opportunity which fell to Sandro Wagner but he was denied by Esser. Taking the full backs out of the equation prevented long balls across the field from Hoffenheim CBs. The last method was stopping Terrazzino and Wagner from receiving passes to prevent ball circulation and opening space in behind the defence. Milosevic and Niemeyer were alert and anticipated any pass towards both forwards, intercepting the ball 4 times each. On the other side of the field Darmstadt were offered chances from their counter attacks but were wasted due to bad decision making and impressive individual performance from Hoffenheim CBs.
The first half ended 0–0, a result that suited Darmstadt and meant that their plan to stop Hoffenheim’s attacking machine was in progress. Before the beginning of the second half Julian Nagelsmann was seen giving specific instructions to Andrej Kramaric who would soon feature to alter the game’s flow. Kramaric replaced Demirbay and Nagelsmann changed to a 3–1–5–1 system as seen in the figure below.
Kramaric’s introduction caused havoc for Darmstadt as he overloaded their press boxes by either dropping next to Rudy or moving to the left or right. Also, Darmstadt couldn’t mark Kramaric as it would disrupt their compactness by moving players out of their positions, so the Croatian was free to reign, his untracked movement from behind into the space would have given Hoffenheim the opener if not for a correct offside decision. The Croatian once again untracked receives the ball on the edge of the box, with only Esser denying him. Eventually, a late run from Kramaric behind Milosevic gave Hoffenheim the lead after a no look pass from Terrazzino.
After the goal, Torsten Frings mission seemed impossible, as they would have to get out of their shell and force Hoffenheim by pressing their CBs, and attacking which would eventually leave space for Hoffenheim’s pacy players. Darmstadt’s high press freed Rudy a bit, and Nagelsmann bringing on Adam Szalai also opened a long ball option to release pressure off Hoffenheim’s defenders. A late counter attack saw Rudy earn a penalty kick through which Kramaric converted to score his second and secure Hoffenheim a 4th place with only goal difference separating them from Borussia Dortmund who are in third. Torsten Frings said after the game that he was in principle satisfied with the game, however they could have played the counter attacks better. On the other hand, Nagelsmann complimented Frings and Darmstadt who in his words gave them a very hard game
Nagelsmann’s ability to identify the problem and present a solution that had a major role in his team winning the game shows a glimpse of what this young manager acquires. Meanwhile, Torsten Frings who just started his managerial career would relish an opportunity for a rematch against Nagelsmann, however with a better side than the below average Darmstadt which will possibly get relegated come the end of the season despite Frings’ efforts.
