Hoffenheim- A Team Profile

Ahead of tonight's set of the first legs of the final round of Champions League Qualifiers, Ed Jones has written an informative piece, profiling Liverpool's opposition; Hoffenheim.

"On the 11th of February 2016, Hoffenheim were sitting 17th in the Bundesliga; seven points from safety. The then-28 year old Julian Nagelsmann had just been thrust into the manager’s seat, taking over a side with just two wins in 20 matches. Nagelsmann had been supposed to take over in the summer but after previous boss Huub Stevens had been forced to step down for health reasons, it was up to the young German to keep Hoffenheim up.

Nagelsmann himself had seen his playing career end at U19 level. He played youth football for 1860 Munich and Augsburg before persistent knee injuries meant he couldn’t continue to play the game he loved. He then took Business Administration at university before switching to Sports Science. After finishing University, he moved into coaching, starting at his former club Augsburg, where he worked for a short period under former Borussia Dortmund manager, Thomas Tuchel. He then served as an assistant coach at Hoffenheim during the 2012-2013 season, where has was nicknamed by German Veteran Keeper and now WWE wrestler, Tim Weise, as “Mini- Mourinho”. Right up until he was appointed head coach, he was coaching Hoffenheim’s U19 Side.

Following his appointment to the top job, local paper ‘Rhein- Neckar- Zeitung’ dismissed the decision as a “public relations stunt” whilst ‘Frankfurter Rundschau’ called it “a crackpot idea”. But how wrong they were. Under Nagelsmann, Hoffenheim avoided near certain relegation by winning 7 of their remaining 14 matches, finishing a point above the relegation play-off spot.

But this isn’t where story ends. Similar to Leicester, Hoffenheim carried on their miraculous run into the next season, as Nagelsmann took a team fighting with relegation to as high as 3rd in the table last season. Until a loss to RB Leipzig in early January, Hoffenheim were the only unbeaten side in Europe’s top 5 leagues- on a 17 match unbeaten run. In fact, since Nagelsmann became manager, only Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have accumulated more points in the league. On top of all this on the 4th of April Hoffenheim secured one of the biggest wins in their club's history, beating Bayern Munich 1-0. This was the first time the club have ever beaten Munich on their 18th attempt and was the Bundesliga’s youngest ever boss outwitting one of the finest managers the world has seen- Carlo Ancelotti.

Whilst Nagelsmann himself has called coaching “30% tactics, 70% social competence” and has been applauded for his man-management and creating a tight bond of togetherness at Hoffenheim, he has also been at the forefront of a tactical modernisation in Germany.

Last season Hoffenheim tended to play with 3 central defenders, 2 wing backs, a holding midfielder and 4 attacking players, translating, roughly, as a 5-1-2-2 formation. 

Hoffenheim have often relied on the solid base and excellent distribution of keeper, Oliver Baumann, when sweeping up. Meanwhile, the attacking players set up as two central midfielders and two strikers, but what is important is just how flexible this arrangement is. Playing as the central attacking midfielders is often Kerem Demirbay and Nadiem Amiri, these two often drift wide, being protected by the central stability of Hoffenheim’s back six, including the energetic Sebastian Rudy, and the versatile Kevin Vogt. Signed from FC Koln as a central midfielder, Vogt was converted by Nagelsmann into a centre back, who can push up into the CDM role alongside Rudy, when required, giving Hoffenheim a back four or to prevent central overloads.

Defensively, Hoffenheim are a hard pressing side taking influence from former manager and the "German Saint of pressing", Ralf Ragnick. But unlike a Ragnick side, Nagelsmann’s team do not immediately look for counter-attacking opportunities after winning back the ball and are instead happy to hold onto possession, building slowly. Furthermore, the shape of the team allows an effect when the opponent attacks down the right side of Hoffenheim, the players swing across to build up more resistance in the press. 

In attack, Hoffenheim like to play directly through the middle, with Rudy or centre back Niklas Sule (both of whom now have been snapped up by Bayern Munich), driving the ball forward to the strikers (often Sandro Wagner, Adam Szalai or revived Leicester City flop, Andrej Kramaric), who can then lay the ball off to Demirbay or Amiri. Demirbay is often allowed to drift about and use his creative spark and dribbling skills to make things happen, driving into space at pace. If these vertical passes are blocked off, then the wing backs offer wide options and when against deep lying teams, at times Hoffenheim will play 3-3-4.

Nagelsmann collects data on when his players passing lanes are blocked and likes his players to drop between the lines to open up other passing channels. This is heavily influenced by the positional play used by Pep Guardiola. This requires the players to use creative movement and to have the ability to find space in relation to other players’ passing options. This is helped by the freedom given to Demirbay and Amiri, which gives Rudy as many passing options as possible.

With a stable back six and a creative front four, this Hoffenheim side plays attractive and, most importantly, successful football. Perhaps, Nagelsmann was influenced by the 2002 Brazil side, whose back six gave the dynamic trio of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho the freedom to win games all on their own. Combine this with Guardiola like style of creating overloads between the defensive lines, a Ragnick- like pressing style, tactically intelligent players like Rudy and Demirbay and a brilliant unit-like mentality and it is easy to see how this Hoffenheim team finished in the top four sending them into the Champions League (at least into the qualifiers anyway). Nagelsmann himself has said: “I work like a baker. I mix things, put them in the oven and see if I like what comes out.” At not even 30 years old yet, the future certainly looks bright for Julian Nagelsmann. Will Hoffenheim be able to recreate this success next year? Well, they’ll be without metronome, Sebastian Rudy and defensive rock, Niklas Sule, who will be at Bayern, but if they can keep Nagelsmann at the helm, I would trust him to find suitable replacements and get Hoffenheim to carry on this unbelievable form. So far this summer he has recruited most noticeably Havard Nortdveit, who although did not shine at West Ham is a versatile player who can operate as a holding midfielder or centre back (similar to Rudy and Vogt), Florian Grillitsch, a young holding midfielder (perhaps a direct replacement for Rudy) who was in terrific form for Werder Bremen last year and Serge Gnabry (on loan from Bayern), who was a standout player in last year’s Bundesliga and looks like a perfect fit as one of the free-running attacking players Nagelsmann likes to deploy. Hoffeheim and Nagelsmann certainly face a difficult challenge in trying to replicate a top four finish, especially since clubs like Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Moenchengladbach will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing season."

-Ed Jones

As always thanks for reading, and my thanks to Ed for writing this article,

James
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