Before starting, in this article, I thought theoretically. I assumed I have a mid-level team and I thought about how we can stop Bayern Munich.
Before this article, to understand better this article, you can check my other article about Bayern Munich’s attacking tactics.
First of all, we need to understand how Bayern Munich make game. In the previous article, I said Bayern Munich’s game makers are Kimmich and Thiago. And in the set attack they become like a 3-3-4 shape.
In the forward line they have 4 players and sometimes Goretzka is running to the penalty box or coming to centre forward. And when he comes, they have 5 dangerous forward players.
We can’t defend against 5 great forward players but we can defend those who pass them. And if we can cover passers, how can forward players take the ball. So, we can also stop forward players. As a result, we should cover Kimmich and Thiago.
And Bayern Munich’s forward players are changing positions amongst themselves. One player closes to the midfield, the other player runs to the behind opponent’s defense line. We should also cover the player who comes to the midfield to take the ball. Or he can find free space between our defense and midfield line
and when he takes the ball, he could also pass the midfield line and we have to cover opponent’s players with only defense players.
We need 2 players to cover Thiago and 1 player to cover whoever the opponent wants to come to the midfield to take the ball
and if Goretzka comes to the our centre defense line, this player should comes to the centre defense line and 3 players should make the centre of our defense line.
I want to cover Thiago with 2 players because he is the team’s regista and also he can pass his marker greatly so, if he can pass his marker, 1 player should meet him. 1 player should be closer to him than the other player but I am not talking about exactly man marking. If Thiago wants to take the ball in the midfield, he should press aggressively and the other player should wait behind.
To cover Kimmich, we need a forward player who has also great marking abilities. If Thiago can’t make game, Kimmich becomes the team’s regista so we should cover him too.
To cover Kimmich, we need only 1 player because Kimmich doesn’t have great dribbling talent like Thiago. If our player have great marking ability, Kimmich can’t be effective.
And now let’s think about opponent’s other defense and midfield players. Davies has high tempo, great physique and amazing speed. So, they can attack to use Davies’ speed and athleticism.
To cover him, we need an athlete player. And this player shouldn’t cover him aggressively and closely. He should wait a few meters behind. He should let Davies make game in the defense line and midfield. Because Davies hasn’t game maker abilities. If he takes the ball in their defense line, it’s not a problem for us.
But of course if Davies wants to use his speed or close to the left wing, he should cover him closely.
Bayern Munich’s stoppers can pass teammates greatly. We shouldn’t cover them aggressively because if we try to cover aggressively, opponent’s other player can find more free space.
But if we let them go with the ball, they can make the game. So, 1 player should wait in the midfield’s front and if they want to support attack and close to midfield, this player should stop them.
Goretzka can run to the penalty box and support attack but he is not a game maker. Of course we should cover him too but we shouldn’t be aggressive. I would rather Goretzka makes game instead of Thiago in the midfield.
I said formation is not important. I said what I want on the side. So, I should make my formation compatible with what I want.
Let’s say we want to play with 3-4-3 formation. Our wingers match Davies and Kimmich, our centre forward matches Alaba and Boateng.
In the centre midfield, I said I want 2 players to cover Thiago and 1 player to cover between our defense and midfield line. I have 2 centre midfielders in this line up, so I assign them to cover Thiago.
Now I need one more player in the midfield. I assign 1 stopper to cover between defense and midfield line and I can solve this problem. So, we could take position compatible.
Or let’s think of a different formation. We want to play with 4-4-2. Again wingers match Davies and Kimmich.
This time we have 2 centre forwards. We can assign one of them to cover the opponent’s stoppers. Again we have 2 centre midfielders.
And now we have 1 extra centre forward. If we assign extra centre forward to close midfield to cover Thiago and 1 centre midfielder to cover Thiago, we can cover Thiago with 2 players.
And if we assign the other centre midfielder close to between our defense and midfield line, we can solve the problem and again we have a compatible team.
So, I want to explain, we can stop Bayern Munich’s attacking effectiveness with another formation. If we have the right players, only we should use these players in the best way.