Werder Bremen 3-1 Sampdoria: Late Pazzini goal keeps the tie alive
The starting line-ups
Bremen were the better side and looked to be sailing through to the group stage, but their loss of concentration might come back to haunt them.
The game was an interesting match-up in terms of formations – Bremen played a 4-3-1-2 / 4-4-2 diamond system, with Aaron Hunt shuttling across the pitch into wide areas, hoping to impress after the departure of Mesut Oezil.
Domenico Di Carlo fielded the same system Sampdoria played last season under Luigi Delneri – a 4-4-2 / 4-2-2-2 with two out-and-out wingers, and Antonio Cassano dropping deep to the left of Giampaolo Pazzini. Fernando Tissone was selected in midfield ahead of Andrea Poli.
On paper, Bremen’s formation suffers from a distinct lack of width, which would be all the more problematic considering they field two strikers, Claudio Pizarro and Hugo Almeida, who thrive on crosses. In reality, however, they manage to find width in three separate ways – the shuttlers either side of the diamond move gradually into wide zones, the full-backs take up advanced positions to stretch the play, and finally – and most crucially – Hunt plays an unusual role – nominally a trequartista but almost always ending up in wide areas on both sides of the pitch.
Tactical duel
This game turned out to be a tremendous tactical contest, that stemmed from Bremen having a numerical advantage in the centre of midfield. Tissone and Angelo Palombo, the two midfield terriers, worked hard in closing down Tim Borowski and Philipp Bargfrede whenever they received the ball, and early on they were forced to play it back to Torsten Frings, who sat deep ahead of his own centre-backs.
With Cassano playing little part defensively – only picking up Frings when the ball was in Bremen’s own half, and letting him go free when their attacks developed – Frings had a tremendous amount of time on the ball. Gradually, he played a bigger part in the game, and Bremen’s 3 v 2 midfield advantage started to show.
As a result of this deficit in the centre of midfield, Sampdoria’s wingers were dragged too far into the centre of the pitch to help out, and in turn this left the Bremen full-backs with room to exploit in wide areas of the pitch. Petri Pasanen was danger on the left-hand side, but Clemens Fritz was concerned with Cassano’s movement to his side, and was slightly more conservative.
All this ignores the issue of Hunt, the key figure of the first half. His distinctive role made it very hard for Sampdoria to pick him up – the Italians’ midfielders were concerned with their opposite numbers, the centre-backs had a powerful centre-forward each to deal with, and the full-backs were reluctant to be drawn out of position to come and meet him in semi-central positions.
Sampdoria play direct football
Of course, football is always 11 v 11, so all these advantages enjoyed by Bremen mean they were also weaker in another area of the pitch – the flanks, where Sampdoria basically had 2 v 1 on each side. But the Bremen diamond shifted across the pitch well, and Sampdoria rarely looked to switch play to counter this tactic. The time on the ball that should have been enjoyed by Sampdoria’s full-backs wasn’t of particular value, as they were looking to play quick, direct balls to the front two, rather than building up play gradually.
The first half was fascinating tactically but relatively quiet in terms of goalmouth action. Despite Bremen’s dominance, Pazzini was the biggest threat – he headed just past the post after a clever quick free-kick from Palombo, and had a goal correctly disallowed when Bremen’s excellent offside trap caught him out.
There was a goal after just five minutes of the second half, however. Hunt was far quieter in the second half, but had a part to play in the goal. Sampdoria had let him run free in the opening period, but Di Carlo had clearly given his players strict instructions to close him down ferociously in the second. Daniele Mannini helped Reto Ziegler double up against him in Sampdoria’s left-back zone, but this left Fritz free. After Tissone’s pathetic attempt at a clearance, Fritz had time to line up a shot and smash the ball into the far corner.
Second half
This theme vaguely continued throughout the second half – Sampdoria dealt with Hunt far better, but this seemed to open up space across the pitch for other Bremen players. After Pazzini hit the far post with an angled shot, Bremen took charge of the game following Stefano Lucchini’s pull on Sebastian Prodl at a corner kick. Lucchini was given a second yellow card, Frings converted the penalty, and Bremen had a two-goal and one-man advantage.
Sampdoria reshaped, taking off Franco Semioli (rather than a forward) and bringing on Marius Stankevicius, a centre-back, and going 4-3-2. Unfortunately, Stankevicius’s first touch was deflecting the ball past his own goalkeeper after Almeida’s wonderful move, and at 3-0, Bremen looked home and dry in the tie.
Di Carlo wanted his players to attack, though, aware that an away goal now would be more important than a goal at the start of the second leg. Substitute Stefano Guberti twice went close, before Pazzini got the goal he deserved in stoppage time, with a trademark towering header from a right-wing cross. Sampdoria knew how crucial a goal here was, and so did Bremen – “The goal Sampdoria scored was avoidable and leaves a bitter aftertaste”, said Fritz afer the game. 3-1 is very, very different to 3-0.
Conclusion
For Sampdoria – read Tottenham Hotspur. Impressive last season playing 4-4-2 with two wingers, their first Champions League experience, and they find themselves 3-0 down away from home, before staging a late comeback. Both seemed tactically naive by keeping two strikers high up the pitch, a tactic rarely seen from teams playing away in the Champions League.
Bremen were excellent and played a clever game – dominating possession in the centre of the pitch, narrowing Sampdoria, before bringing their full-backs into play and finding the creative Hunt in dangerous positions.
Sampdoria are a force to be reckoned with at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, and the second leg will be much tougher for Bremen.
Werder Bremen 3-1 Sampdoria: Late Pazzini goal keeps the tie alive
Excellent article, thank you.
Could you tell me other ideas to play against a 442 diamond except to change the play to the other side to look for 2vs1?
Thank you by advance.
Alexandre
I have a question,what is the best way for a 4-4-2 to play against a 4-3-1-2?
Move wide players inwards (I guess), like what USA had done occasionally with their 442.
I think there are 3 ways a 4-4-2 can succeed. First, once possession is lost, one of the strikers needs to drop off and pressure the DM in order to disrupt the other team’s build up. Second, attack the wings in order to keep the fullbacks from constantly bombing forward. If the fullbacks can’t support the attack consistently enough, then the 4-3-1-2 can get awfully narrow, which leads to the final point: the CMs need to stay close to the CBs and clog up the middle of the pitch.
So, basicly, if one of strikers stops being a striker by stepping into midfield, it is not 4-4-2 anymore :/. The difference between 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 merely comes down to one striker coming into the hole…
well you have to do something about that DM. it’s an extremely important position in the diamond midfield. it’s hard to play a straight 4-4-2 successfully against a diamond – you either have to have a central midfielder deal with the DM (making your own formation more of a diamond), or a striker (making it a 4-4-1-1). even Malky Mackay, hardly known as a tactical genius, realized this and changed his formation to a 4-4-2 diamond (he normally plays 4-4-2, or sometimes 4-4-1-1) to match his opposition in Watford’s victory over Norwich on the first day of the Championship.
I like the way Hunt plays, he will be a star player IMO.
Thanks a lot ZM for the great analysis (as usual). I really thought Frings took control of the game and was surprised that Di Carlo did not have Cassano drop deeper and put him under pressure. Werder is a really entertaining team to watch and I hope they can finally have some success in the Champions League. It is nice to see a team that is totally committed to playing an open attacking game. Sadly though for Werder, despite their very attractive attacking play their loss of focus prevented them from putting the tie completely out of reach.
By the way Zonal Marking, I was wondering if you were going to do an analysis of the Bayern-Wolfsburg match on Friday. It should be an interesting match up between unknown quantity of Steve McClaren’s side and established firepower of Bayern with Schweinsteiger, Mueller, Klose, Ribery, (who seems to be getting his form back) and hopefully Kroos.
I agree, Frings was key. Excellent player he is, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Di Carlo did something baout him in the second leg.
Yes very excited about the first Bundesliga game! Will certainly have something up about it.
Mr. Zonal Marking i always wondered why there weren’t any analysis of Chelsea’s high scoring wins.I always wondered how they could do that.
Might cover the game this weekend….
Note that Chelsea’s thrashings have come against EPL whipping boys Wigan, who will get relegated this year, West Brom (up from the Championship) and Portsmouth (7:0, I think). The only game worth analyzing was the Villa game (7:1, again, I think) – highly unusual for the villains to let someone show them around like that. Thus, the difference is in the payroll, clearly.
I’m always watching bremen’s international games because they always put on a great show. Their game against Valencia (4-4, going out on away goals) in last year’s UEFA-cup campaign was brilliant. I also think they have been the tactically most interesting bundesliga site for the last couple of years.
The problem with Hunt has never really been the quality of his play. It’s been about staying healthy. He was healthy most of last season and played very well, earning a call up to the senior NT at one point. Thomas Schaaf has really moved him around quite a bit, from playing as a support striker to Klose four years ago, to more of a wide midfield role, and now it looks like he’s in the hole.
I’m not sure how deserved Pazzini’s goal was. He should have been sent off along time earlier for a deliberate stamp. From the replay it’s clear he knows exactly what he was doing.
Yeah I thought that too. It looked very suspicious.
An entertaining game for sure. Fritz´s shot was amazing considering that he is right footed.
I liked the way Pasanen played as left back, doesn´t he usually play center or right back? The Finnish national team sure needs a left back. Maybe he isn´t as good as an attacking full back but he made some important challenges in the defensive zone.
I would´ve brought Marin in at about 60-70 minutes since Hunt looked a bit tired (no wonder considering the first half display, I really thought he might be up to the task of taking Özil´s place).
Only thing that was unimpressive about Bremen´s game were the numerous fouls committed by Almeida and especially Pizarro.
I’m not a big fan of the diamond. But the way Bremen played it, it was great. the movement, the interchanging positions. it was everything from a 3-1 over a loopsided 2-2 (with Hunt and Bargfrede on the right and Borowski ahead of Frings in the centre), to a 1-3 midfield. Bremens full-backs are not the best (Fritz is okay, and he looks much better than last season), but the movement and fluidity was great. Bremen always had great midfielders (just look at the young Bargfrede), I’m not concerned about Özil’s leaving.
‘The first half was fascinating tactically but relatively quiet in terms of goalmouth action.’
local newspapers were writing about the first half: ‘the combinations didn’t reach the desired quality.’ too much failures in passing etc.
Of course nothing about tactics.
If you want to know more about Werder tactics,
take a look at: http://werder-fussball-blog.net/
nice graphics, don’t care about the language.
I haven’t seen the match, judging by the article and formation displayed Frings acted as a very deep lying playmaker while Bargfrede and Borowski shielded him and tried to break the link between Sampdoria’s attack and defense. Pretty smart game plan, as that link is already somewhat weak to begin with in what could be seen as a 4-2-4 just as much as a 4-4-2. With just one sub Schaaf could have shuffled his side around into a more conventional style of play as well.
Werder wouldn’t be Werder without conceding an unnecessary away goal though. The second leg should be interesting.
Nice Analysis as always.
But the game in my opinion was decided by individuals. First the bad clearance from Sampdoria defender to Fritz. Will he ever in his career hit a ball like this again? The penalty and the red card in combination broke the italian neck. The great technical skills of the two bremen strikers (and the bad collective Sampdoria defending)…Mertesacker’s blackout at the Pazzini goal(great player, didn’t know him before honestly)…
One could analyse if they were provoked by tactics for sure.