Borussia Dortmund’s Switch to a Back Three

Analysis and Training

Analysis

After having a good amount of success in their start to the season Dortmund switched to playing with a back three. Though previously Dortmund was having success with 8 wins and only 2 losses in their first ten games of the season, their defense was still conceding goals at a high rate with 15 goals scored against them in those ten matches and zero clean sheets. Fortunately, they have had a high scoring rate with 27 goals in those ten matches. However, that pace could hardly keep up for the rest of the season and Marcos Rose and Rene Maric knew that they would have to find something to fix their defensive problems to keep pace with the league leaders and serial league winners Bayern Munich.

For Dortmund’s match against Koln, they made this switch to a back three and while it was successful in the sense that they won the match 2–0 recording their first clean sheet of the season, there were still some issues and Dortmund may have been a bit lucky to not concede a couple. From the start Dortmund played with a mostly true back three with the wingbacks pushed up high moving with the midfield line and playing more man orientated towards their counterparts in defense rather than dropping into the back line to make a back five. The issue with this was that Koln was often matched up with the three Dortmund center backs. Koln playing with one central striker and three attacking midfielders sitting behind him often pushed two of the attacking midfielders up into Dortmund’s first line creating a 3v3; this then left one of the attacking midfielders in support to receive layoffs.

We see this early on in the match in just the third minute, Koln attackers matched up 3v3 with the Dortmund defenders. As a ball is played into the right-side attacker, the central attacker drops off from his mark (Dortmund’s central defender) and positions underneath the attacker receiving in the last line to receive a layoff pass. With a third player in support in the right half space the central attacker who receivied the initial layoff pass is then able to lay the ball off to the third supporting player who is then able to drive forward.

This similar scenario happened over and over almost too many times to count. And often, with the wingbacks pushed so high forward, this left Koln attackers in large amounts of space on the outsides of the Dortmund center backs with almost no, or little recovery runs or back pressing from the Dortmund wingbacks.

Even out of possession Koln looked to press high and looked to match up with Dortmund’s back three with a fourth as well looking to press high. The rest of the Koln players behind these four looked to man mark the Dortmund players higher up. Dortmund however had a lot of success playing direct and vertical. This is due to Dortmund keeping their wingbacks high up the field rather than dropping in support. Dortmund could have dropped their wingbacks down to try and overload Koln in the first line to help with the buildup however they didn’t look to do this on many occasions which, though a risk in buildup, had the benefit of Dortmund creating a free player and space higher up the field which allowed Dortmund to be more successful playing direct.

This, again, is one of many situations with a 3v3 at the back with an extra Koln player between the lines. Both Dortmund wingbacks pushed forward with the midfield. Here a Koln player in the ten space is able to receive between the lines behind the two Dortmund sixes. The three Dortmund center backs are matched up with three attackers running forward into depth. This results in multiple options with a lot of space for Koln while Dortmund’s midfield looks to recover.

After Dortmund scored their first goal their back three became more of a back five with the wingbacks playing deeper and closer to the center backs. This helped to solidify themselves more defensively and allowed them to be more compact and the center backs were able to step out with better cover behind them and with more shifting to cover as the ball was played to the wings.

Against RB Leipzig, Dortmund utilized more of a back 5 against the ball, sitting in a mid-low block. RB Leipzig strongly looked to overload the middle of the field. Dortmund’s backline played very narrow and compact when the ball was in the center of the field and shifted aggressively to the sides when the ball was out on the wings. They pressed with sometimes three, sometimes four, sometimes two in the middle. When they had two up front a third would often jump to press and one of the center backs would follow forward into midfield to cover. Out of possession though Dortmund was often more passive and though they had more defensive stability the wingbacks weren’t able to get as far forward in the attack. Even still with this supposed more defensive stability Dortmund had positional issues that left gaps and spaces in the backline that Leipzig were able to exploit.

For instance, in possession the right center back was pushed very high up with the midfield. After the ball was lost, the middle center back was forced to step up to pressure the ball, the left center back was positioned too deep, dropped back behind the other two center backs, keeping players onside as the space that was left opened by the right center back was easily exploited with a run and a pass.

A second instance of Dortmund’s backline being disorganized: the three center backs of Dortmund found themselves matched up with three Leipzig attackers. As the central attacker drops the middle center back marking him follows his movement. As this happens, the right center back steps forward to orientate himself closer to his mark. The left center back however follows his mark as he makes a run in behind the other two center backs. This leaves holes in the back line that RB Leipzig are again able to exploit.

And a third moment: Dortmund’s three center backs usually very narrow and compact but in this moment the right center back gets dragged out wide following the run in behind. As this happens the middle center back doesn’t pass on his mark to the left center back to be able to shift over and close the space and instead both center backs mark the one player while a big gap is created between the middle center back and the right center back. Add to the fact that the back line is uneven with the right center back dropping to follow the run. This keeps the second attacker onside as the other two center backs look to play him off. In the end the second attacker is able to receive the through ball in behind the defense with no one near him and is able to round the keeper to finish and score Leipzig’s first of two goals in Dortmund’s 2–0 loss.

Training

3v4 into 6v6 plus keeper

Looking to work on the movement, positioning, and organization of the back three defending when matched up while also working on the wingbacks recovery and back pressing which were two big issues in the above analysis. We start this game with red playing into the front three attackers and looking to attack the big goal. Reds have a momentary overload which they can utilize to look to layoff to and try and exploit the space. Once the ball is played into the front three red attackers the three yellow players then look to recover back, running in to join the game while reds have two players from the outside who look to run in to support the attack. If yellow wins the ball they look to attack the small goals at the opposite end.

With the main focus group being yellow in defense we want to work on their organization and communication especially after the ball has been laid off as that was a consistent theme and a constant struggle. Once the ball is played into the attacking red players yellow ideally want to win the ball immediately however if this doesn’t happen and reds are able to receive/layoff then we need to look at how we want to proceed to keep our organization while handling the situation. It is common to want to step out and pressure the receiving player to prevent them having time and space on the ball. This however can and had led to disorganization in the backline and space/gaps being exploited especially in situations where the backline is matched up or overloaded as there is next to no cover for the player stepping out without the covering player leaving his mark open and exposing space. Instead of stepping out once the ball gets laid off the back three should look to drop and protect the space in behind and mark/take away passes into the attacking players. Whilst doing this it’s important for the three to be organized and in line with one another. If one defender is dropped back deeper than the other two center backs, then it’s much easier to time a run to exploit space in behind without being offside. With the back three dropping to protect the space in behind and block off passes to the attackers it’s important that the defensive mid is back pressing to the ball carrier to not allow them the time or space to play a pass or dribble forward which would eventually draw out a defender and expose space, create gaps, and/or create a free player in behind.

8v8 defensive third defending into counterattack

Here we have yellow sitting in a deeper zonal block with the wingbacks more connected to the center backs from the start. Whites attacking with six plus two support players vs yellows seven plus a target player. Whites are looking to penetrate forward and attack. Though whites are overloaded in their attacking part of the field they have two support players to bounce the ball back to and elevate pressure. From there they can look for different areas to exploit through the use of ball relocation.

The yellow defenders consisting of the three center backs and two wingbacks are looking for consistency in their organization, keeping compact when the balls in the middle of the field, and aggressively shifting to the sides to pressure the ball. Good coordination in covering the wingbacks or center back when the pressure is initiated, looking to close any space or gaps, and passing off any man marks is essential for the backline to prevent penetration or any break throughs. As we saw in the analysis above the poor coordination from the backline kept defenders at different heights in the backline which opened up the gaps and kept players running in behind easily onside. The two players sitting in front of the backline should be disciplined in holding their central positioning and use their covershadow to block off passes into the front three. Once passes are cut off into the front three then the central midfielder can look to coordinate a press with the wingback for passes out wide to help cover and close diagonal passing lanes. Central passes in front of the two central midfielders should look to have one press with the other covering and blocking central passing lanes while preparing to step out to pressure or close space along with the wingback stepping out to pressure if the ball gets passed to the side.

Once the ball is won by yellow, they want to look for fast central counters playing into the central target player and having the central midfielders look to support. Once the ball is laid off, we want to look to make runs forward from one of the central midfielders and potentially the wingbacks while the other central midfielder stays for counterattacking cover along with the other wingback.

For reds they’re looking to cause the problems for the yellows. Moving the ball from side to side while yellow are shifting and looking to keep compactness can cause missteps in yellows communication which can lead to the opening of gaps. Movement off the ball with players dropping and others running into depth again can cause miscommunication and disorganization in yellows shape leading to mistakes and space to exploit.

KW

Written November 2021