How Germany Completely Dominated Scotland

How Germany Completely Dominated Scotland

Germany completely dismantled Scotland in the opening game of the euros and while a lot of the headlines were focused on an incredible performance by mzala there was a very subtle tactical shift adopted by nagles that allowed them to create a lot of space up top let’s take a look so Germany completely dominated the whole match but the game was essentially over in the first half with Scotland down to 10 men and Germany 3-0 up going into half time we’re going to look at the formations here so Germany started the match in a 42 31 while Scotland in a 3 421 however Scotland’s formation was actually a lot more resemblant of a 541 in their defensive shape and the vast majority of the match was played in this exact situation Scotland didn’t really have much of a chance pushing forward they never really got their foothold in the game and the vast majority of the time they were in this shape here now there was a very very clever way Germany were able to exploit this shape and firstly we have hav pushing up up top and then it was these three players between the lines we had wz gundan and muala occupying the SP between the lines now what’s interesting about their position is that they weren’t pushed up on the defensive line so wz wasn’t but for example here in the half space he was just behind the Midfield line in this position here then as we move up we have andrich playing as the holding midfielder just behind Adams who was the soulle striker up top uh trying to put a bit of pressure on Germany’s backline but we’ll see why that did absolutely nothing uh and then we have Cruz in this position here along the two center backs so Cruz was in my opinion one of the key players in this match uh now obviously muala got a lot of the headlines quite rightfully he had an incredible performance playing essentially in this space here often moving over to this side here trying to create an overload with words but the position of Cruz was unbelievable now this isn’t a new position we’ve seen Cruz do this uh at Real Madrid for the whole season so there was nothing entirely new and surprising about this position but it just created so many issues for uh Scotland trying to stop this shape that Germany adopted so if we look at this shape it was essentially a three 3 331 now the first three was quite narrow maybe tar the Central Center back was a little bit lower trying to create a little bit of a diamond so essentially you’d have the first Scotland player Adams the striker uh trapped in the middle of this shape here then the position of the fullbacks was also really interesting and caused a lot of issues for Scotland’s Midfield especially because they were just in line with them sometimes pushing further forward but they weren’t close to Scotland’s right wing back or left wing back in this case so if they wanted to close them down they had to uh push off their line and move really up which did eventually create space for wz or gundan or even muala coming into this space here or attacking down in this channel here so these positions were key and then these three players here were essential as well now we’ll get into why these positions were so dangerous but at first I want to highlight the position of Cru and why this created so many issues for Scotland’s Midfield and their defense as a whole as he was one of the midfielders and he moved into this position here there’s a number of different players who could close him down in this position firstly if the striker decided to come over and close him down well then all that Germany would do and all Germany did in this situation was just move the ball over to this side here to rudiger for example or to Tar and then from here we actually saw a lot of through balls that again we’ll look at in a few minutes here uh playing it into this space in behind here into these channels as one player was played out of the game so essentially Scotland realized this quite quickly that pressing with Adams wasn’t necessarily the best solution and Adams did essentially just try and jockey the the holding midfielder so in reality Germany didn’t really play through the center too much but the vast majority of their progression happened in these channels here so they either went into this player here or they either went out wide now this doesn’t mean that they did it directly they also did it indirectly so for example maybe they go through ws and then they play it back through this position here but essentially this was one of the main ways they like to progress and it was all dependent on which player closed down Cru now the same was applied to Ruder as well but in this situation here if Cruz was closed down by momy then it would mean that there was this channel here into the center so if momany stepped out for example Gan could drop in and then you’d have these balls here into the middle here and then from these situations is when Germany was extremely dangerous and where their offensive set of players really uh set the game alive so we have a couple of examples of these situations depending on which player closed down Cruz we can see that there were different options that they might choose to adopt for example in a situation where mcin was often caught into this triangle here between Cruz uh the fullback and wz this position here mcin really struggled to adapt to this uh overload on his flank and then even if the wing back tried to close them down there was just so much space that they could exploit that these triangles either side but especially on this Left Flank here just proved really really difficult for Scotland to stop so for example if mcin stepped out then they would happily just move the ball out to the left and it was just a game of waiting to see which player essentially moved off their line even on this channel here on the right and then you just have these balls into the middle here rudiger playing these really dangerous forward balls into havit or into gundan and it was just really really difficult for Scotland to stop so this position from Cruz was the first major difference that allowed Germany to completely control the match we can get a better example of why Cruz’s position from a deep position was so dangerous as well because not only could they play the ball uh more centrally and the players on that side of the pitch but also this overload from the fullback on the opposite flank proved to be extremely dangerous and extremely difficult for Scotland to deal with especially with mzala moving into the half space with kimage overlapping it left the wing back or the left Center back into two minds on which players to pick up and we can get a good example of that by looking at their second goal so if we take a look at the position of Cru we can see that Scotland’s Midfield line struggled to get near him and if you give Cru too much time on the ball in these positions then he can switch play then it’s interesting to look at the position of muala on the opposite flank as well because the front line of havit and muala in this position here they’re threatening to run in behind they’re threatening to attack in behind Scotland’s defense which means that they can’t push forward Scotland’s defense has to move back which allows kimich to right back to push forward and pick up a position where they can then go 2V1 against the fullback then in this position here if Robertson steps out or if the left Center back steps out in TIY then it leaves muala free in the half space for a ball in behind and they could cross it but because the whole defense is pushing back it frees up this massive channel on the edge of the box that wartz is extremely clever to fill uh and attacks the space on the edge of the Box before uh finishing the chance really nicely in the bottom left corner now I want to focus on these three players here as well because their position with havit as well up top was extremely key so you get in this position here when you end up with maybe a 325 you get these players that they like to play on the defensive line they want to look for balls forward and then maybe look for the the midfielder the attacking midfielder between the lines but by playing just behind Scotland’s Midfield line it left all of Scotland’s defense completely in two minds they they weren’t entirely sure if they should close down because then there were these runs in behind so essentially they just ended up not really marking anyone for the majority of the match until the ball was played in so if the ball went into muala then TIY might step out Robertson might step out but then the position of kimich was already ready to attack forward so you could never really push forward and because havit was always constantly hovering in this space here at the top Scotland couldn’t really push up because then they could just play the ball in behind for havit who was quicker than the Defenders and could get to the ball first and they did actually exploit this a few times so essentially with Germany being able to create a lot of space in this position here it allowed them to completely control the game and there were a few different ways they wanted to exploit this position so firstly because they were starting their runs from a deep position with havit maybe sometimes dropping deep this would mean that the defensive line would often push up and as they did push up then you had these players making runs in behind so you never really knew where the runs were going to coming from sometimes it was W sometimes it was muala in these positions here but there were lots of different avenues that they could exploit and they did exploit especially in the first half so the game was essentially over at half time Germany went into the break three nail up and Scotland were down to 10 players but before we finish this video I want to focus on Germany’s defensive structure as well because it was extremely effective and German were able to uh completely shut down any of Scotland’s attacks uh starting from the back or in Midfield and they did so by completely overloading which side of the pitch Scotland were trying to build down so if they’re moving down the right flank then Gard Cru every German player would push over to this flank here now this was really effective however there were a few situations that Scotland were able to take advantage of and I think this is going to be something that we need to pay attention to when analyzing Germany later on in the competition if they make it and these are the switches of play into this space over here not necessarily with a direct ball into this space here into maybe Robertson or uh Christie moving out wide however if they were able to circulate the ball then Germany did leave the opposite flank completely vacant that Scotland weren’t really able to take advantage of however they did end up with the ball in this situation a couple times and then from here Germany was still very good at getting over and stopping any threats however it is something that I think we need to pay attention to going into the later stages of the competition and I think Germany are going to make it quite far with this offensive and defensive system uh Germany aren’t really a team I paid too much attention to coming into the Euros because they’ve been going through a little bit of a transition but I think now we’re starting to see where this transition can lead them because we have the perfect blend of experience with players like rudiger and Cruz and gundan but we also have some young Raw Talent like wordss and muala and havocs extremely quick Dynamic players that can really uh set the game alive and can create chances when you least expect it so I really think Germany will go far in this competition but let me know how far you think Germany are going to go in the Euros in the comments down below if you enjoyed this type of tactical analysis then we’re going to be doing a lot of match breakdowns during the EUR and we’re also going to be doing a lot of live streams using this software that I’ve been working on a lot of people have been asking what software I use and up to now it’s always been a d Vinci resolve I’ve always edited my videos uh with a video editing software but I’ve been working on this software that I’m really excited to show you and hopefully will be available for all of you in the near future so if you want to join in the next live stream is going to be Spain Croatia Saturday afternoon so make sure to click the link in the description down below and we can break down the tactics together on stream thanks for watching

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Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:24 Starting Line-up
01:30 The Role of Kroos
06:20 Germany’s Offensive Shape
07:48 Germany’s Defense and Potential Weakness?