Champions League Performance Insights: Finding solutions to man-marking
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UEFA's game insights unit explores how PSV Eindhoven and Bayern München man-marked their opponents on Matchday 8 of the UEFA Champions League.
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The spectacle of teams going player-to-player across the pitch is not a new phenomenon in the UEFA Champions League.
This time last year, UEFA's game insights unit put Atalanta's Matchday 8 trip to Barcelona under the microscope to assess the visitors' man-marking system – and how the home team responded.
Twelve months on, Bayern München's Matchday 8 contest at PSV Eindhoven allowed an opportunity to revisit the subject – albeit with one significant difference. This time both teams went man to man.
Peter Bosz, the PSV coach, provided a fitting summary when he said afterwards: "They went one-on-one with us, and we did exactly the same with them. So then you get a transitional game that is incredibly intense."
In the following analysis, UEFA's game insights unit – with the support of UEFA Technical Observer Erik ten Hag – will explore the player-to-player approach on view in Eindhoven and, crucially, the way both sides sought solutions.
Going man to man
"Press high, play man against man, and try to dominate your opponent." That was Ten Hag's description at half-time on Wednesday of how the teams were playing.
The video above illustrates his point. Early in the first clip, we see PSV centre-back Jerdy Schouten follow Bayern forward Jamal Musiala as he drops into his own half. Equally, when Bayern lose the ball, they are just as committed to playing one-vs-one across the pitch – now it is Musiala closing down Schouten. The sequence ends with the ball back with Bayern and PSV pressing again.
As Bosz said, this led to a "transitional game" and clip two above offers a flavour of that. The physical demands on players are considerable – as seen in the recovery runs of Bayern trio Alphonso Davies, Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane, with Davies making the crucial interception.
PSV look to runners from deep
When two teams are well matched, as PSV and Bayern were, how do you disrupt that? For the home side, runners from deep – notably from their overlapping full-backs – offered a solution, as the second video displays.
The first clip shows an excellent run from right-back Sergiño Dest, racing beyond Luis Díaz. An early detail in the clip is that, to break the man-to-man press at the start of their build-up, Ismael Saibari drops deep to combine with his goalkeeper, Matĕj Kovář.
"They use the goalkeeper as the plus one – the extra player – to create an overload," Ten Hag observed. Clip two features a foray from left-back Mauro Júnior on the other flank. Ten Hag applauded PSV for the small details in their possession play and here is a prime example.
"Look at the way Joey Veerman is delaying to attract [Joshua Kimmich] and give Schouten the opportunity to step into the space in front," he said. And look too at how Ivan Perišić blocks Tom Bischof to enable Mauro Júnior's surge into space on the left.
Bayern's balls over the press
For their part, Bayern responded by looking to play over the PSV press. Clip one of the third video shows a terrific run inside by right-back Bishof to collect a pass from goalkeeper Jonas Urbig whose kicking, as our post-match analysis highlighted, was a significant feature of Bayern's attacking game. "He gave some great passes," said Ten Hag.
To illustrate the point about Ulrig's distribution offering a solution, this graphic shows that almost two-thirds (63%) of his passes went long. In Bayern's previous seven fixtures, only 37% had gone long on average.
Another Urbig ball – this one nearly 70m in length – is the centrepiece of the second clip which concludes with Harry Kane's winning strike.
Ten Hag reflected: "Bayern are very good at keeping the ball, even under intense pressure, and making switches or going vertical."
One final point, from a Bayern perspective, was the advantage they gained from coach Vincent Kompany sending on four substitutes after 62 minutes – Kane, Davies, Gnabry and Michael Olise.
In an intense, physical match of this kind, it made an undoubted difference, as Urbig acknowledged when he said: "With the substitutions, we were able to bring on freshness and take advantage of the spaces that were there."
Quality in transition
Finally, this was a match which emphasised the importance of transitions. When both teams are man-marking like this, transition moments offer a brief window when there is less control and spaces open up.
The video provides three examples, starting with an excellent PSV transition from the first half, which ends with Guus Til surging into the box from the left and testing Urbig.
Clip two shows Bayern's opening goal by Musiala which follows Lennart Karl profiting from the space left by Mauro Júnior's advance upfield. Finally, there is Saibari's magificent goal for PSV – again the result of directness after a turnover from a Bayern throw-in.
Ten Hag had particular praise for Bayern's threat in these situations. "In the attacking transition, the first ball always goes forward and then they have extreme speed and creativity," he noted.
Coaching reflection: Training verticality
For Ten Hag, verticality is an important tool for getting the better of a man-marking approach, as Bayern demonstrated. He recommends the following drill for working with players on their forward passing and forward runs.
Ten Hag explained: "With this drill, I'd propose playing a nine versus nine game on a long area of the pitch, from one penalty box to the other, but within a narrow corridor – around 20-25 metres only as that forces players to pass forward.
"The challenge is to lose your opponents by passing forward and creating third-man situations. A team can win a point for six consecutive passes in their own half – or for getting it forward and scoring a goal.
"As well as the nine players, I use two extra players – floaters – who join the team that are in possession. You use them as extra players for third-man actions and from there, you can run in behind or keep the ball."
Rules of the game: 9 vs 9 + 2
• 2 touches in own half; no limit in opposition half
• Striker stays in opposition half
• Striker permitted 3 touches maximum for 'target' play (when receiving from own half)
• Offside in opposition half only
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