addressing our midfield and backline problems in defensive transition: an analysis
although we had a great season we must ask how our team needs to improve in order to reach our maximum potential.
though we can commend our team's workrate and offensive prowess, one glaring insight when pairing up against teams like psg and even real madrid was our incapabilities in defensive transition, i.e., against fast counter attacks
kimmich and pavlo have great attacking responsibilities with either one of them often finding themselves in the attacking third in order to gain a numerical advantage. with joshua being the main orchestrator and pavlo making deep runs, it gives us an opportunity to overload in the opposition box.
however, this gives us a vulnerability when we lose possession. when a ball is played towards an attacker from our opposition, our defenders rarely have a numerical advantage and lead them to be isolated in 1v1s. though this situation isn't ideal, we would be able to compromise if we had the best personnel in these positions.
this is in no way to undermine our defenders, but it is indeed fact that when going against elite attackers who get these chances to attack so often in one game, we are bound to concede; the corollary is that we have to outscore the opposition.
i believe that there are two ways to go about this, each with their own quandaries. one way to stabilise these scenarios is to implement a defensive midfielder. a defensive midfielder who stays behind while kimmi and pavlo can allow us to have a numbers advantage and act as an extra line of defense and even intercept buildup play.
this seems very ideal until you realise that using a def mid takes gnabry/musiala out of the game. our attack without them is still very sharp; but not playing players like musiala who at their best are game-changers, feel wrong. simply put, musiala is our boy. but of course, these matches are situational and substitutions can always be made to suit our needs.
the other alternative may be a bit more risky; it commands us to buy the best defenders on the market, especially in the full back department. stan the man is good, he runs for us and gives his all; but that alone does not hide the fact that we need a player with more defensive prowess when going up against prolific wingers.
with davies being uncertain, it's the writing on the wall that we need a new fullback next season. the pertinent question is if we need a defensive overhaul. see, if davies and laimer can play week in and week out, i find it much more practical to invest in a def mid. i say this because the right personnel can be hard to find (a def mid is inherently already useful leave alone the player in our situation)
even if we do get new signings, we need to make sure that they're the absolute, emphasis on absolute, best players in the world. somebody who, in 1v1 situations is favoured to win in at least a major portion. this is because, remember, our system employs an extremely offensive playstyle where we give up numerical strength in defensive transition.
these are just my thoughts from my personal understanding of our game and i would love to hear your thoughts on them. of course, other theories are welcome.