“If you are active from the centre, it can breathe life into the whole game. Because you are the link between defence and attack. I enjoy playing there. I think you’ve seen that against Dusseldorf” – Julian Brandt

Brandt’s role in central midfield in Dortmund’s 3-4-3 (or 3-4-3-0?) was a key part of their possession game. He started alongside Witsel in double pivot which was flexible in nature, as the Belgian also enjoyed positional freedom to some extent. However Brandt, in line with his characteristics as a player, was the one to offer more mobility, moving between the lines at opportune moments and combining well with the front three.

An example of Brandt’s interactions with the forwards can be found in the very first minute.

In the scene above, he takes up a slightly advanced position which puts him in close proximity to receive the layoff from Hazard. In this situation and similar ones that occurred, Brandt has a good field of vision upon receiving the ball and can drive the game forward as a player who naturally is quite oriented towards seeking breakthroughs as fast as possible.

In the context of the defensive structure of Dusseldorf, Brandt could find himself in space in the triangle between Dusseldorf’s striker and two central midfielders in their 4-1-4-1. Generally, Dusseldorf were passive and reactive in their defensive approach. The wide midfielders would look to remain level with Dortmund’s wing-backs, so could often be pushed back, creating almost a back five or six, with often relatively weak defensive connections with their nearest central midfielder.

With Dusseldorf having a lone striker and the wide midfielders being forced deeper, there was initially plenty of space for Dortmund’s side-backs to carry the ball out of defence and prepare attacking moves from the halfspaces. In order to combat this, the #8s of Dusseldorf would be required to push out to pressure Dortmund’s side-backs.

Dortmund could often outplay this and find the front three in the enlarged gaps in the halfspaces caused by the pushing out of the central midfielders, such as in the aforementioned scene above. This was partially neutralised by the fullbacks of Dusseldorf, who would often mark Hazard and Sancho directly when they were at least somewhat near their nominal position, following their dropping movements to prevent them from turning on the ball.

Firstly though, the Sancho and Brandt could evade this by simply moving further from their nominal position, at which point the fullback would retreat into the defensive line, wary of leaving too much open space. Hazard on a few occasions drifted quite far over to the left side to try and escape his fullback and create overloads on that side in conjunction with the likes of Sancho, Reus and Guerreiro. Sancho could also move across the line, as well as dropping deeper into midfield.

Secondly, the spaces sometimes left by the man-orientations of the fullbacks could themselves be exploited. A nice example of this came in the second half, again involving Brandt offering forward impetus from midfield.

In the above scene, the Dusseldorf right-back is seen following Sancho in towards the ball which is in possession of Guerreiro on the left wing. Brandt recognises the developing space caused by the right-back following Sancho’s movement, and upon receiving the ball from Guerreiro is able to push the ball into the open space, eliminating the nearest Dusseldorf central midfielder in the process. He then plays a one-two with Reus which sets him free behind the Dusseldorf defensive line.

It should be noted that the aggressive movements seen from Dortmund’s central midfielders at various points in the game were partly facilitated by the passivity of Dusseldorf’s setup, which meant that it made more sense for Witsel and more often Brandt to move beyond the Dusseldorf midfield line at times, and leave the space open for the side-backs to carry the ball. Due to deep positioning of Dusseldorf’s wingers, the threat of counter-attacks was also somewhat reduced.

Dusseldorf’s passivity was perhaps at least a bit justified when looking at one of the few moments where they did attempt high pressing, and proceeded to get outplayed very quickly and simply.

It was a nice moment from Dortmund nonetheless. The right #8 of Dusseldorf pressures Zagadou, and the right midfielder moves towards Guerreiro anticipating the pass to the wing-back. Instead though, Zagadou plays vertically to Brandt who again picks up a good position between the #6 and right midfielder. Brandt quickly finds Sancho running into depth, and within two passes the Dusseldorf pressure has been outplayed.

Zagadou was also involved in the lead up to one of the best scenes in the game, which again displayed the impressive movements and interchanges between the free-roaming forwards of Dortmund.

First of all, Zagadou’s dribbling out of defence in this scene is again facilitated by the Dusseldorf right midfielder being pushed into a deep position by Guerreiro, which allows Zagadou to push into the space alongside Dusseldorf’s right #8. The vertical runs from both Sancho and Reus open the passing lane for the pass from Zagadou to Hazard. Sancho drags the #6 deeper, and Reus’ run pins the centre-back and right-back. The proceeding combination featuring consecutive one-twos between Hazard and Sancho is hard to illustrate in diagram form, but the graphic is an example of how such moves were set up by good initial movements by the Dortmund forwards to open space.

Dortmund’s forwards also contributed in wide areas, linking with the wing-backs and creating overloads. On some occasions Sancho would move out towards the left touchline, which could open diagonal routes for Guerreiro to attempt to make inroads towards the middle. Hazard and Hakimi had a similar relationship, although these were slightly more rare. Reus also often drifted wide to support in these moments, and his presence offered another option for combining with.

Dortmund had the vast majority of possession in the game, so their defensive scheme was rarely tested.

Nevertheless, in their high pressing scheme, the aggressive role of the wing-backs in engaging the opponent’s fullbacks was notable. This was in conjunction with aggressive movements from the centre-back on the same side to squeeze the play behind them and cover the Dusseldorf winger. Further forward, Reus would take care of the Dusseldorf #6 while also running through to the Dusseldorf goalkeeper when he had the ball, holding the #6 in his cover shadow. Hazard and Sancho would then be responsible for the Dusseldorf centre-backs which turned out to be a relatively simple task.

Overall, Dortmund’s 3-4-3 system against Dusseldorf made for an interesting watch and allowed them to integrate the likes of Brandt, Hazard, Reus and Sancho in roles where they had a degree of positional freedom and were able to combine together effectively at several points within the match.