In just his second game in charge, Achim Beierlorzer was able to pick up another deserved win for a much-changed Mainz side against Eintracht Frankfurt on Monday night in the Bundesliga. With Mainz looking to continue from where they left off in their demolition of Hoffenheim, Mainz used a similar system and it is one which ultimately got the better of Frankfurt’s. In this tactical analysis, I’ll look at Mainz’s new system under Beierlorzer and explain how this was able to exploit Frankfurt’s system, particularly when they were sent down to ten men at the end of the first half.
Lineups
Mainz lined up in a 3-4-1-2, which switched between a 3-5-2 and a 3-4-3 often, with the midfielders being allowed to move with some freedom in order to create overloads and passing angles. Frankfurt meanwhile used a 3-5-2, which because of how the game went often became a 5-3-2 or a 5-4-1. After Dominik Kohr’s sending off Frankfurt went into a 4-4-1/5-3-1, and as we will touch on in this analysis, Frankfurt suffered as a result of Mainz’s style of play.
If you love tactical analysis, then you’ll love the digital magazines from totalfootballanalysis.com – a guaranteed 100+ pages of pure tactical analysis covering topics from the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and many, many more. Buy your copy of the November issue for just ₤4.99 here
