Thread by @bergasss

HSV vs St. Pauli Tactical Analysis:

- How St. Pauli destroyed HSV's poor structure.
- Sands & Hountondji were key to St. Pauli's out-of-possession (oop) play.
- The issue with HSV's attack that was easily neutralised by #fcsp.

#hsv #hsvfcsp

🧵THREAD

For those who watched the game, it will have been obvious that St. Pauli often succeeded in attacking HSV with long balls.

This was mostly due to HSV's poor OOP structure and St. Pauli's clever exploitation of it.

First: Pinned HSV's wing-back.

2 of St. Pauli's WBs are aggressive in possession. They push high, create a 5 vs 5 situation against HSV back line.

In this situation, the HSV WBs failed to cover the area between themselves and the wide CBs, so there will always be space for Hountondji and Lage to run into.

The situation was made worse by the fact that HSV's first pressing line was useless.

I understand the idea might to close the centre area, prevent #fcsp from progressing through there.

However, they were too narrow and passive. The distance to the #fcsp CBs was also too far.

Because the distance was too far and #HSV forwards were often too late to jump to the #FCSP CBs, Hauke Wahl & Eric Smith were often free to send long balls.

With HSV WBs already locked, there were spaces for #fcsp to run into and attack comfortably in 1vs1 situation.

Think Polzin noticed this mistake and made #HSV first pressing line more aggressive in the 2nd half, but it didn't solve the back-line situation, where the WBs were still locked and the CBs were in a vulnerable one-on-one situation.

From #fcsp second goal:

And yes, the difference between last season and this one for #FCSP is their ability to attack those spaces and battle in one-on-one situations. This is because they have forwards who are strong in duel, sprints, & can hold the ball: Hountondji, Pereira Lage, Kaars.

Against the ball, #fcsp used the same method as vs #bvb, since #hsv also build-up with 3.

They used Sands to jump to the CB & let Hountondji cover the right WB. This combination successfully prevented #HSV from progressing, particularly through the right half-space via Jordan T.

Well, even though Torunarigha successfully reached the player in half-space, #fcsp are still safe since they had enough players to allow their CBs to jump to #hsv player.

This prevented #hsv from attacking through half-space again & again (they only created 1 chance from there).

The poor performance of #HSV attack was also mainly due to bad structure.

The distance between players was often too big, making it easy for FC St. Pauli to overload certain areas & neutralise #hsv attacks more easily. HSV really failed to make progress & reach dangerous areas.

Also, IMO, the idea of making Munheim cover the half-space instead of the width slows down the #hsv attack on the right side, as it gives Hountondji, Sands, Wahl and Pyrka time to figure out who needs to jump to whom.

#hsv was too positional (which made it easy to predict).

Meanwhile, the more mature #fcsp appear more mobile in attack, as the players often move into a more ball-oriented flow (although they do not completely abandon their role/structure).

This helps their attacks to be more effective and dangerous.

In short, the tactical gap between the two teams was just too big. #fcsp looked very mature, precise and clever in how they read their opponents' weaknesses.

Meanwhile, #HSV seemed lost in their own bad structure. Time and expensive players might help, but who knows?

I mean, if you judge based on that derby performance alone, then indeed #HSV not only have personnel problem, but also tactical one.

On the other hand, #fcsp showed that they‘re very efficient this summer (their player profiles match their tactical needs).