Bayern Patient Circulation Dismantle Schalke’s Press Schalke 04 started quite well; the first two lines of their press were coordinated well and managed to force turnovers within FC Bayern’s half. But, as the time went by, slowly but sure, Bayern found the rhythm and gradually dismantled the hosts’ uncoordinated press. James Rodriguez was amazing, but apart from that, particularly in the second half, Schalke were just not good enough to deal with Bayern’s possession play. Domenico Tedesco fielded a 5-2-2-1 with a transition to 5-4-1 during the low block. The principle of press was to force Bayern to play as many long balls as possible. Thus when Schalke looked to establish a high block with Guido Burgstaller; he was supported by the two wide midfielders to press Bayern’s first line of build up. At times, when the access was possible, both wide midfielders would directly press Bayern’s central defensive duo with Burgstaller running towards Sven Ulreich to force premature long balls. Schalke used their first line to set the pressing behaviour. When both wide midfielders managed to contain the passing option from Ulreich to both central defenders, as said above, the central nine would go directly to Ulreich. To maintain the stability within their press, both of Schalke’s wing backs oriented to both Bayern’s wing backs. With this, Schalke also blocked the wide outlet since they had kept the central lanes under control. The central area itself was secured by Nabil Bentaleb and Weston McKennie who had to stay close to Bayern’s double pivot. This made the away side reluctant to insist developing the offense through the central area. Until this stage, Schalke managed to create a strong central blockade. To deal with such a pressing behaviour, as expected, Bayern’s wide men (Kingsley Coman and James Rodriguez) would drop deeper. There was a ‘hole’ behind Schalke’s wing backs who moved high up the pitch to keep his assigned opponent isolated. By occupying to the said ‘hole’, Bayern’s ball side wide man wished to provide the passing option for Ulreich to bypass Schalke’s high block. It was good idea and an ideal tactical decision, but Schalke’s press could handle it as the onward press by the ball side half back would have managed to keep the Bayern’s receiver under control (see Thilo Kehrer, Daniel Caligiuri, and Kingsley Coman below). For full version of the analysis, you're welcome to read it on http://outsideoftheboot.com/2017/09/22/tactical-analysis-schalke-0-3-bayern-munich/ Thanks for reading. You can find me on Twitter @ryantank100