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4-4-2 Sebastian Hoeneß’s Stuttgart

Hoeneß has very good experience as a manager he was a youth coach at Bayern back in the 19-20 and did so well that he was given the Hoffenheim job. This unfortunately ended in a bit of a disaster as he failed to make it to Europe and was sacked. Now nearly a year later Stuttgart hired him with just 8 games left and the former midfielder managed to get the team into the relegation playoff and win to secure Stuttgart’s continued existence in the topflight.

Now after just 1 summer in charge, Hoeneß has transformed his team into a possession-based monster that is scoring goals for fun and tearing up the Bundesliga, setting the team up for its best finish in nearly 10 years. Hoeneß primarily uses 2 formations, a 4-4-2 and a 4-2-3-1. He has used a few others this season but those 2 make up over 70% of all starting 11s.

Hoeneß looks to have his team use various ways to create chances. He wants his team to be unpredictable and difficult to defend. This can be seen by the fact Stuttgart creates chances both from central through balls as well as crosses from wide areas. He also wants his team to control possession with them currently averaging around 57%. He uses a 3-3-4 with both wingers and the 10 pushing high and then 1 of the fullbacks stepping up with the other sitting.

Through balls are key. Using them both out wide and centrally to assist or create scoring chances. This is done thanks to lots of off ball movement by other players. There are a lot of times a 10, 8, 7 or 11 will pass the ball off to a teammate before making a forward run into space where the ball is then played.

When it comes to crossing the team is very well equipped to attack through these means. They average a crossing accuracy of 37.9% the 4th best in the league and have scored nearly 10 headed goals already.

The team will position themselves in a certain way on crosses. They will always have a player providing a short pass out wide to support the crosser. Then they will load up the box with anywhere from 3-5 players. 2 of these players tend to sit on the edge of the box waiting for a ball played out or a loose ball where they run into the box to shoot. The other 3 are the opposite winger, 9 and 10 or other 9 as these players usually are strong ariel threats and can out jump their opponents.

Stuttgart also gets the ball forward quickly. The team ranks first in progressive passes per90 and 4th in accuracy. The fullbacks most often deliver these into the final third and penalty box as they look to unlock the defense from deeper positions.

When building from the back the team sets up in a 2-3-2-3 shape. The fullbacks sit on the edge of the box with 1 of the 8s dropping in. The other 8 and 10 sit slightly higher and centrally. Finally, the front 3 shift over to 1 side. The opposite sided wingers sit in the middle with the striker and that sided winger right next to each other. (This mainly happens on the left side).

He doesn’t care who he plays and will consistently employ the same style of attack with his team, even in buildup. You will see them get the ball forward and wide to the fullbacks allowing the CMs to move forward before the fullback plays a forward pass the middle. Stuttgart will always look to have 4 players in front of the ball creating 4v4 scenarios against the defense.

Hoeneß encourages these overloads by freedom of movement. You will constantly see players making runs into different positions and even across the pitch to open space for others or help in possession to create overloads and get players forward into attacking areas.

Hoeneß defends in a 4-4-2 midblock. The positions don’t change while playing a 4-4-2 but in a 4-2-3-1 the 10 becomes the other 9. This shape is critical to the pressing structure as Hoeneß wants a mix of man and zone-orientated pressing.

The fullbacks and wingers will man-mark the wide players while the remaining 6 players are zonally based. The 2 CBs focus on long balls into the 9 or making covering runs in behind to deal with balls into the channels. The 2 CMs are quite reactionary but are used to assist in the high pressing. The first of the 2 triggers is a ball out wide to the fullback. This triggers the winger and strikers to step up and look to force the ball back to the other CB where an ST is waiting to press or intercept it. The second is a backward pass where the team will look to Man mark in the middle forcing the ball out wide where the winger is waiting to press and force the ball back inside or backward.

This style of defending creates little space behind and compacts the lines, making Stuttgart very compact and hard to break down. It also means that any high turnovers will usually result in a numbers-up scenario for Stuttgart in the final or middle third.