Thread by @armbandmedia, Julian Weigl: A Forgotten JewelPlayer Analysis

Julian Weigl: A Forgotten Jewel

Player Analysis | A THREAD

For many avid football fans of the resurgent BVB Dortmund era under Thomas Tuchel, Julian Weigl was one of the youngsters they banked upon to lift their crest to European glory. That he did, for a paltry two years, before injury took a toll on his confidence.

As a lanky 16-year-old with pristine ball control and deep circulation of the most incredible finesse, the manager quickly drafted him into the main team. The exploits in the 2014 U-20 WC for the NT only helped his cause of becoming one of the youngest captains of the 1860Munich

One of his teammates acknowledged him by saying, “He plays like a 35-year-old”, predicting that his top-flight career was off to an illustrious start as even at that young age, he possessed his brilliant footballing mind and calm demeanor.

Unfortunately, this high didn’t last very long as drunk criticizing the management in a cab back home from a party, led to the suspension, fine and he was relegated to the second team along with the other wrongdoers. Losing his captaincy just ten days after the historic moment.

Despite the continuous struggles, a move to @BVB came calling in and more importantly, first division football, so he couldn’t possibly turn it down. The signing of prodigious manager Thomas Tuchel quickly promoted the holding midfielder as an essential piece of the first team.

During Thomas Tuchel's Time at Dortmund

Tuchel's tenure was very productive for Weigl and as we can see from the heatmap, he played in exactly the position that suited him the most.

[Heatmap Source: @SofaScoreINT ]

Playing as a holding mid requires a specific skill that involves vacating space for attacking players (either by attracting opposition mids towards him or by making sudden accelerations in vacated spaces to receive and then play a vertical/diagonal ball to a teammate).(1/2)

This was enhanced with his 360 degrees spatial scanning before receiving the ball to map team-mates and opponents, thus ascertaining the exact pass he would make once he received the ball. (2/2)

Julian Weigl has played in both single and double pivot systems with the particular intention of allowing the attacking full-backs to play higher up the pitch. Defining his position is very difficult, one may call it touchline to touchline but horizontal instead of vertical.

Build-up positioning

Though it was common during that time for pivots to split the centre-backs to form a three at the back, against two-man forward lines, a central midfielder used to drop and operate as a wide CB to drag the opposition’s wide midfielder towards him. (1/2)

Weigl was excellent in getting out of cover shadows to receive the ball in the middle of the park, especially from the goalkeeper.

Here, Weigl dropped to form a back three. (2/2)

As we can see, Weigl almost always used to occupy the left half-space during build-up due to Tuchel's ideology of building up using half-space and diagonals. (1/3)

As Kirchoff recently said in the interview, Weigl used to receive with his right foot while coming from the left to allow the ball to move away from the charging opponent and open his body to play to the other side (just how here, he saw that Ousmane Dembélé was free). (2/3)

If he had received on the left, his body would have been closed and he would only be able to play a wall pass or a back one. Playing it with the right foot allowed the ball to curve towards the opposition's goal 'with a positive message' and also to be controlled better. (3/3)

From his body orientation to the first touch, his astute technical understanding of the game was apparent.

Just as The Athletic interview explains, receiving from the left side of the pitch on his right foot and playing the pass with his right made sure the ball reached to his teammate (especially overlapping FB) in a spin allowing up to a single touch to get it under control.(1/2)

Passing it with the left foot after receiving with the right, on the other hand, though was faster for the passer, it added a spin towards his own goal to the ball, thus requiring up to two touches from his teammates to get the ball in the correct orientation.(2/2)

Like Sergio Busquets, Julian Weigl was the champion of transitions. This was especially possible due to his scanning ability and reading the opponent's mind.

Here, he moved across the whole pitch to prevent Karim Benzema from winning the ball.

Here also against Freiburg, he did the same.

Similarly, on the attacking transition, he was always the first player sought as he could always look for the best available vertical/horizontal pass to cause the most damage.

Against single striker systems, he would prefer staying in the number 6 region to play line-breaking passes to the forwards.

While his first season was spectacular in many senses, after his Europa League final appearance against former Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp and a Bundesliga record of 215 touches, Tuchel promised to get much better of him in the next season.

Sadly for the German, the departing of Thomas Tuchel brought about lousy luck with multiple severe injuries and lengthy lay-offs that prevented his progress.

(Continued in the comment section)

Under Peter Bosz and Lucien Favre

Under Bosz, after severe injury, he was made to play much higher up the pitch (bottom right heatmap) preventing his from dictating the tempo of the game and controlling the ball. (1/2)

[Heatmap Source: @SofaScoreINT ]

Under Favre, he was made to play much deeper, as a centre-back (bottom left heatmap). While this gave him a better field of view and license to hit first time long balls, he had a rather uncomfortable rigidity in positioning that didn't suit him. (2/2)

The move to Benfica, though may look like a step-down from Bundesliga, provides an excellent opportunity for the 25-year-old to gain some confidence and minutes in a star-studded Portuguese team. Hopefully, it will help him to make it back to the top and earn a place in the Euros

End of the thread

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