Austria's strategy under Ralf Rangnick

 

Austria was one of the national team participating at EURO 2024 which was within the list of potential surprises of the competition. It is difficult to consider a surprise something you expect to be a surprise, however the fact that Austrian team was able to win the Group D on top of France and Netherlands is definitely a huge achievement for this team.

This result has been obtained through a strategy which is recognizable and that gave identity to a team which now mirrors the whole Austrian football movement. The father of this movement is Ralf Rangnick, the creator of this identity at Red Bull group and now transferring this into the national team.

Let's give a look how this strategy worked in the match against Netherlands, the match won by Austrian team 3-2 that gave them the first place in Group D.

THE 4-2-2-2 SHAPE IN POSSESSION

One of the specificity of Ralf Rangnick approach is the creation of a 4-2-2-2 shape when the team has the ball. The purpose is to have two wingers occupying the half spaces while the centre-forward and the number ten push the defensive line. This creates numerical superiority in the centre of the definition zone which forces the opponents to choose if closing the center leaving space on the wings or taking more risks by breaking the defensive line to close the receiver.

In the match against Netherlands it happened several times to see this structure in possession. In this example the two wingers Schmid and Wimmer are into the half-spaces; Sabitzer is joining Arnautovic in the central zone to push back the two central defenders. In this way the structure is very narrow, Netherlands focuses on closing the central zone, however this creates spaces outside of their structure, which means that Wober just by carrying the ball attracts Malen pressure, this creates numerical superiority on the flank, where Geertruida needs to face Wimmer and the fullback Prass. This situation will end with a low cross from Prass which found the Netherland's defensive line exposed in the penalty area, but Sabitzer was not able to find the net. However, this pattern few minutes later led to Malen own-goal.

In the build-up of Malen own-goal the Netherlands' defensive shape was easily manipulated by occupying the central spaces in the definition zones while Reijnders and Veerman were attracted by the midfield pairing composed by Grillitsch and Seiwald. This generates numerical superiority which creates positional superiority through the counter-movements of Wimmer attacking the depth and Arnautovic dropping to receive the ball in the space left in the definition zone and then moved on the left where Prass is totally free.

THE STRATEGY WITHOUT THE BALL

It is easy to link Rangnick to gegenpressing and high pressure, even if you ask to ChatGPT which is his style of play the main keywords are pressure and high intensity, and this is also the attitude he transferred to his team. 

The aggressive behaviour is not systematic but needs to be activated through specific mechanism, therefore it is important to note that this is not a man to man defensive approach. It is related to collective movements of the units. In this example there is the starting point of the strategy: Netherlands in playing the ball centrally, therefore the two forwards, the midfielder and the defensive line are compact and closing the central spaces. The aim is to force the opponent to play wide in order to move the units towards the ball and close the opponent with the help of the touchline. The two attackers are closing the access to the holding midfielder (Schouten), the midfield unit is closing access to the number eights (Veerman and Reijnders), thus forcing Netherlands to go wide. So, Austria is aggressive when is able to create the pressing triggers: when the ball is played wide and/or when the ball is played horizontally.

Source: Wyscout

Looking at the analysis of the defensive duels It is possible to appreciate also on a graphical standpoint the approach explained before. 

The defensive duels in the opponent's half are focused on the flanks, which is the consequence to invite the Netherlands' build-up to the wide zones.

Based on stats elaborated by Wyscout, Austria is the team having the higher amount of defensive duels (75,92 every 90 minutes). 

Aggressivity index like PPDA and Duel Intensity tell the same story, Austria has the second lower PPDA index (8,08 just behind Germany) and the second higher duel intensity (6,6 still behind Germany who has 6,7).

Those defensive strategy and numbers provide us enough information to demonstrate how much Rangnick transferred this mentality and behaviour in the team. That's why we can say that Austria has a clear identity. 

Having a clear identity does not mean getting success; in order to be successful the strategy and the identity must work on the field. Coming back to stats, Austria paired this aggressive approach without the ball with a 61,3% of defensive duels won. This also explain why Austria is getting also good results.

THE GEGENPRESSING

Also people who are not expert in tactics and analysis have fully confidence in using the term gegenpressing. Most of the team who wants to propose a proactive football need to include into their tactical package the strategy to gain the ball immediately after is lost. The scope is to keep the control of the ball and the territorial dominance by staying into the opponent's half or, much more better, in the opponent's third.

If we want to assign a patent for gegenpressing, Ralf Rangnick would be the owner. It became famous and available to everyone due to Jurgen Klopp which implemented it at Dortmund. However, all the managers and coaches who use the gegenpressing are generally part of the Austrian manager coaching tree.

The gegenpress in the Rangnick version is forced, especially against teams which are on a higher or same level. Austria cannot rely on qualitative superiority compared to the opponents, therefore the best way to create danger is the use of transitional situations to find the opponent shape disjointed. That's why Austria relies also on long ball and then moving the units towards the second ball, meaning second ball the situation in which the ball is contested after the first areal duel created by the long ball. In this example the goalkeeper send a long ball to Arnautovic who is contested by an Oranje defender: soon the units creating the 4-2-2-2 shape collapse towards the ball which is still contested, in addition the left full-back Prass helps in overloading the zone of the ball and starts a new attack for Austria.

We had the chance to see the same pattern in the match against France. Again after a long ball cleared by Saliba, five Austrian players are ready to contest the second ball. In this example Austria has five players in the ball zone against four France players in a very dangerous zone. This is a situation which can potentially create a lot of important situation to put the opponent's defence in big trouble. That's way this is a pattern of play that is often used by Austria and is part of the playbook of Ralf Rangnick. Even if the opponent's defence is able to clear the danger, this is part of a strategy to keep the control of the ball and also to gain the territorial control, which means maintaining the game into the opponent's half. This means that gegenpressing can be both a defensive or attacking strategy.

Data Source: FbRef

Looking at the statistics, this particular strategy put in place by Rangnick can be read in numbers in this way: Austria is the only team at Euro 2024 which is above average for ball possession percentage but at the same time is below average for the percentage of completed passes. This is an information which perfectly mirrors with the above mentioned strategy: spell of possession are quick and looking quickly for verticality by using long ball and risky passes, the counter-pressing and the attack on the second balls guarantees the control of the ball. So the possession is quick but is often recycled.   

WHERE IS THE WEAKNESS?

Every strategy has its pros and its cons. Rangnick strategy is known for denying space to the opponent and investing on intensity. This means that it can happen that some player have moments in which are less intense and this may expose the team. That's why in the Rangnick methodology is important that sessions are designed to replicate match intensity and conditions, with a focus on pressing, transitions, and rapid decision-making. 

However it can happen that the quality of the opponent's team is able to escape from Austria's pressing traps. Netherland and France provided some quintessential examples:

Netherlands tried to challenge the Austrian pressure by not accepting to go wide and activate the pressing trigger, therefore the goalkeeper and the two central defenders used the option to play long and finding Depay dropping deeper. The movement and the link-up play of the Atletico Madrid forward is used to play quickly the ball to the upcoming midfielder, in this example Reijnders, this creates a situation in which the ball is open and the defensive line is disconnected creating a huge space behind which could be exploited by a run, in this case by a third man run of Malen. There was many situations during the match in which Netherlands accepted to force vertical passess in the central zone to find spaces behind the defensive line. 

France, instead, accepted to go wide and used wide connections to escape from the trap created by Rangnick. In this example France goes to Theo Hernandez on the left and Austria moves the midfield unit in that zone focused on denying the closest option to French fullback, this choice creates space behind the midfield line therefore Theo Hernandez gives the ball to Mbappè who drops deep to close a one-two with the full-back who has acres of space to run towards the Austrian penalty area. Austria accepts this risk also because those triangles and connection are very difficult to complete, but if the opponent (like France) is skilled enough to have those quick combination, the strategy may be exposed to some failure.

WHICH SCENARIO FOR AUSTRIA

By winning the group, Austria will play the last 16 against the second placed of group F (most likely option Turkey), but most important thing is placed in the part of the bracket which is more favourable in theory. So, important scenario may open for the Austrian team in this competition, provided that Rangnick's team will be able to maintain the same flow and intensity seen in the group phase.

Aside of the considerations in the EURO 2024 competition, Austria is in any case pinning itself in the list of the countries having the best outlook in the future of European football. Their strategical identity is permeating the whole football movement in the country and is creating a lot of interesting players which, under the methodologies inherited from Rangnick, are developing the physical, technical and cognitive attributes to thrive in this high-energy system.