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Trainer Christian Streich hugs Baptiste Santamaria
Photo:
Pressefoto Rudel / Herbert Rudel / imago images / Sportfoto Rudel
Every Bundesliga team has its own story.
People say about SC Freiburg, for example, that the clocks tick differently there.
At the foot of the Black Forest, so the story goes, things are harmonious.
Why else, for example, did Schalke 04 have more coaches last year than Freiburg did in the past thirty years?
Last autumn, however, the sports club seemed to be uncomfortable.
After a 3-1 defeat against Mainz, Freiburg slipped into the relegation battle, although the club had started the new season with ambitions.
With Baptiste Santamaria, the Freiburg team signed a central midfielder for the record sum of ten million euros.
According to the plan, the team should develop further in terms of football around Santamaria.
Suddenly you were only fourteenth.
And there was a debate, clear words should have been spoken.
“The video analysis was hit on the table,” as central defender Keven Schlotterbeck told SPIEGEL.
During the debate, everything was considered, says his defense colleague Philipp Lienhart.
The best record in Europe
This debate was the starting point for a run.
Freiburg has been unbeaten since the Mainz game.
Most recently they have won five times in a row, which is a club record.
No team in Europe currently has a better record.
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Freiburg defenders Philipp Lienhart (from left) and Keven Schlotterbeck
Photo: Jan Huebner / Meiser / imago images / Jan Huebner
To understand that, you have to look at the changes at the start of the season.
With the strong Santamaria, the team of coach Christian Streich relied on longer ball relay and more flat passes.
On the first eight game days, Freiburg gained an average of 49 percent possession.
That was surprising in view of the game plan: Actually, they were individually clearly inferior to opponents like Leipzig, Leverkusen or Dortmund.
The new, more possession-oriented style of play in Freiburg was unsuccessful.
The Freiburg team focused too much on the passing game.
Defensively, they were not as stable with their back four as in the previous season, when they had often defended in a back five.
In that 1: 3 against Mainz they had almost 70 percent possession and played over 400 passes more than their opponents.
In the end, however, they were countered coldly.
"We didn't play badly, but couldn't get any points," says Lienhart today.
Play like Freiburg again
The players then did what they missed before: They showed emotions.
»The message was clear: If we don't change something quickly, things can go in the wrong direction.
We have decided to significantly increase the training intensity and the pressure, ”says Schlotterbeck.
Lienhart adds: "We wanted to play like Freiburg again - handy, aggressive, uncomfortable for the opponent and with great willingness to run."
“How to play Freiburg” - what the team means by this, Schlotterbeck explains: “We want to annoy the opponent so much, to make him so upset that in the end you can score one more goal.
Nerves is the perfect word to describe our game.
That way you can get opponents who are individually better away from their game and win the decisive duel in front of the goal. "
From a tactical point of view, a return to the five-man chain was the most obvious change.
Since the Mainz defeat, SC Freiburg has always played in the same system, a mixture of 5-4-1 and 3-4-3.
The system impresses with its versatility: Freiburg can disturb the opponent in their penalty area with three strikers in 3-4-3, but a short time later they can also retreat to their own penalty area with an ultra-compact 5-4-1.
Lienhart thinks: "The triple chain has the advantage that we cover the breadth well: At the back you are a man more and at the front you have good solutions on the outside."
Focus away from building your own game
Since the system changeover, the focus is no longer so much on building your own game.
Since the Mainz defeat, Freiburg's average possession has dropped to 45 percent, with an average of fifty fewer passes per game.
This is all the more surprising when you look at the Freiburg game plan: in the past seven Bundesliga games, they have faced opponents from the lower half of the table six times.
Even against individually weaker teams, Freiburg counts on the counterattack: They approach the opponent early and want to force the ball to win.
After conquering the ball, they look for the fastest route to the opposing goal.
Freiburg plays more vertically, faster, more aggressively - and annoys the opponents.
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The new game system allows Ermedin Demirovic to cheer more often
Photo: Uwe Anspach / dpa
Almost every Freiburg resident feels more comfortable in a running-intensive style of play that relies on conquering the ball and switching play.
It starts with the defense chain, continues with the wing defenders and extends to the strikers who have to travel long distances in the game against the ball.
Summer commitment Ermedin Demirovic, for example, only hits since his speed in the sprint behind the defense is better used.
In the last three games he has been involved in six goals.
"Keep self-confidence high"
At the sports club, they know that their current high is also due to the schedule.
Schlotterbeck: “Of course, the teams from the lower third were last, of course that has to do with luck and bad luck, but you have to win these games first.
We want to keep the self-confidence high, that helps us with our intense game. "
Before their game against Bayern Munich on Sunday (6 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de; TV: Sky), Freiburg is bursting with self-confidence.
Schlotterbeck says: “I don't know if it's the best time to play against Bayern.
But Bavaria is in a difficult phase.
Maybe this time there is the opportunity to get something. ”They want to make it difficult for the record champions.
You want to annoy him.
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