An excellent example of how belief in your own qualities, discipline and hard work can combine to result in such a fabulous display of football. On paper almost every single Werder Bremen player is better than his Mainz counterpart, but Mainz' freakishly high-tempo approach caused Bremen more problems than they could handle.
Bremen started the game in their new-style 4-2-3-1. They were still missing their preferred centre-back partnership (Mertesacker-Naldo), so Pasanen (excellent against Bayern München) and Prödl started again. Mainz lined up in a more tactically interesting formation, something between a 4-3-3 and a 4-4-2 with a midfield diamond. Lewis Holtby was the fulcrum of the midfield, and he drifted intellegently into little pockets of space time and time again.
Hot prospect André Schürrle started on the bench, with Szalai and Risse not acting as out-and-out forwards, but more as inside-forwards, usually taking up a position between opposition full-back and centre-back. This is very important in Thomas Tuchel's system, since his type of high-octane pressing requires the two forwards to attack the full-back on their side whenever he goes forward with the ball. Bremen's usual fluid attacking football didn't come off, precisely because nobody in a green shirt had any time on the ball. Mainz never had any less than three men around the Bremen player in possession, which meant that they were closed off and had to resort to the long ball all too often:
From left to right: Karhan, Risse and Holtby hounding Tim Borowski
Holtby, Bungert and Caligiuri denying Aaron Hunt any space to move or play the ball
Even after Risse's well-taken goal, when you might have expected Mainz to calm down, sit deep, soak up the pressure and hang on for a narrow win, they kept on playing their football, giving Bremen no chance to get their combination play going. Here no less than four players are in the vicinity of Marko Marin. In this way, they suffocated Bremen all day long.
And even after Schürrle's goal, they kept on pressing. FIVE players (the front five) are all running and harrying. When something works, why change it when it so obviously works?
Tuchel has definitely watched Barcelona, but to copy the pressing aspect of their game and then build on it to stifle all before them so effectively is to be commended. Note that Mainz are not throwing everybody forward heedlessly or without plan, but that there is accurate method to their pressing game, and that, when they get the ball, they always look to play football instead of hoofing it forward and running after it very fast.
A word of caution, though. This extreme pressing requires that everyone in the team changes their position relevant to the rest of the eleven. If Karhan, on the left side of midfield, moves to close down Fritz on Mainz' left, Polanski and Caligiuri shuttle over to get as many players as possible as close to the ball as possible. This leaves a lot of space on the other side, which can be exploited by sides who move the ball around quickly or spread the play effectively:
Notice the space (in purple) on Mainz' right (the black line connects the Mainz midfield). Mainz are very narrow, which leaves acres of space for Silvestre to exploit. Fortunately for Tuchel's men, not only is Silvestre not able to play as a buccaneering left-back (too slow and weak on the ball); but Bremen were also just as narrow, with Marin, Arnautovic and Hunt looking to come inside. Against Bayern this weekend, with Lahm and Contento storming forward whenever possible, Mainz will have to work even harder. Not that that will faze them.
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