Ranking the 18 Bundesliga Teams on Their Defensive Strength
The Bundesliga may be renowned for its fast-paced, attacking football but there is plenty to admire within the German top division form the point of view of a fan who prefers defensive football.
Although some of the league's most popular sides, such as Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, are renowned for their aggressive, free-flowing football, their are plenty of teams within this league who favour a more robust approach to the beautiful game.
Fortunately, for your pleasure, we have today compared and ranked each of the Bundesliga's 18 clubs and put them in order of their defensive ability and strength this season.
Note: For this list we have opted to take alternative factors into account such as the manner in which each team has played this season and the resources available to each club and manager. Although a simple look at the goals against column of any Bundesliga table would offer a short, plausible way of grading these sides we, quite frankly, found that rather boring.
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18. Werder Bremen
With high-flying attacking players like Zlatko Junuzovic, Franco Di Santo and young starlet Davie Selke, Werder Bremen are certainly a side who have spent this season hoping to simply score one more than their opposition.
At times Bremen have held it together, but with 13 goals conceded in their last four games prior to the winter break, they will surely need to toughen things up at the back if they have any hope of staying up.
17. Hertha Berlin
Although Hertha Berlin are sitting rather comfortably in 13th position at the moment, the capital side have struggled at points, having only picked up one away win all season.
This has in turn often found Jos Luhukay’s side in utter shambles whenever on the road, with 20 goals conceded in just eight away games.
Probably too good to go down, not great enough to really offer much in the top half; Eintracht Frankfurt are having a rather carefree season so far this year. This couldn’t be more apparent from their goal difference at the halfway stage of the season—zero.
Yet it doesn’t make for great reading for the defensive coach, having conceded enough goals to equal a rather impressive 34 goals scored in just 17 games. The Eagles may be scoring plenty in the league, but they’re conceded just as many.
15. Stuttgart
With a goal difference of -12, Stuttgart have only Bremen below them in terms of the turnover of goals conceded compared to the amount they’ve actually managed to score this season.
Yet what will worry fans is the fact that with 20 goals in 17 games, it’s abundantly clear that Huub Stevens’ side are simply shipping far too many goals. Not the worst in the league, but not a great situation for a club that rest above relegation with no more than goal difference separating them and the drop.
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14. Borussia Dortmund
Let’s be honest, we could have quite easily stuck Borussia Dortmund at number 18 in this list and very few people would have had a problem with it.
From Mats Hummels’ shaky performances from one week to the next to Roman Weidenfeller’s utter loss of confidence, Jurgen Klopp’s defensive unit has simply fallen apart and allowed his side to tumble down the league table.
13. Hannover
Hannover may be sitting cosy in 8th place in the Bundesliga at the moment, but their goal difference is by far one of the worst in the top half of the German top division.
Tayfun Korkut has played around with both a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-2-2 formation this season and stuck with the latter to diminishing success, as players such as Miiko Albornoz and Christian Schulz struggle to hold a rigid back-line.
12. Paderborn
Paderborn actually have one of the poorest defensive records in the league this season, with 26 goals conceded in 17 games, yet they have done remarkably well considering their circumstances.
Despite being the minnows of the Bundesliga this season, the club have managed to hold on to a mid-table spot by keeping really tight and stealing draws. The odd 4-0 or 3-0 defeat may pop up every so often, but by and large, Andre Breitenreiter’s side have looked solid at the back.
11. Hoffenheim
It may sound like something of a cliche at times in German football, but when it comes to Hoffenheim, they genuinely do tend to throw caution to the wind.
The team that everyone in Germany enjoys to hate have some great attacking players in Roberto Firmino and Kevin Volland, but aside from Niklas Sule and Sebastian Rudy, there’s not too much protecting Oliver Baumann’s goalmouth from one week to the next.
10. Freiburg
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It’s very hard to be optimistic about Freiburg at the moment. Just two wins in 17, an average of one goal per game and sitting last in 18th place; the Black Forest side are in serious trouble.
Fortunately, there is some hope in the form of their defence. Despite losing the cornerstone of last season’s back-line when Matthias Ginter moved to Dortmund in the summer, Christian Streich has brought in Marc-Oliver Kempf and quickly turned around what could have been a disaster.
The club still look in peril, but with only 25 goals conceded so far this season, they have a defence that should be pushing for mid-table, if only the offence would pick up the slack.
9. Mainz
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Mainz are perhaps a little more deserving of a spot higher up the league table than 12th place, considering they’ve managed to pick up a draw against nine of their 17 opponents in the league so far this season.
The defensive line hasn’t been great, nor poor, but would have looked much worse if not for some great performances from defensive midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger and Stefan Bell through the spine of the team.
8. FC Cologne
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Cologne aren’t in the actual Bundesliga top 10 at the moment, nor do they have a defensive record that would specifically put them there, but the recently promoted club do deserve credit for the manner in which they went the first four games of the season without conceding a goal.
Peter Stoger’s side may have hit a bumpy run of form since then, but if they can hit the ground running when the league returns later this month, we expect to see more defensive fortitude at the RheinEnergieStadion.
7. Schalke
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Schalke’s defence has been largely built around the newfound confidence of Benedikt Howedes at the centre of Roberto Di Matteo’s defence alongside ball-playing midfielder-turned-defender Roman Neustadter.
Add to that the usual antics of Atsuto Uchida on the right flank and the continued, emerging talent of Ralf Fahrmann and you have a solid defensive line that has helped its squad quietly push its way up to fifth in the league table.
6. Augsburg
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Many have wondered how Markus Weinzierl has managed to turn Augsburg into a side pushing for the European places this season, but in truth, the highly rated manager has merely kept things simple.
Augsburg don’t score a lot of goals, but they concede even fewer with a defensive partnership of Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker and Ragnar Klavan as well as the phenomenal talent that is Baba Rahman on the left flank.
5. Bayer Leverkusen
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Bayer Leverkusen have the fifth-best defensive record in the Bundesliga this season, and as such, they deserve this spot on our list today. However, Roger Schmidt’s side do deserve a little more credit for the manner in which they have defended this season.
Using a high-intensity closing-down system that would seem more familiar to Dortmund or Bayern Munich, Schmidt has turned the Factory Squad into a team that no longer have to sit deep and hope to score more than the other team.
Bayer may still have the same, average defenders in Emir Spahic and Omer Toprak but they’re now accompanied by Wendell and Tin Jedvaj on either flank, who’ve both shown how much small changes can change how a team defend.
4. Hamburg
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To a certain extent, one could make a reasonable case for putting Hamburg at No. 1 in this list today. For even though they may be battling the threat of relegation and dwindling resources, they have still managed to keep the fourth-best defensive record in the league.
Although the club are far from salvation under new coach Josef Zinnbauer, having only scored nine goals in 17 league games this season, the former assistant manager has managed to forge a solid formation in Johan Djourou and Heiko Westermann at the centre of his defence. As well as the tenacious pairing of Tolgay Arslan and Valon Behrami in midfield.
Now, if only they could figure out how to score goals…
3. Wolfsburg
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Dieter Hecking has built a strong side, prepped for a comfortable second-place finish, off the foundations of a solid defensive system that simply doesn’t let anyone in.
The renewed sense of purpose that has overcome Naldo this season has been outdone only by the rise of Robin Knoche alongside him at the centre of the defence. Add to that the expertise of Ricardo Rodriguez and Sebastian Jung and you have a strong, purposeful back-line.
Unfortunately, any praise for Wolfsburg’s defensive form this season would go unfinished without appreciating the efforts of defensive midfielder Junior Malanda, who was killed in a car accident over the winter break.
The club will struggle to replace him but will undoubtedly come together and fight on for the remainder of the season in his name.
2. Borussia Moenchengladbach
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Borussia Moenchengladbach may not have the finances of Schalke, Wolfsburg or Dortmund but they do have a winning formula in coach Lucien Favre and the manner in which he can make a solid team out of nothing.
The Foals have proved to be hard work for any team in this division, with a strong defensive line consisting of Martin Stranzl and Tony Jantschke covered by two of the best defensive midfielders in the league in Christoph Kramer and Granit Xhaka.
This allows Favre’s side to focus on wing plays through the likes of Andre Hahn and Patrick Herrmann while still maintaining a solid base to protect from any counter attacks.
1. Bayern Munich
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Pep Guardiola’s Bayern side has conceded just four goals in the Bundesliga this season. Four goals. How the Spaniard has accomplished this, however, is much of a mystery considering how he tends to swap formations and personnel on a regular basis.
Oddly enough, the Bavarian side still only have one solid central defender—in Jerome Boateng—but manage to work around this by completely dominating sides in the Bundesliga with their uber closing down.
Attack is certainly the best defence when it comes to Guardiola, as regular viewing of his side’s games will consist of the German champions camping their defensive line on the halfway spot and besieging their opponents for the whole 90 minutes.
Throw in the best goalkeeper in world football at the moment and, in fact, it makes perfect sense just how this outstanding side have managed to go so long without conceding goals this season.
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