How Borussia Dortmund Trumped Schalke on the Tactics Board in the Ruhr Derby

Borussia Dortmund's march back up the German football hierarchy reached new heights on Saturday afternoon, when Jurgen Klopp's men welcomed Schalke to the Westfalenstadion for the 146th ever Revierderby.

Robert Di Matteo's Royal Blues may have started the day 10 points and eight positions above Dortmund in the league table, yet the travelling side arrived in the most peculiar defensive formation and ultimately paid the price with a humbling 3-0 defeat.

On the day, in the most fiercely contested rivalry in the Germany calendar, it was Dortmund who got their tactics spot on and ultimately claimed the match as their own. Or, rather, it was Di Matteo who got his completely wrong. 

Although the former Chelsea player and one-time manager has always played with a more defensive, structured approach since arriving in Gelsenkircken, his 5-3-2 formation did very little for the Royal Blues on the day and ultimately played right into Dortmund's hands. 

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

The most notable feature of the formation was the use of of Dennis Aogo and Marco Hoger as a midfield pairing expected to not only protect the Schalke defence, but to also almost single-handedly hold off the Dortmund trio of Ilkay Gundogan, Nuri Sahin and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. 

This rarely worked, with Dortmund quite happily dribbling through the middle of the park unopposed and passing through Aogo and Hoger on countless occasions, leading to the Schalke defence being exposed and Dortmund finding space behind their deep line time and time again. 

Yet the pairing also struggled to hold on to the ball, too. 

When we take a look at the manner in which Schalke tried to pass the ball through midfield, illustrated by the Squawka graphic below, we can see the visiting side really struggled to get the ball through the middle of the park toward Kevin-Prince Boateng in the No. 10 position or, indeed, to either of the two strikers. 

Squawka

A 5-3-2 formation only really works if you allow the wing-backs to attack constantly, yet under Di Matteo's instructions, Christian Fuchs on the left and Atsuto Uchida on the right did very little attacking over the course of the 90 minutes. 

This left Schalke with the situation we see depicted in the graphic, with the side managing to pass the ball towards either wing but then struggling to move forward with it at all.

In turn, it left the forward three of Boateng, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Eric Choupo-Moting isolated from the rest of the team, but more importantly, it offered no out ball for the Gelsenkirchen side. This allowed Dortmund to quickly regain possession in midfield and again restart in attack.

It was the attacking three who also characterised the Schalke spirit on the day, with a lack of intensity and incentive throughout the match.

Choupo-Moting has been in good form throughout the year, and Huntelaar has scored goals like the Dutch striker of old, but neither he nor Boateng have ever been players who seem happy or even capable of harassing and closing down defences as Di Matteo expected on Saturday.

Where all three should have split central defenders, stood on Sahin's toes and broke with pace whenever the opportunity arose, they instead drifted around Dortmund's half offering very little. An off paradox considering the young, athletic talents of Max Meyer and Sidney Sam sat just a few feet away on the bench.  

The manner in which Di Matteo set up his side could have perhaps been commendable had they been hoping to hold on to a lead in Spain, Italy or England within the latter stages of the Champions League, but to see Schalke quiver and be notably intimidated by a Dortmund side that have only just found their feet simply wasn't good enough. 

The new manager may have the best intentions and the backing of the Schalke board, but he'll have plenty of questions to answer from a fanbase that has enjoyed famous wins over Dortmund in recent seasons regardless of form or success.

The club from the old mining town have always raised their game when making the short trip to Dortmund until now. That now seems lost, with Di Matteo's new reign and such baffling, defensive tactics that wen't so wrong for his side on the day. 

@Sbienkowski