The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 101 - 45: The Bundesliga’s Beckham! Wang Shuo: I’m Being Targeted by the Entire Bundesliga
September 20th, 1:30 PM.
Xuge Stadium, Bielefeld, Germany.
Bundesliga Matchday 5, Mainz challenged Bielefeld in an away game.
Before the season started, this would have been considered a civil war between two relegation-zone teams.
But after four rounds, Mainz sat second in the league table, while Bielefeld was second to last.
They were only one point ahead of the last-place team, Cottbus.
In the first four rounds, Cottbus had one draw and three losses, with zero goals scored and seven conceded.
Bielefeld had two draws and two losses, scoring five goals and conceding nine.
The home team drew their first two matches and lost the next two, falling 2-4 at home to Hamburg and 0-2 away to Bochum, marking a two-game losing streak.
Mainz’s start to the season had been nothing short of stunning, but their 1-3 home loss to Bayern in the previous round was still a cause for concern.
More importantly, in their head-to-head record over the past few years, Mainz was at a disadvantage.
Since Klopp took over as coach, Mainz had faced Bielefeld ten times, with a record of three wins, three draws, and four losses.
Of those, five matches were played at Xuge Stadium, where Mainz’s record was one win, one draw, and three losses.
The one win was back in 2001; they hadn’t managed to secure a victory there since.
It was precisely because of this head-to-head record that many professional media outlets in Germany predicted the match would most likely end in a draw.
A 1-1 draw, to be specific.
Before the match, Mainz head coach Klopp gave his players a detailed briefing on Bielefeld’s head coach, Michel Fröntzek.
He was a former Germany international, part of the runner-up squad at the 1992 European Cup, and had played for clubs like Borussia Mönchengladbach, Stuttgart, and Manchester City.
Before coaching Bielefeld, he first spent a few years as an assistant coach and later managed the 2nd Bundesliga team Aachen.
In January of ’08, he took over mid-season at Bielefeld, who were then 14th in the Bundesliga table.
But the guy was interesting.
In his first five matches after taking charge—four in the Bundesliga and one in the DFB-Pokal—he lost every single one.
Afterward, he adjusted the team’s tactics, adopting a 4-3-3 formation.
In the next five league matches, they had four draws and one loss, a significant improvement in their results.
In the end, he narrowly guided Bielefeld to safety, avoiding relegation.
Building on last season’s experience, Fröntzek continued to believe in the 4-3-3 formation this season.
Specifically, a very Barça-esque 4-3-3 with a single holding midfielder.
Why bring up Barça?
This season, the most interesting characteristic of the Barça team under Guardiola’s management was the height of its players. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
They had assembled a group of short but technically brilliant players, such as Iniesta, Harvey, and Messi.
Bielefeld was in a similar situation in the Bundesliga.
Their deep-lying midfielder, Rudiger Kauff, was only 1.72 meters tall.
The other two more advanced midfielders, Robert Tesche and Oliver Kirch, were both around 1.8 meters.
Even their Polish striker, Artur Wójcik, was only 1.83 meters tall.
Across the entire Bundesliga, even high-pressing teams like Mainz still had plenty of tall players in their midfield and attack.
A starting lineup like Bielefeld’s, built around players who were 1.8 meters or even shorter, was extremely rare.
Fröntzek’s tactics were also advanced, as he also employed a high-pressing system.
Although his players weren’t tall, they were all well-rounded in both attack and defense and possessed decent technical skill on the ball.
Klopp told everyone very bluntly that Fröntzek’s system would not work in the Bundesliga.
Why?
"In Germany, besides Bayern, no team can afford to maintain a squad composed of such technical players!"
Technically refined players all have one thing in common: they’re expensive!
High transfer fees, high salaries—everything is expensive.
Trying to copy Barça without enough technical skill is just asking for a death sentence!
Klopp was convinced that Bielefeld’s defense had massive flaws.
Wang Shuo’s mission in this match was to force them to expose those flaws and then exploit them.
Fröntzek was, of course, well aware of his own team’s shortcomings and had made targeted adjustments.
Besides, wasn’t it true that Mainz’s lineup and tactics had problems of their own?
...
Time ticked by, second by second.
As the match entered the second half, especially after the 65-minute mark, the running ability of the Mainz players noticeably declined.
But the score was still 0-0.
Both sides remained extremely cautious.
Mainz had not yet made any substitutions.
Bielefeld made a like-for-like substitution, with Jonas Kemper replacing winger Daniel Hafal.
After the substitution, Bielefeld began to intensify their attack.
In the 70th minute, under pressure from Bielefeld’s attack, Pekovic received the first yellow card of the match.
The momentum was gradually shifting.
The scales of victory, which had previously tilted toward Mainz, were now slowly balancing out.
They even began to show signs of tipping in Bielefeld’s favor.
"The period after the 70th minute has always been a major weakness for Mainz."
"Look here, Bielefeld has won the ball near their own half and is launching a counter-attack."
"Mainz is initiating a counter-press in the opponent’s half."
Positioned at the very front, Wang Shuo had been ready to make a forward run at any moment. But after seeing Foyelner get dispossessed while on the ball and Bielefeld launch a counter-attack, he immediately started tracking back.
Bielefeld’s defensive line was pushing up, so he had to constantly stay in an onside position.
But he still remained active between the two tall center-backs, Nico Herzog and Radim Kuchera.
This was the specific task Klopp had assigned him during the halftime break.
With his back to the goal, Wang Shuo constantly scanned his surroundings and the flanks, occasionally glancing back over his shoulder.
