Noussair Mazraoui, the answer to a three year long question for Bayern.
Continued links and even mentions of being Bayern’s top target, Mazraoui might be the answer to bayern’s long search for replacing former club captian Phillip Lahm. A starter for Ajax since the 18/19 campaign that saw them rampage to a Champions League semi-final placement, Mazraoui possesses the quality to play for a top European side but how might he be used by Bayern manager Julian Nagelsmann? A look back into early in the season, the role Josip Stanišić had is very similar to Mazraoui's at Ajax.
Julian Nageslmann, faced with the task of coaching an already successful side found himself adherent to the same formula and tactics his predecessor at Bayern used, Hansi Flick. Nageslmann in very subtle ways discovered ways to imprint his ideas into the structured 4-2-3-1 Bayern had used to win every major trophy with two years prior and a 9th consecutive league title in 20/21. “You need solutions, you need ideas” said the 34 year old manager In a guest appearance on DAZN's latest program 'DECOD3D'. “Some coaches prefer a flat back four in the buildup to draw the opposing midfield apart, rather I prefer to draw their backline apart”.
Matchday 3 saw Nagelsmann use Bayern academy graduate Josip Stanišić in a specialized way to combat Hertha Berlin. Here is breakdown of Bayern’s opening goal and how Nagelsmann achieves his preferred “solution”.
Stanišić's narrow and inverted positioning pins in the winger, allowing for the opponent to be occupied by a player in his quest to press the Bayern backline.
The LB has a decision to make since now he has two players to deal with, he reads the ball out to Serge Gnabry and decides to close him down.
Thomas Muller, now in space behind the LB forces the wide CB to come across.
This right side overload of action pulls apart the backline creating a 2v1 across the pitch leaving Alphonso Davies open.
Erik Ten Hag of Ajax Amsterdam uses similar solutions to create actions that divide the backline of defending oppositions. Noussair Mazraoui finds himself in a similar role as Josip Stanišić but with a different goal . Ajax do a lot of left sided overloads and look to isolate Antony, Mazroaui's role is to facilitate Antony's importance in the side by isolating him on the opposite flank.
Mazroaui comes into play inverting his position.
Mazroaui decides against going towards the ball and makes a blind side run, not only does he occupy the winger in buildup but is also given license to join the attack.
As the switch comes to Antony, the winger tracks the run of Mazroui.
Mazroui is familiar in playing as an inverted RB, his quality coupled with his early years in football coming as a midfielder he provides not only the understanding of the role Nagelsmann wants but also holds the capacity to be deployed as a traditional overlapping fullback. With his contract set to run out at the end of the season the Ajax RB has attracted a many of Europe’s elite; Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester United and more have shown interest but it seems like the Munich outfit is the early winner. Bayern have been in search of a RB ever since Lahm departed the club and Joshua Kimmich had taken his stance in midfield, their search looks to be coming to an end with the Moroccan international.