Talking Tactics: How Pep Guardiola utilised the “Double No. 10? role against Mainz

Bayern Munich’s head coach Guardiola talks to his player Mario Gotze

Mario Gotze may not have settled at Bayern Munich as well as many expected him to do this season, but his performance against Mainz 05 this weekend showed just how important he can be to Pep Guardiola’s team. Coming on as a half-time substitute for Rafinha, Gotze single-handedly brought Bayern back from a one-goal deficit to storm home and win 4-1, ensuring that the defending champions kept their unbeaten start to the season in tact.

Having made his name as a No. 10 in the middle of the field for most of his career, Gotze’s main skills are obviously as a playmaker and creative force in attacking midfield. The problem for Guardiola to manage at Bayern Munich was that he already has several players who fill this role in the team (Arjen Robben, Thomas Muller) and has others capable of playing a similar role.

On paper anyway, Bayern didn’t appear to be all that stronger with Gotze in their team than they were last year, but the former Barcelona manager showed that to be certainly not the case. What he showed—in the role that he used Gotze in—was that the youngster has an important role to play at Bayern and that his biggest strength isn’t his playmaking or creative skills.

His most useful asset to this team is his creativity and the options that he provides, and the Germans are going to use that to full extent.

Gotze as Double-Pivot No. 10, Defensive

What we can see in the image below is the lead up to the first Bayern goal. Bastian Schweinsteiger (playing as a central midfielder) has picked up the ball and quickly shifted it up field to Gotze, who has dropped back to play essentially as a second midfielder alongside the German.

Bayern First Goal

His positioning is alongside that of the Mainz midfielders, but importantly, he is ahead of the Mainz defensive back-five. It’s hard to consider him as a sole No. 10 here given how far down the pitch he’s dropped and the fact that he has both Mario Mandzukic, Muller and Robben ahead of him on the field, which is why I’ve kind of coined the term here “double No. 10”.

Like a double-pivot in central midfield (acting with an attacking and defensive arm), Gotze is acting as a double-No. 10 with Muller.

Here he’s the defensive arm, and Muller is the attacking arm of the pair.

The advantage this has is when the play progresses (seen the image below), is that Gotze is able to act as a playmaker and distribute the ball, without immediate pressure from Mainz’s defenders.

Gotze Stats

Having Gotze drop back and collect the ball in the middle of the field allows both Muller and Robben to push up on the defensive line like Mandzukic does and give the youngster the option of playing them in behind—which is exactly what happens. Noveski and Gels are unsure as to who should pick up Gotze which gives him about 10-15 yards to run at the defence and slide through a perfectly-timed pass to Robben. The Dutchman isn’t going to miss those chances too often!

It’s important to note here that Gotze dropping back as a double-attacking-pivot (or double No. 10) makes Mainz think that he’s more of a playmaker than he is a forward. Because, as we’ll see later on in the match, Gotze can transition into the more attacking branch of the No. 10 combination with Muller—yet the results are just as potent for the defending champions.