Debunking Marco Rose’s Mönchengladbach

Just after the rumours that Xabi Alonso would be the next Borussia Mönchengladbach head coach, Sam McGuire of Twenty3 Sport asked my thoughts on the team; what are Gladbach and what do they need?

I answered and you can read what I said with his article here, but to give a short overview, I replied as a fan with the few stats and eye test off the top of my head that for an intensive counter-attacking team, they weren’t actually one. I pointed to the lack of intensive runs, sprints, ball progression and that they weren’t good in possession this season. For a team that seemed so good last season pre-COVID, I started doubting myself.

The points made got some criticism. So debunk Marco Rose’s team.

Is Marco Rose’s Mönchengladbach a high-intensity team?

How do we measure “high intensity”? We have a number of physical markers that can tell a team’s performance when it comes to how intensive they are during the course of the season. These are:

1. Sprints: Player running for more than 2 seconds with the minimum acceleration of 4.0 metre per second (m/s) with the total pace at least 6.3 m/s over the time of the sprint.
2. Distance covered in sprints (KM)
3. High-speed runs: Player running for more than 2 seconds with the minimum acceleration of 4.0 metre per second (m/s) with the total pace at least 5.0 m/s over the time of the high-speed run.