Established in the Bundesliga for 15 consecutive seasons, FSV Mainz 05 are a mainstay of the top level of German football, traditionally implementing a high pressing ‘gegenpressing’ play style made famous in Mainz by former manager Jurgen Klopp.
A similar style has carried through to the new era of Mainz, where Head of Performance Sven Herzog and Data Analyst Manuel Philippi are tasked with the responsibility of bringing the players up to the physical capacity to execute the high pressing philosophy of the Head Coach.
In terms of physical capabilities, metrics that Herzog and Philippi measure in the players include meters run per minute, high speed running per minute, distance covered and metabolic power, which is a key measurement within their high performance analysis workflow.
“What we like to look at for total volume in the ongoing practice week would be metabolic power,” explained Herzog.
So metabolic power turned out to be a very good indicator for the total volume that's produced, since it takes everything into account, basically every movement, which makes it great to not miss out on any movements.”
After establishing the key performance metrics, the next step is to identify the players within the squad who fit the game model. Mainz places a high emphasis on identifying youth talent for these roles.
“In order to play our game model, especially also for the offensive players, they have to cover a lot of meters and they have to have a lot of physical strength in order to win the duels because we have the second most duals in the Bundesliga,” said Herzog.
That's the way we play. And without these metrics I think the decision making process would have been way harder.
Right now we have a coach who is really eager to work with young players, so when they're ready, they have to be ready.”
WIMU Pro combines wearable hardware and a deep level of scientific software.
Mainz use the WIMU Pro system to measure the physical output of their players, manage training load and ensure athlete health and readiness of the demands of play.
“As soon as we started using WIMU Pro, we recognized that we had problems when players played for the Under 23 or Under 19 teams and then had to join the first team within the next day"
Sven Herzog - Head of Performance, FSV Mainz 05
“As soon as we started using WIMU Pro, we recognized that we had problems when players played for the Under 23 or Under 19 teams and then had to join the first team within the next day,” said Herzog.
We developed a weekly structure which is made based on the data, which made it easier for us to transition players from one team to the other.”
In this webinar, we take an in-depth look at the data workflows of Mainz and the application to their game model and player development primarily through the use of WIMU Pro. Some key points of the webinar will include.
- Game Model and Player Development
- Key Performance Metrics
- Data Storytelling
- Identifying Potential Talents to fit the game model
