Bundesliga Tactics Check Stuttgart

As part of an ongoing series during the 2026/27 Bundesliga campaign, Get German Football News is pleased to take a closer look at VfB Stuttgart, six competitive fixtures into a season in which Sebastian Hoeneß has already begun rearranging his overflowing tactical toy box. Three points from four Bundesliga matches.

Six goals scored and nine conceded. There are certainly more elegant ways to begin a season in which Champions League qualification ostensibly re-established VfB Stuttgart as one of German football's new upper-class residents.

The emergency sirens needn't be tested just yet, unless one happens to be perfectly Swabian about it and do such a thing. Stuttgart opened away at Bayern Munich, have already played Borussia Dortmund, and also got their (exaggerated "mini-derby") against BaWü rivals Hoffenheim out of the way.

The one league fixture Sebastian Hoeneß' side were plainly expected to winproduced a 4-1 dismantling of Köln. A Champions League opening-match victory against the irresistibly named Viking Stavanger came as well.

The performances have generally been better than the current standing in the table suggests. Bayern provided the best example of this.

Hoeneß' team did significantly better than the 1-5 result would have one believe. More important than results in general, Stuttgart's matches have provided their fair share of tactical intrigue.

Our summer preview concluded that Stuttgart's preparation produced "less of a new tactical identity than an expansion of an already broad one. " Hoeneß used back fours, a 4-4-2, multiple forward partnerships, asymmetric wide structures, deeper playmakers and, most intriguingly, Nikolas Nartey as an inverted right-back.

Six competitive matches later, the most significant development is something else entirely. Hoeneß keeps reaching for a third centre-back.

The 4-2-3-1 with which Stuttgart opened competitive play remains available. So does the free-ranging Deniz Undav role underneath a conventional striker.