By Esper · Published · Updated
This map ranks all 18 Bundesliga teams of 2024–25 on the five style axes behind our FM26 tactic cards: pressing intensity, defensive line, tempo, width and build-up. The tables below show the teams at each end of every axis, the chart sets pressing against possession, and the full grid for all 18 teams is at the bottom.
What the five axes measure
- Pressing Intensity — Tackles won, interceptions and fouls, ranked twice and combined: once per game and once relative to the time spent without the ball, with the second ranking counted double.
- Defensive Line — Opponents caught offside per game. Teams that hold a higher line usually catch more.
- Tempo — Shots per game.
- Width — Crosses per game.
- Build-Up — Share of possession. The cards read more of the ball as a shorter build-up.
Every rank is within this league’s 18 teams for this season.
Pressing against possession
Bayern: far ahead on tempo and possession
Bayern won the league with 82 points and led two axes by a distance. They took 18.7 shots a game, against 14.7 for Leverkusen in second, and held 67.9% of the ball, against 59.2% for Leverkusen. Their defensive line was only 14th (opponents caught offside 1.3 times a game).
Their pressing rank is again two numbers in one. Bayern ranked 4th overall, but 17th of 18 on the plain per-game count of tackles won, interceptions and fouls, and 1st once time without the ball is counted. It is the same pattern as Barcelona in the La Liga report: a team that holds the ball for two thirds of the match has few chances to win it back, so a raw count undersells how hard it goes after the ball when it does not have it.
Bochum pressed second-hardest and finished bottom
Mainz 05 ranked 1st for pressing, 1st on the per-game count and 3rd on the adjusted one, and finished 6th with 52 points. Bochum were 2nd (2nd per game, 5th adjusted) and finished 18th with 25 points, level with Holstein Kiel. Stuttgart were 3rd, 13th per game but 2nd once time without the ball is counted, and finished 9th with 50 points.
The teams that pressed least did not all struggle. St. Pauli were last for pressing and finished 14th with 32 points, but SC Freiburg, 17th for pressing, finished 5th with 55 points. Augsburg and Wolfsburg, level in 15th, finished 12th and 11th. In 2024–25 the Bundesliga table did not follow pressing.
High lines finished 3rd and 4th, deep lines finished 13th to 16th
Eintracht Frankfurt had the highest line, with opponents caught offside 2.9 times a game, and finished 3rd with 60 points. Borussia Dortmund were 2nd for line (2.7) and finished 4th with 57. Stuttgart (3rd, 2.4) finished 9th.
At the other end, Heidenheim had the lowest line (0.9), Hoffenheim were 17th (1.2) and Union Berlin 16th (1.2). They finished 16th, 15th and 13th. Frankfurt also ranked 3rd for tempo (14.1 shots a game) but 17th for width (15.9 crosses a game), so they attacked through the middle.
Width: Leverkusen first, Hoffenheim second, very different seasons
Bayer Leverkusen crossed the most (21.6 a game), ahead of Hoffenheim (21.5) and Dortmund (20.5). Leverkusen were also 2nd for tempo and possession and finished 2nd with 69 points. Hoffenheim, with almost the same crossing numbers, finished 15th with 32. Holstein Kiel crossed the least (14.2) and had the lowest tempo (10.8 shots a game).
Union Berlin had the least ball
Union Berlin had the lowest possession (40.0%), more than 27 points below Bayern, and finished 13th with 40 points. On the per-game pressing count they were 4th, but only 17th once time without the ball is counted.
Top and bottom three on each axis
Pressing Intensity
Tackles won, interceptions and fouls, ranked twice and combined: once per game and once relative to the time spent without the ball, with the second ranking counted double.
| Rank | Team | Per game · out of possession |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Mainz 05 | 1st · 3rd |
| 2nd | Bochum | 2nd · 5th |
| 3rd | Stuttgart | 13th · 2nd |
| Rank | Team | Per game · out of possession |
|---|---|---|
| 18th | St. Pauli | 14th · 18th |
| 17th | SC Freiburg | 16th · 17th |
| =15th | Augsburg | 9th · 15th |
| =15th | Wolfsburg | 11th · 14th |
Defensive Line
Opponents caught offside per game. Teams that hold a higher line usually catch more.
| Rank | Team | Opp. offsides / game |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Eintracht Frankfurt | 2.9 |
| 2nd | Borussia Dortmund | 2.7 |
| 3rd | Stuttgart | 2.4 |
| Rank | Team | Opp. offsides / game |
|---|---|---|
| 18th | Heidenheim | 0.9 |
| 17th | Hoffenheim | 1.2 |
| 16th | Union Berlin | 1.2 |
Tempo
Shots per game.
| Rank | Team | Shots / game |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Bayern Munich | 18.7 |
| 2nd | Bayer Leverkusen | 14.7 |
| 3rd | Eintracht Frankfurt | 14.1 |
| Rank | Team | Shots / game |
|---|---|---|
| 18th | Holstein Kiel | 10.8 |
| 17th | St. Pauli | 11.1 |
| 16th | Augsburg | 11.7 |
Width
Crosses per game.
| Rank | Team | Crosses / game |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Bayer Leverkusen | 21.6 |
| 2nd | Hoffenheim | 21.5 |
| 3rd | Borussia Dortmund | 20.5 |
| Rank | Team | Crosses / game |
|---|---|---|
| 18th | Holstein Kiel | 14.2 |
| 17th | Eintracht Frankfurt | 15.9 |
| 16th | RB Leipzig | 16.6 |
Build-Up
Share of possession. The cards read more of the ball as a shorter build-up.
| Rank | Team | Possession |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Bayern Munich | 67.9% |
| 2nd | Bayer Leverkusen | 59.2% |
| 3rd | Borussia Dortmund | 58.9% |
| Rank | Team | Possession |
|---|---|---|
| 18th | Union Berlin | 40.0% |
| 17th | Heidenheim | 43.5% |
| 16th | Holstein Kiel | 43.6% |
All 18 teams
| Finish | Team | Pressing Intensity | Defensive Line | Tempo | Width | Build-Up | FM26 card |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st82 pts | Bayern Munich | 4th | 14th | 1st | 9th | 1st | Vincent KompanyHand-researched card |
| 2nd69 pts | Bayer Leverkusen | 12th | =8th | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | Xabi Alonso |
| 3rd60 pts | Eintracht Frankfurt | 8th | 1st | 3rd | 17th | 8th | Dino Toppmöller |
| 4th57 pts | Borussia Dortmund † | 6th | 2nd | 4th | 3rd | 3rd | Nuri Şahin18 of 34 games |
| 5th55 pts | SC Freiburg | 17th | 15th | =13th | 12th | =10th | Julian Schuster |
| 6th52 pts | Mainz 05 | 1st | 13th | 10th | 6th | 6th | Bo Henriksen |
| 7th51 pts | RB Leipzig † | 5th | =6th | =13th | 16th | 5th | Marco Rose27 of 34 games |
| 8th51 pts | Werder Bremen | 9th | 5th | 9th | 5th | 7th | Ole Werner |
| 9th50 pts | Stuttgart | 3rd | 3rd | 5th | 7th | 4th | Sebastian Hoeneß |
| 10th45 pts | Mönchengladbach | 13th | =11th | 12th | 8th | 9th | Gerardo Seoane |
| 11th43 pts | Wolfsburg † | =15th | =6th | 8th | 15th | 12th | Ralph Hasenhüttl32 of 34 games |
| 12th43 pts | Augsburg | =15th | =11th | 16th | 14th | 14th | Jess Thorup |
| 13th40 pts | Union Berlin † | 14th | 16th | 11th | 10th | 18th | Steffen Baumgart19 of 34 games |
| 14th32 pts | St. Pauli | 18th | 4th | 17th | 11th | 15th | Alexander BlessinHand-researched card |
| 15th32 pts | Hoffenheim † | 7th | 17th | 6th | 2nd | =10th | Christian Ilzer24 of 34 games |
| 16th29 pts | Heidenheim | 10th | 18th | 15th | 13th | 17th | Frank Schmidt |
| 17th25 pts | Holstein Kiel | 11th | 10th | 18th | 18th | 16th | Marcel Rapp |
| 18th25 pts | Bochum † | 2nd | =8th | 7th | 4th | 13th | Dieter Hecking25 of 34 games |
† Changed manager during the season. The figures are the team’s whole season, so they mix more than one manager’s games; the card is filed under one of them, with the number of games that manager took. Teams without a card (—) are kept as a team record only, usually because no manager was in charge for most of the season.
Notes and sources
- Teams level on a stat share a place, shown as =15th. Augsburg and Wolfsburg share 15th for pressing, which is why the bottom pressing table shows four teams.
- Figures are rounded to one decimal place, while ranks use the unrounded figures. Hoffenheim and Union Berlin both show 1.2 opposition offsides a game but rank 17th and 16th.
- † marks a team that changed manager during the season: Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Wolfsburg, Union Berlin, Hoffenheim and Bochum. Their figures cover the whole season, so they mix more than one manager's games.
- Bayern Munich and St. Pauli link to a hand-researched card instead. Its five axes show the same ranks as this report, but the rest of the card was researched and written separately and describes the manager’s approach in its own words, so it may not line up with every number here.
Source: FBref (Sports Reference) team season statistics for the Bundesliga 2024–25, 18 teams. Ranks calculated on 14 October 2026.
- How the five axes are calculated (methodology)
- Browse all FM26 tactic cards
- More league style reports
- Bayern Munich 2024–25 FM26 card — Vincent Kompany (hand-researched)
- St. Pauli 2024–25 FM26 card — Alexander Blessin (hand-researched)
- Bayer Leverkusen 2024–25 FM26 card — Xabi Alonso
- Eintracht Frankfurt 2024–25 FM26 card — Dino Toppmöller
- Bochum 2024–25 FM26 card — Dieter Hecking
- Mainz 05 2024–25 FM26 card — Bo Henriksen
- La Liga 2024–25 Style Map: Barcelona Led Three Axes, and None of the Top Three Pressed the Most
- Premier League 2024–25 Style Map: Who Pressed Hardest and Who Held the Highest Line
- Earlier season: 2023–24 report
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