RB Leipzig’s issues: The Lost Wings

Analysis and Training

Analysis

After going unbeaten in seven straight games RB Leipzig lost their following three which ended in the firing of their head coach Jessie Marsch. Leipzig, a high pressing, quick attacking team wants to play a mostly transitional game. This high focus on transitions would ultimately be Leipzig’s down fall with a neglect for chance creation in possession. Looking at the Hoffenheim game specifically Leipzig needed better ideas in possession to break down a defense that was sitting back and looking to be compact. Hoffenheim were sitting in a deep mid-block looking to stay organized and compact zonally. Hoffenheim used an active front three when pressing the Leipzig backline with wingbacks jumping out aggressively to press with a back three and two midfielders all moving up together in the press using the moment a forward or wingback pressed as a trigger to man mark nearby players to take away any easy passing options. Early on in the fourth and fifth minute you could see a start to RB Leipzig’s issues in possession with the two forwards both positioned on the ball far side of the field as Leipzig was looking to build up and attack on the opposite side. This in itself is an issue for a multitude of reasons but for this situation in particular: the center mid positioned high drops to receive which attracts a defender with him opening up space but there was no one to exploit the space left open. This made the decision for the defender to follow the dropping midfielder even easier as he didn’t have that threat in behind him to worry about. This can be seen again in the eleventh minute as well. The Leipzig forward fails to make a run looking to exploit the open space meaning Leipzig is unable to play into the depth or utilize the depth to create space between the lines. This forces RB Leipzig to only play laterally or backwards and circulate.

Against Bayer Leverkusen, Rb Leipzig had a much more fitting game that matched their style in how they wanted to play with lots of transitions, quick vertical play through the center, and high-flying pressure on the ball. Leipzig’s use of a diamond midfield with two center forwards facilitated these quick central attacks and high-pressure moments with a majority of the players positioned in central spaces. Leverkusen basically mirrored the formation of Leipzig which created a heavy man marking defensive scheme with high pressure. Due to the heavy man marking, high pressure, and tight spaces there’s a need for players to have a high awareness of where their teammates are, where the opponent is, and where the gaps or space are. Here third man runs and finding the fourth man with runs in behind are of high importance and allow for more attacking possession in more high-pressure situations with tight spaces. Unfortunately for RB Leipzig, Leverkusen did this at a higher level. Too often Leipzig would be unable to control the transitions and Leverkusen would be able to find gaps to play into with forward running players exploiting the space. Often the issue for Leipzig was they would leave too much space between the lines which would happen, for example, as the front players for Leipzig pressed and pushed up without the backline moving up with them to help close the space.

For RB Leipzig’s match against FC Union Berlin there was a switch of formation from Leipzig to playing a 3–4–3 which mostly matched up with FC Union Berlin who played a 3–4–3/3–4–1–2. This matching up in formations again creates this high intensity man marking transitional game with fast counters and many loose balls. As well this match had many restarts and set pieces due to its chaotic nature and high focus on playing in the wide areas. The difference from this formation to the diamond midfield Leipzig deployed from the previous game was the involvement of attacking down the wings compared to the central play from the previous game against Leverkusen. In the attack FC Union were able to exploit Leipzig through isolating their back three on the counter while Leipzig pushed numbers forward. The positioning of FC Union’s attackers and movement up front with multiple players running into depth also created a disconnect in Leipzig’s back three with gaps and spaces opening up for FC Union to run into. Due to this heavy focus on transitions and high pressing RB Leipzig struggled to grab control of the game when needed through possession. This allowed a lot of chaotic and random moments that were too easy to lose control of.

Training

For this training we will play three different games anywhere from 8–12 minutes long against three different defensive set ups (different formation, different opposition marking scheme, etc.) that are similar to what we saw above that caused issues. From here we will look to fix the issues presented by the different opponents as we look to try and break them down and prevent the oppositions counterattack. To do this we are going to focus on coaching certain principles. These include third man combinations, ball relocation, runs in behind, as well as our rest defense and counterpressing. The most important of these is the third man combinations which is the link between all the others and creates the ability to effectively relocate play or make runs in behind to be able to create/exploit space. The boxes give an extra stimulus to overload the mind of the players and get them thinking about their positioning and movement in relation to one another through these spaces. Looking to position for layoffs in adjoining squares, making runs into open squares, looking to position in diagonal squares and reacting to the movement of other players to fill and open squares. They can also be used to look at what squares or spaces we want to position in to close off space for our rest defense and counterpress. The two corner squares blacked out help the defensive team in having to close less space as they are already underloaded and in a sense this adds an extra player to the defending group. This also forces more diagonal and direct play towards goal for the attacking team.

10v8 plus keeper

Here whites playing in a narrow shape looking to overload the middle against a zonal defensive system. Rather than looking to use maximum width and depth which can often be seen against zonal defensive systems. We want to look to overload the middle and only look to stretch the field in situational and advantageous moments. Using either the fullback or the wide forward on the ball side of the field for width while the other comes inside helps create this situational width to try and create gaps while overloading the middle of the field. The overload in the middle should help in creating combination play while also helping to press after a ball loss (counterpress). With the combination play we particularly want to have players positioned to receive layoffs in adjoining boxes. Once we play vertical, we want players receiving facing forward with players running into depth to force the defensive line back and create space for the player receiving the layoff. If unable to play forward the utilization of ball circulation and ball relocation can help to open up gaps to play into. Add to that runs in behind as we look to circulate or relocate play which can threaten the space in behind and open spaces between lines.

Playing against a man marking scheme now, we still want to focus on the principles mentioned above with a heavy central presence while trying to find third man runs and get runs into depth to progress the ball and threaten the space in behind to attack. With the heavy man marking from our opponent the timing of our movement to open up space, fill space, and support vertical passes becomes even more essential to unlock the opposition. We want to now use these movements to get open and/or create space while looking to still find the third man and runners in behind.

Example:

The left 8 moves into the wide channel dragging his mark with him opening up space momentarily for the attacking 10 to look to drop into to receive. Once this happens the movement of the other players around the ball now effect whether they can continue to progress from here or not.

So, after the left 8 moves out wide creating space in the left half space the 10 drops into the newly created space momentarily dismarking before his direct opponent follows. This opens up space for the right 8 to look to move forward into. Now, as the left 8 moved out wide to where the left fullback was positioned and the 10 dropped, in principle the left fullback should look to come inside to support and receive a layoff. As the right 8 fills the 10 space the forwards should look to run into depth as the inverted fullback is receiving facing forward (or you could have the right 8 continue his movement and run into depth with the forward dropping into the 10 space). This is just one example which could have many different variations to it.

Here another man marking scheme but with a 3–4–3 formation there’s a much higher focus on attacking on the wings. The benefit of this is the triangles and diamonds that can be created in the wide areas. With the formations matching up to one another we want to look for movement off the ball to dismark and/or create space. Again, we want to focus on our third man combinations and runs in behind while also focusing on our rest defense. While attacking the back three should look to support the attack while preparing for a ball loss through analyzing the situation and reading the game in front of them. As well players on the ball far side should prepare to come inside to create shorter recovery distances, shorter pressing distances, and help to close the space.

KW

Written December 2021