Today we analyze the offensive behaviours of RB Leipzig, a team from the German Bundesliga. Leipzig are a very young team (founded in 2009) that has burst in the last years in the International footballistic World, reaching the highest positions in the Bundesliga as well as having great performances in the Champions League. One of the secrets of this team, which by the way is not discovered by us as there are several videos on the internet about this coming from people within the club, is how quick and how cleverly RB Leipzig progress in the game.
RB Leipzig is a team characterized by priorizing passes forward and all the movements and aspects of the game that favour this concept. The main aspect of thisn fundamental of play is, as we see in the video below, prioritizing passes forward that break defensive lines. What is a bit more complicated is how to use these broken lines and the generated disadjustments to create a new space/disadjustment in the next line, something that RB Leipzig do perfectly. Let's see it in the video and discuss it later.
We see how Mainz are defending in a very tight block, leaving very few free spaces. Nontheless, RB Leipzig have this rule to prioritize always a pass that breaks a defensive line, so they do it. Even though this first pass breaks the initial defensive line (which is composed only by the centre forward), this pass does not generate any space in between the lines given Mainz's good defensive organization. Still, this vertical pass has attracted the attention of the defenders, who have all moved towards the ball and it has, as a consequence, generated an asymetry in the midfielder's line. Hence, when the ball goes to the other side and Mainz's defenders have to move there, they do it leaving spaces and unbalances in the middle, generating a space just in the spot where the ball was played previously. This first space has generated an unbalance in the defender's line too, as a consequence, and it has generated a space in the right-hand side that can be taken by the winger. Furthermore, we see how the centre forward is always fixing the centre backs from the start of the action, a fact that permits Leipzig to encounter a 3v1 situation in the right side of the pitch that facilitates progression.
Hence, we see how a first pass that breaks one of the denfender's lines, generates a series of unbalances and structural disadjustments in the defender's team such that, if we are quick and effective enough, we will be able to use in our advantage to generate chances. We see in the video how this same principle is repeated over and over again, a fact that is accomplished with the right positioning of the players in half-spaces and with body positions that facilitate the progression of the game (as they make controls easier towards the opponent's goal).
Many times, these teams with a style of play so direct, are classified as being defensive, that only like counterattacking, or that are not properly worked, but analyzing Leipzig's offensive behaviours, we reach a very clear conclusion: all these statements are just not true. It needs loads of work and traning to develop such a quick model and style of play such that each player has the idea of their role: always looking to attack in 1v1 situations, where to pass and to whom (vertical passes to players in the half-space), what spaces must be occupied (let's focus in the fact that Leipzig never have players in maximum width), what spaces must be attacked (last defender's line), how to take profit of the generated spaces within a line to attack the next one (generating defensive unbalances through passing and driving), and a long list of etceteras.
Let's train it?
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