Champions League Contenders: RB Leipzig

Nagelsmann and RBL are a match made in football heaven, with both believing in aggressive defending, vertical passing and high tempo while in and out of possession. His success with 1899 Hoffenheim served to show that Nagelsmann was ready to challenge for silverware. In RB Leipzig, the manager found a club whose ambitions matched his own. And, although known for a certain brand of football, Nagelsmann has proven capable of altering his tactics, from one match to another, to suit Leipzig’s challenges this season.

In this post, I'll be analysing their recent games and study their chances of winning the Champions League this season.

Now let's take a look at their Offensive and Defensive moments which will define their Champions League journey.

Offensive:

The fullbacks, or wingbacks, will tend to move relatively high in the first moments of the build-up phase. This is a simple tactical mechanism designed to provide width but to also force the opposition to defend in a wider block to cover this threat. This, in turn, creates space centrally that RB Leipzig can exploit in order to progress the ball. As attacks develop into the final third of the pitch it becomes apparent how Leipzig use positional play. The wingers usually move inward with adapting themselves to the movements of Werner, who himself can also fall back into the half-space. These runs of the full-backs create a consistent staggering in terms of width, without it becoming too flat thanks to forward and backward movements within the lanes themselves.

Defensive:

Leipzig are able to avoid being surprised by counters after losses of possession deep in the opponent's half. Often times, singular proactive movements from the defenders prove sufficient, with them looking to duel with the intended receiver of a long ball and thus pushing him off the track. In situations in which Leipzig give up the ball a short way ahead of the box and centrally, usually one or two players immediately behind will step in. Leipzig's defensive problems are, in fact, larger when the team moves back in a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-4-2 and tries to defend while using a low press. They turn into a simple man-orientated defensive team that is constantly a step too late and only rarely manage to block passing lanes.

An up and coming professional football analyst and scout, Devavrat Bhotica, has this to say for RB Leipzig

I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

Football - Analysed!