This is a difficult season for RB Leipzig, which lost head coach Julian Nagelsmann and had key players leave during the summer.
Fresh faces such as Jesse Marsch from RB Salzburg and Achim Beierlorzer returning from Mainz 05 joined the team, as did new players André Silva, Joško Gvardiol, Mohamed Simakan, and Benjamin Henrichs.
However, things did not go according to plan.
They never looked like a side that could challenge for second place in the Bundesliga, and they were knocked out very early in the UEFA Champions League group after losing to Manchester City and PSG.
Therefore, the higher-level authority of Leipzig decided to react by parting ways with Marsch.
Soon, they appointed Domenico Tedesco as the new head coach and handed him a contract until June 2023.
In Tedesco’s first three games, he obtained 1W1D1L, which was not particularly impressive, but interesting tactics were behind it.
Compared to Marsch, who did not constrain his approach by formations, Tedesco was relatively consistent on a 3-5-2 formation, which also achieved good performance under Marsch.
This tactical analysis gives an early look at how Tedesco would transmit his philosophy and ideas into the team based on the first three games before the winter break.
3-2 or 3-1?
According to media reports, some said the players were not comfortable with Marsch’s very vertical approach.
In the offensive organization, they lost some of the positional dynamics, rotations, and rhythm that were demonstrated under Nagelsmann.
Tedesco added a structure to the team to give Leipzig more control in the match, compared to Marschs rather direct approach, which led to more transitions in the final third.
In the first two games, Tedesco played his team in a 3-4-1-2, which means there were two 6s in the second line.
Against Armenia Bielefeld, he opted for a more aggressive approach by playing a 3-1 shape in the construction phases, pushing Tyler Adams to higher spaces with Dominik Szoboszlai.
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