Leeds United 2019/20: their transition phases – scout report

Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United were unarguably the best team in the EFL Championship this season. Earlier this week, we have published the analysis on explaining their rotations and pressing system respectively. In our June magazine, we analyse their build-up plays and in this tactical analysis, we will provide you with a scout report on their performances during the transition phases.

The dominance of Leeds was reflected in terms of numbers. Currently, they are the top of the league, while having scored the most goals and conceded the fewest.

Leeds had the highest average possession per game (62.7%) and the lowest PPDA (6.31) in the league. Apart from the consistent build-up plays and the pressing, their strong performance during the transitions was also a factor. We knew the intensive football coached by Bielsa, and the same standard is also applied whenever they lost the ball. At the other end, they also tried to create counter-attacking opportunities as long as they were regaining possession.

Counter-pressing

Just like all other counter-press methods, the defending team tried to win the ball as soon as possible by achieving some objectives. For Bielsa’s team, the objectives were to force a backward pass or a long ball, if the initial defensive action did not help to recover the ball.

The counter-press of Leeds combined elements of man-marking, ball approaching, and shutting the passing lanes. In general, during a possession turnover, the player nearest to the ball approached the ball. Meanwhile, players around him should cover passing options around the ball. This gave a hard task for the opponent, as he was confronting pressure but his short options were risky to receive. This helped Leeds to recover possession high if the opponent tried to escape with a short pass. If the ball went long, the centre-backs were strong to win the duels.

An important element of Leeds’ counter-press was the diagonal runs from flanks. We prepared an example to explain the details of this approach. But the question is: how to create conditions for players to begin the press at flanks? A huge part of this was attributed to the offensive tactics of the team. As we explained in our previous analysis, Leeds attacked flanks with rotations instead of sticking centrally. Therefore, they were quite likely to lose the ball wide, hence what triggered these runs.

The below graph summarised the percentages of ball possession losses by Leeds in recent fixtures. A total of 61.3% of their ball loss occurred at flanks (zone 7, 10, 13 and 16; zone 9, 12, 15 and 18). At the meantime, only 5.4% ball losing events occurred around the central circle.

Let us dive into a game example to have a clearer view of their counter-press. In this scenario, Leeds were trying to counter-press Derby County as they lost the second ball. During the return pass, the nearest player immediately pushed forward to pressure the keeper. At the meantime, both short options were controlled by another two Leeds players, so this forced Kelle Roos to go long.