When Leipzig were pressing to Manchester City’s 3-2-5 with 4-2-3-1, they covered spaces without looking at Manchester City’s players’ positions. They took position only according to spaces. When they were intense in the area which also includes the ball, they didn’t match with Manchester City players and just had an ineffective numerical advantage. Also when Leipzig’s one player wanted to press a Manchester City player, who took the ball from another Manchester City player as a pass option, because the distance between Manchester City player and Leipzig player was too much, Leipzig’s players’ pressing just helped Manchester City to play more direct and comfortable.
When Manchester City were in set attack, they had 3 stoppers. RB Leipzig tried to control right and left stoppers with their right and left wingers. They didn’t press to them but also didn’t let stoppers to go forward comfortably. And there was too much distance between stoppers and RB Leipzig wingers and it worked for Manchester City stoppers. So when stoppers took the ball, they could pass the ball comfortably enough. And also if wingers would want to press them, also they could pass the ball more quickly because with pressing, wingers pushed stoppers to play more quickly. And because before wingers got closer to stoppers, stoppers had enough time and space, it just worked for stoppers to make game more direct and quick.
RB Leipzig had only 1 player, their offensive midfielder Forsberg, to cover both Rodri and Stones in midfield’s centre. As I explained before, Leipzig’s wingers were focusing also wingers so they couldn’t focus on Manchester City centre midfielders.
Both De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan took position in half-spaces. Normally in Leipzig, defensive midfielders Haidara and Kampl were matching with them 1 by 1 on the board. But in the pitch, because of Ilkay’s and De Bruyne’s positionings, neither defensive midfielders stayed in centre and until they close to half-space, De Bruyne and Ilkay could be effective with the ball nor defensive midfielders closed to half-space but this time when City players turned the game to the other side, defensive midfielders couldn’t shift to other side quickly, because they were taking position closer to the other side, and until defensive midfielders shift to centre again, Manchester City players could use centre effectively from the other side.
With 1 position, I am explaining everything. In this position, RB Leipzig’s offensive midfielder closes to Manchester City’s centre stopper.
And centre stopper passes to left stopper. Now Manchester City’s centre midfielder Rodri is free and left stopper is able to pass to Rodri. Because the distance between left stopper and right winger is too much. So before right winger presses to left stopper, left stopper can pass to Rodri comfortably.
If Leipzig’s offensive midfielder would press to centre stopper when centre forward Werner closed to centre, they could cover Rodri. Because with 1 centre forward and 1 offensive midfielder, they could cover both Stones and Rodri. But because Werner was matching with Stones, when Forsberg moved to centre stopper, Werner couldn’t shift to Rodri accordingly with Leipzig’s offensive midfielder Forsberg.
So Rodri could take the ball comfortably. When he takes the ball, as you can see, in Manchester City, Ilkay Gundogan takes position in left half-space and actually really closer to wing. And in Leipzig, the player, who matches with him, defensive midfielder Haidara doesn’t take position close enough to Ilkay.
So when Ilkay takes the ball from Rodri, he has enough time and space to think. And also when he takes the ball, look at RB Leipzig players’ positionings. They have 4 players which are closer to the ball’s area. First of all, none of these players are close enough to Ilkay. Right winger Laimer and right defensive midfielder Haidara closes to Ilkay but after they gave him enough time and space. Centre forward Werner and offensive midfielder Forsberg doesn’t do anything helpful. So this intensity doesn’t help Leipzig. And when Rodri makes a small run to centre to be a pass option for Ilkay again, neither Forsberg nor Werner closes to him.
When Rodri takes the ball from Ilkay, he has enough time and space before Werner presses to him closely. Now De Bruyne makes a run to defense line’s behind and pulls left back to himself. Because in right wing, we can’t see in this moment, Manchester City’s right winger Bernardo Silva takes position.
And Rodri passes to Bernardo Silva. When Bernardo Silva takes the ball, Leipzig’s left back Raum starts to get closer to Bernardo Silva. But because he was pulled to half-space by De Bruyne in previous situation, until left back reaches to Bernardo Silva, Bernardo Silva has enough time and space. And De Bruyne keeps his run to wing. He will be free because now left stopper will need to cover him but left stopper Gvardiol does not close enough to this area. Because he was taking position in centre to cover Haaland.
When Bernardo Silva passes to De Bruyne, De Bruyne has enough time and space before Gvardiol gets closer to him. And Ilkay makes a free run to the penalty box. The player who is able to cover him is Haidara but instead of shifting to Ilkay, he keeps taking position in centre and Ilkay finds a great shooting chance.