Nagelsmann and his use of a box midfield this season - a THREAD

This season has seen Julian Nagelsmann coming to RB Leipzig after 3 successful years at Hoffenheim where he took a relegation side and made them a contender for Champions League places.

In his first season at Leipzig, Nagelsmann introduced what we call the box midfield. It consists of 2 midfielders and 2 wingers/forwards on the same horizontal lines as the midfielders and close to the striker. This is depicted below.

By dropping in between the lines, wingers help ball progression and if they can’t be reached, both midfielders can quickly circulate the ball on wide areas for a cross. If a cross isn’t possible by the WB, there is still a triangle with the CM and the winger, as seen below.

Thanks to this, Leipzig are a very dynamic side and their WBs come from deeper areas to either make a cutback or deliver a cross while their forwards are still in movement in the box. This has been seen tonight against Atletico where they scored both goals from a cross.

Thanks to this box in midfield, Leipzig can sustain attacks in and around the box as all players are close to each other. Since they are close to each other, players are better at counter-pressing which is one of Nagelsmann’s main principles.

Since the restart, we have even seen Frank Lampard using it at Chelsea to try breaking low blocks. It has occured in the loss against West Ham where Barkley and Pulisic were tasked to play in between the lines and close to their striker.

With this box midfield, Nagelsmann has helped Leipzig becoming a more complete team as they can sustain pressure in their opponent’s half by quick passes as well as being more compact once they have lost the ball