I suspect some extremely conservative deep defensive blocks…but it is as you said: De Zerbi seems 2 steps ahead of the game at the moment. I’m also interested to see if other teams start copying their possession model

@@mindstrike6728 might be even 3 or 4 steps ahead really. When things like this happen everyone starts wanting to copy it just like we always saw before. Example of playing with the back 3 or tiki taka and so on.

I loved that Napoli team. Their use of half space diamonds was so clean. Hamsik was awesome to watch in that he did all his damage with off-ball movement. I'm surprised that Sarri could not recreate a similar level of play at Chelsea and even his current Lazio side (granted I've only watched a few matches)

@@mindstrike6728 I think he needs time to implement his style, his zonal option oriented defending and is positional play are a lot more elaburated than the majority of coaches, i think if he stayed at chelsea a few more years (maybe 2) he could do that. In Lazio i´ve been watching them from the day 1 of sarri and the evolution in the way they play is amazing, last year their positional play was not great at all, but this year they are playing a lot better, the game against milan (4-0) was the best game i´ve seen from them in this 2 years, but they are inconsistent, i think that as to do with the squad depth, and some players in the starting 11 are not at that level too... If he has the time and the players he will make some crazy things, maybe not at that Napoli level because they had a great great squad, but still

You’re absolutely correct. If their midfielders rotate out of the half space, then Leeds’ midfielders have to shadow. Bamford has to curve the run so steeply that the opposing CB can usually drive forward. Now if this is John Stones or Jordan Henderson, you might might be in trouble but usually the CB is the worst decision maker on the ball and if he drives box to box, the quick counter gets juicier for Leeds and they love the full field counter (which they sometimes get after defending a set piece).