RB Leipzig fine-tunes creative play and tactical instructions

RB Leipzig worked intensively on their creative play in the first sharp session of the training camp in La Manga. Coach Marco Rose took plenty of time for tactical instructions in the two-hour morning session on Wednesday and moved the players around the training pitch like chess pieces on a board. More width and depth in the final third, wing triangles, attracting in midfield and shifting to the outside were the key words. Leipzig's soccer coach interrupted again and again and vehemently demanded the content.

"If you look at our first half of the season, these are exactly the games in which we dropped points when we had a lot of the ball and little space against deep-lying opponents," explained striker Yussuf Poulsen. The aim of the camp is to refresh precisely this content in order to find more solutions. Against Bochum (0:0), Mainz (0:3), Werder Bremen (1:1) and Wolfsburg (1:2), RB gave away important points in the title race despite dominating the game. "Sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn't - but that should be good all the time," said Poulsen.

The aim for the second half of the season is to stay in contention at the top of the table. "If we build on the first half of the year, it looks very good, then it will remain exciting until the end," announced Leipzig's record player. The highlights are the matches against Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16. "We want to achieve our goal against Real Madrid and progress to the next round," said Rose. Poulsen reiterated after the tactics lesson: "The Real games won't be given away." RB had kept up well twice against Manchester City. "Why shouldn't we be able to put in a similar performance against Real - just with a different result?" asked the veteran.