Pushing higher up the pitch like this inevitably opens space for long balls down the wing, but it’s very difficult for a player to play accurate long balls in a direction outside of their field of view while under pressure. If the long ball does go down the wing, the central defender will slide over very quickly and contest the ball in the air to guard against any 3 v 3 situations at the back. The full-back then sprints back quickly to support the advanced centre-back via backwards pressing. The central defender must not only slide out into half-space and the flanks when needed, but also into the intermediate space in the defensive midfield. If a striker allows himself to drop into this zone to receive balls, the Salzburg central defenders will man-mark the striker as they receive the pass or attempt to head the ball back up front. This “out of position” movement by the central defenders, midfielders, wingers and full-backs brings about a certain level of instability for Salzburg. Although they try to compensate for this with flexible position changes it doesn’t always succeed. The strikers often swap sides as the game wears on and stay there for turnovers, if Kampl or Mane are unable to get back in time from their forays into the midfield, but larger spaces will still be briefly open; similar issues affect the midfield and defensive line. If the opponent is unable to extricate themselves from the pressing and counterpressing, then the general chaos of the game will bring long balls into Salzburg’s defensive line, thus this space will definitely be played into. Fast passes backwards followed by large-scale diagonal passes and direct through balls behind the defense have been dangerous for Salzburg so far in the Austrian Bundesliga. For this reason, it must be said that most of these attacks in the final third tend to come as a result of tough plays under pressure with too much dynamic or with bad positioning in offense and from strategically unfavorable zones. In addition, in recent months and over their winter break, Salzburg have made a big leap forward, and are significantly stronger and more stable defensively than at the beginning of the season. Besides these issues, it should be noted that the counterattack is a possible and promising strategy against Salzburg. However, they have one of the best safeguards in the world against the counter – an outstanding counterpressing.