Son Heung-min, Aston Villa vs Tottenham, April 2022

The first image below seems fairly nondescript on the face of it, as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg plays a square ball to Cristian Romero, who is just out of shot on the right. Son, circled at the far right of the picture, is in a pocket of space behind Villa’s midfield. But it is the positioning of Dejan Kulusevski, also circled a little deeper in the Spurs half, that is interesting. Kulusevski looks as though he is going to drop deep and receive the ball short, and Jacob Ramsey, the Villa midfielder, is goal-side of him. In short, Kulusevski is marked — for now.

Look what happens next though: Ramsey is focused on the ball and Kulusevski runs off the back of him on his blind side. Kulusevski curves his run into the right channel with the aim of getting the pass after next — the one following the ball Kane is about to receive from Romero. It is a clever third-man run, but turns out to be a selfless one.

The next picture is a blur and for good reason: Spurs are breaking with speed. Kane has yet to receive possession, but Son and Kulusevski, both circled, are already running in behind, anticipating what will happen as soon as Romero clips the ball into the Spurs striker. Kulusevski, the highlighted Tottenham runner nearer the bottom of the grab, is now the best part of five yards clear of Ramsey. As for Son, he is on the centre spot and, remarkably, has a clear run through on goal.

Looking at that passage of play from a different angle helps show how Tottenham created that space for Son.

One of the first things that strikes you from the image below is that Spurs made the pitch as wide as possible. Sergio Reguilon is stationed high and wide on the left side, while Emerson Royal is close to the touchline on the right flank. As the ball is transferred to Romero, Emerson drops deeper. Lucas Digne, Villa’s left-back, shifts across to engage  the Brazilian, which opens a hole in behind him for Kulusevski to exploit.

Son, circled in the centre of the pitch, is free — John McGinn should arguably be picking him up. Equally, the space wouldn’t have opened up for Son to run into if Ezri Konsa, Villa’s right-sided central defender, had decided to stand his ground and pass Kane on to Tyrone Mings. Mings, however, has had to slide across to deal with Kulusevski, who’s got away from Ramsey.

In short, Villa have been dragged all over the pitch, partly through Tottenham’s starting positions in this phase of play but primarily because of the visitors’ movement, and Kane is a part of that. He chooses just the right moment (when Kulusevski is starting to bend his run to get out of the passing lane so he doesn’t block the pass from Romero) to drop deep and show for the ball.

If Mings had picked up Kane, leaving Konza to deal with Son, the England captain would almost certainly have headed the ball in the other direction, to Kulusevski.

We can say that fairly confidently because of the next picture — look how Kane scans as the ball is traveling to him from Romero, to see Son’s position to his right; he recognizes that his team-mate is totally free.

Following two passes — one from a centre-back deep in his own half and another via Kane’s head — and some terrific movement, Spurs have carved Villa open and are in on keeper Emiliano Martinez. Son finishes coolly to make it 3-0 and Tottenham are out of sight — much like several of their players in the lead-up to the goal.

Did that goal look familiar?

Below is Tottenham’s opener in the 3-2 win over Manchester City in February. The initial passing and movement is almost identical, only this time the build-up starts on the left with Ben Davies. He slides the ball into Kane, and Son makes the blind-side curved run from in to out that Kulusevski did against Villa. Ruben Dias steps up to play offside, but Son times his run perfectly, advances and squares for Kulusevski to convert.

As the second man in this passing pattern, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang needs to not only position himself to be able to receive the forward pass but also to be aware of the movement of the third man, or else he will kill his space. Aubameyang gets that balance spot-on here. He stays relatively central and shows for a diagonal ball to feet, bringing Davinson Sanchez with him and leaving room both in behind and on his outside for Smith Rowe to use.

The first-time lay-off from Aubameyang is also excellent. Leaving Tanganga in his wake, Smith Rowe sprints onto the ball in the inside-left channel, although he has won this race through the quickness of his mind as much as his pace.

From the camera angle below, you can see how Sanchez is attracted towards the ball that Tierney is playing to the feet of Aubameyang, and also how space opens up for Smith Rowe to run into as a result.

Another impressive element (which is easy to overlook) is that Smith Rowe has the presence of mind, at the end of that driving run from deep, to stay calm and pick out Aubameyang with a cut-back that is swept into the far corner.

The following month there was a repeat against Villa, only this time Smith Rowe decided to go it alone and scored.

It is not a coincidence that the players found themselves in similar positions; as cliched as it sounds, this sort of passage of play comes straight off the training ground.

Again, Smith Rowe is deep as the build-up begins, leaving space further up the pitch. Tellingly, though, he is already sprinting forward before Thomas Partey’s pass has arrived at the feet of Nuno Tavares, the Arsenal left-back on this occasion. Smith Rowe recognizes the movement pattern early.

Once again, Aubemeyang initially stays in the centre of the pitch, leaving that huge channel on the Arsenal left for Smith Rowe to run into as the striker waits for the right moment to edge across and show for Tavares to guide a pass into his feet.

Two seconds later, Tavares is looking up to see Aubameyang’s position. As soon as Smith Rowe is out of the line of that diagonal pass (much like the Romero and Kulusevski movement at Villa Park), Tavares can find his striker.

Aubameyang slides across and meets that pass just outside the center circle — Konsa is slow to engage after Mings passes him on (the opposite of what happened against Spurs on Saturday) — then sweeps a first-time ball into the path of Smith Rowe.

For Smith Rowe, this is like that Spurs game all over again, except this time he whips a shot inside Martinez’s near upright rather than cutting the ball back to a team-mate.

You can see in the next image how Foden’s movement, together with Ayling’s decision to follow him out, has left a huge hole in behind for De Bruyne, who is circled. But take a closer look at De Bruyne — Foden’s ball hasn’t even got to Rodri yet and he is already on the move, about to dart in behind Adam Forshaw, the Leeds midfielder.

When you think of De Bruyne, his passing, crossing and shooting ability come to mind, but his awareness of space is outstanding too.

That said, this isn’t as instinctive or off-the-cuff as some people might think.

The trigger for De Bruyne’s movement is the “set” — in this case, Foden dropping the ball off for Rodri. That pass works perfectly for the attacking team because the natural instinct of a defender when the ball goes away from their goal is to take a step forward. At that point, the runner — in this case, De Bruyne — is sprinting in behind.

In the blink of an eye, De Bruyne has gone from being tightly marked to being two yards clear. On top of that, Foden’s movement means a passing channel has opened up for Rodri to find De Bruyne.

Watch that passing pattern from a different angle and you get an opportunity to appreciate the intelligence of Rodri (the player circled below). As Dias’ pass is on its way to Foden, Rodri is looking away from the ball.

Coaches often talk about the best players “taking photographs” and forming a picture in their mind — Rodri is doing that here as he scans and weighs up all the options around him, including the position De Bruyne has taken up, out of frame, to his left. Even though the ball hasn’t reached Foden yet, Rodri knows what he is going to do if he gets his next pass, and that is another key element to executing third-man (or fourth-man in this scenario) runs.

The image below shows the extent to which Leeds were carved open — Ayling, a right-back playing central defense in this game because of injuries, arguably should have held his position and passed Foden on to Diego Llorente, but that was not how Bielsa’s team defended; they were expected to mark man-to-man (and follow) pretty much all over the pitch. It was hugely successful at times, but it also left them exposed on other occasions, especially against a team with City’s movement patterns.

The end result here is that Rodri, after positioning himself between the lines and creating that important triangle with Dias and Foden, has plenty of time and space to guide a ball, with the outside of his right boot, to De Bruyne.

The Belgian dispatches a left-footed shot to make it 3-0 to City with little more than half an hour gone.

It all looks so simple, and it is in many ways — certainly when you have players who are as clever as Foden, Rodri and De Bruyne.

Twelve days later, Guardiola’s champions hosted Leicester City, won 6-3 and exactly the same thing happened for their first goal.

Look below and, once again, Dias starts the move with a straight pass. This time it is Bernardo Silva who comes short. This feels like one of the advantages of City playing with a false nine rather than an out-and-out-striker, given that it is more natural for Bernardo or Foden to drop into pockets of space and link.

Even though the Leicester central defender (Jannik Vestergaard) doesn’t follow Bernardo all the way, both Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Ademola Lookman are drawn to the ball, which is natural in the circumstances — especially when that rat-a-tat of one-touch passes is happening so quickly. You can see by their body positions that they are oblivious to the run De Bruyne is making off the back of them as Bernardo sets the ball for Fernandinho (the still image is a clear example of the trigger for that blind-side movement).

This passing pattern is second nature to the players, so much so that you can see Dias pointing and telling Bernardo where he should play the ball because he can see what is developing.

Scroll back to the grabs of the build-up against Leeds — Dias is doing exactly the same thing.

Mac Allister then feeds Joel Veltman on the Brighton right. That could easily be that for Mac Allister’s involvement, but he is far from finished.

As Veltman crosses from the right, Mac Allister drives into the space that has opened up between the two Brighton strikers.

There is no way Mac Allister is trying to meet the cross directly; that would be impossible when he is starting from such a deep position. Instead, he is looking to time a third-man run to receive a knock-down into his path. He is gambling to an extent, but it is a calculated gamble.

Abdoulaye Doucoure is tracking Mac Allister – or is he? The third-man run is so hard to pick up because the attacking player is thinking one step ahead. Doucoure, as you can see below, is focusing on the ball more than the Brighton midfielder, who is running on his blind side, and this is so often the case with players on the defensive team in these scenarios.

Crucially, Neal Maupay — and this is where we come back to the point that was made about Kane and Aubemeyang earlier — has spotted Mac Allister’s run and astutely positioned himself to play a cushioned header to his team-mate.

Maupay’s header drops perfectly for Mac Allister, who is comfortably clear of Doucoure as he strokes home to give Brighton the lead. It finishes with a strike from little more than six yards, but this is a goal that was rooted in intelligent movement from start to finish.

Often the second man needs to play the incoming ball first time for the third- or fourth-man run to work, but Mount has the presence of mind here to realize that he needs to take a touch. By receiving on his back foot and then passing, Mount draws another opponent towards him, which leaves more space in behind for James and also gives the England right-back time to get in front of Dimitris Giannoulis, the Norwich left-back. It is intelligent play.

James was going like a train from the moment he saw Jorginho in possession. In a way, it becomes impossible to ignore a team-mate running past you at that kind of speed; he is almost forcing the pass to him with his movement. Mount finds him with a threaded ball and James does the rest effortlessly, deftly lifting his shot over Tim Krul.

But look at Son in this next image, from just one second later.

Reguilon still has the ball at his feet but Son has turned his head to his right to assess his options. In a split second, he is weighing up the positioning of the opposition players, where Reguilon is going to play the ball, and the space he can run into in order to receive the pass after next.

Now, with the game clock still showing the same time (75:41), Son has processed those options and is off and running. He knows the first pass is not going to him, but he’s sprinting into the space ahead to almost determine what Giovani Lo Celso, the second man, will do with the ball once Reguilon finds him.

Glancing over his left shoulder to see Reguilon feeding a pass in to Lo Celso’s feet, Son runs beyond the Argentinian and into the inside left channel.

The South Korean now looks over his other shoulder to check Lo Celso is going to make the pass that sets him free. Lo Celso is on the same wavelength and plays a first-time ball around the corner to release Son, who has expertly timed his run so he doesn’t need to break stride.

You can see that movement from another angle below.

With the opposition right-back facing one way and Son sprinting in the other, there is only going to be one winner after Lo Celso makes his pass.

Son is breaking down the left only two seconds after Reguilon had the ball midway inside the Spurs half. Lo Celso’s pass is perfectly weighted, but it is the intelligence and the conviction in his team-mate’s movement that is the critical factor here.

With the last defender drawn across towards him, Son feeds the ball into the path of Kane, who is totally unmarked.

Three passes, one superb run and Kane has an open goal to score into — all in the space of seven seconds.