The natural 1 in build-up with the goalkeeper is disappearing.
For many years, teams have relied on numerical superiority in build-up, using the goalkeeper as an extra player to progress the ball.
In man-to-man pressing systems, usually one of the centre-forwards pressed the goalkeeper horizontally or diagonally, leaving one of the centre-backs free. Good build-up teams have been able to exploit this easily through third-man combinations and consistently find the free centre-back.
High-pressing teams have now adapted and removed this advantage. Coaches like Vincent Kompany and Roberto De Zerbi have been doing this consistently.
The extra player is no longer the goalkeeper or a centre-back, it is now a midfielder, who tends to be isolated inside the defensive block.
A midfielder is now responsible for a double-role pressing action, jumping vertically to press the goalkeeper while cover-shadowing his direct opponent (the opposition midfielder) and temporarily leaving him behind.
I have only seen two teams brave enough to try to find a short way to access the midfielder inside the block. One is Cesc Fàbregas with Como, and the other is Thiago Motta at Juventus. Both used a well-coached vertical third-man concept to break this pressing structure.
I will talk about this in another post.