Pin and release

A striker does not have to touch the ball to make a chance. Their left centre-back has one job while your #9 stands near him: watch your #9. Every second he spends doing that is a second he is not doing anything else — and "anything else" includes the channel beside him, where your #8 is about to arrive.

Two things at once

Here your #10 has the ball, your #9 holds his ground on their #4, and your #8 starts his run from deep into the right channel. At 2.6 s the pass leaves. Look where their #4 is: still on your #9, two metres goal-side, exactly where a centre-back stands when the striker is close enough to worry him.

Diagram4-2-3-1 vs 4-4-2

A second and a half later the ball arrives. Nobody from their back line was free to meet it, and the nearest man — their left-back, held wide by your winger — needs a full second to get there. That second is the chance.

Diagram4-2-3-1 vs 4-4-2

Release him and he is a defender again

The pin only works while it lasts. Drop your #9 short towards the ball and their #4 follows him for a few strides, then lets him go: a striker twelve metres from him is no longer his problem. Now the centre-back is free to read the pass, and he does. Worse is sending your #9 into the same channel your #8 is running to. The centre-back comes with him, and you have dragged a defender into the exact space you wanted empty. Your #8 still receives — with 0.2 s and their #4 on top of him.

Diagram4-2-3-1 vs 4-4-2

Which defender, which runner

The idea mirrors. Attack the left channel and the man to pin is their right centre-back, not the left one — pinning the wrong defender is the same as pinning nobody. And the runner has to be able to get there: your #6 starts twelve metres nearer the left channel than your #8, which at a run is the difference between meeting the ball and watching it roll past.

The model in one sentence: one ground pass at 18 m/s, released at a fixed moment; the named centre-back follows your #9 two metres goal-side while your #9 stays within 10 m of where the centre-back started and lets go half a second after he leaves; the far side of their block holds its shape, and the near-side midfielders react to the pass 0.3 s after it is played — nobody reacts to what you intend, only to what you do.