How Pep Guardiola Uses Inverted Full-Backs At Manchester City – Tactical Theory

Inverted full-backs are a relatively recent innovation in football.

Understanding them and their prominence fully emerged during Pep Guardiola’s spell at Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga.

During his first season at Bayern in 2013, Guardiola realised the impressive technical proficiency of Philipp Lahm and his ability to play in a more central role.

Over the years during Guardiolas tenure at Manchester City in the Premier League, players such as Fabian Delph, Kyle Walker and Oleksandr Zinchenko have been associated with this role.

The inversion of these wide players aligns with a key principle of positional play, controlling the midfield and occupying central areas.

For this analysis of the annotated images, the offensive team will predominantly play in a 4-3-3 formation, primarily because Guardiola has used this formation when implementing this concept, and he is the main trailblazer of inverted full-backs.

This tactical analysis piece, focusing on tactical theory, examines the advantages and disadvantages of inverted full-backs.

Additionally, this analysis will examine the impact of inverted full-backs in both the offensive and defensive phases, as well as the tactics employed when using them.

Build-up phase

Before anything else, lets examine a more linear build-up, with the relevant team here playing a 4-3-3 formation.

Naturally, the build-up method changes as the formation does, which needs to be a factor when evaluating the viability of the full-back (s) inverting.

From a goal-kick scenario, the ball is almost certainly going to be played short to the centre-back  this is a trigger for the winger to press as the ball is now in play.

Depending on the intensity of the opposition, the only feasible passing option is to the full-back out-wide, one of the few who has no immediate marker.

However, due to the touchline pinning them in, subsequent passing options are limited, especially when the opposition shifts across to maintain compactness.

Furthermore, you are relying on the pass being accurate and the ball being controlled swiftly.

A scenario like this is likely to result in a loss of possession.

Because the inversion of the full-backs essentially sacrifices the wide channels, the conditions for the full-back to invert must be advantageous.

This is particularly relevant during the build-up phase, as a turnover may occur closer to the goal, with subsequent poor defensive coverage likely.

In essence, the primary objective of the build-up phase is to establish superiority.

In the third p