After a season that fell short of their usual dominance, Manchester City approached the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup with a refreshed outlook, both on the pitch and in the coaching setup.
The club reinforced their squad with several additions, most notably Rayan Cherki from Olympique Lyonnais, Rayan Aït-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan.
Off the pitch, Man City also made a significant coaching addition by appointing 2 ex-Liverpool staff; Pepijn Lijnders as Pep Guardiola’s assistant and James French as set-piece coach.
While the Dutch coach’s impact may take longer to materialise, given the brief lead-up to the competition, it is worth examining this latest version of Man City.
In this tactical analysis, we break down Manchester City’s in-possession strategies during the Club World Cup, focusing on matches against Wydad, Juventus, and Al Hilal — all of which defended with a back five — to offer insights beyond the final results.
We’ve structured this football analysis into three pieces to provide a comprehensive view: build-up, progression, and the final third.
This enables us to examine how Manchester City’s approach evolved across the various phases.
This piece starts with the build-up phase and examines how Manchester City approached each game.
What are the core principles they maintained?
What tactical adaptations did they introduce, given that although every opponent defended with a back five, each team applied its strategy and nuances to counter Manchester City’s build-up?
Manchester City Build-Up Tactics Vs Wydad AC
In this match against Wydad AC, Manchester City lined up with Ederson in goal.
Vitor Reis and Nathan Aké operated as the centre-backs, flanked by Rico Lewis on the right and Nico OReilly on the left as full-backs.
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