English League Cup 2019/20: Manchester City vs Manchester United – tactical analysis

After the cup tie, Manchester City are in the English League Cup final again. In the semi-final, they faced Manchester United, and, in the first leg, won 3-1 away from home. All they needed was to secure the lead at the Etihad Stadium.

This was the third Manchester Derby played in the 2019/20 campaign, before the game, each team won once. Therefore, in this match, both managers did not follow their usual setups. They introduced some new elements and tactics to the team. Despite losing the game, Manchester City were still the better team, they did not allow Manchester United to play their game and attack comfortably.

In this tactical analysis, we will show you the analysis of Pep Guardiola and Ole Gunnar Solskjær in this cup tie.

 Lineups

Guardiola’s team played in an intriguing 3-4-2-1, as the only proper centre-back was Nicolás Otamendi, who partnered with João Cancelo and Kyle Walker; Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez, who were supposed to play as the wingers, played as the wingbacks. Rodrigo Hernández did not drop to the centre of the defence, he partnered Ilkay Gündoğan as the midfielders.

For Manchester United, they played in a 5-3-2 formation. Luke Shaw played as a left centre-back, alongside with Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelöf. Jesse Lingard, Fred, and Nemanja Matić played at the midfield, while Mason Greenwood joined Anthony Martial up front.

United set a midblock

Given the lessons learned in the previous game, when United suffered from a numerical disadvantage at the midfield when defending, Solskjær adjusted his tactics. In the game, United set a midblock instead of pressing high, which consisted of five players. With this game plan, even City’s attacking midfielders dropped in the build-up phases, United still enjoyed a numerical superiority.

Another function of the block was to prevent the central penetration from City. The five players tried to stay compact and defend together, which blocked or covered City’s midfielders. As, in the below image, Rodri could not pick Bernardo Silva or Gündoğan, he had to pass to the wide player, Cancelo.