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

The midweek fixtures in this week were not continental competitions, instead, they were the English Football League Cup, also sponsored as the Carabao Cup. It was Oxford United to take on Manchester City at the Kassam Stadium.

Oxford did not have the best start of the season, it the first seven games, they only won one out of seven. Then, in the next eleven, they did not lose any. They were defeated by Milton Keynes Dons last weekend, however, they still threatened Citys goal.

City recovered from the United loss, in Croatia and against Arsenal, they played a very good game and secured both away wins. This was their third successive away matches, they may be tired, but at last, they managed to qualify to the semi-final.

In this tactical analysis, we will provide you with the tactics and analysis of Oxford vs City.

Lineups

Karl Robinson did not send his best players on the pitch. For the right-back, the manager chose Sam Long ahead of Chris Cadden; he partnered with Josh Ruffels, Rob Dickie and Elliott Moore. The midfield trio was Cameron Brannagan, Shandon Baptiste, and Alex Gorrin. Top goalscorer and assist provider James Henry was on the bench throughout 90 minutes; Matty Taylor played as a striker. It was a 4-3-3 formation.

Pep Guardiola also rotated his squad, Claudio Bravo started in goal. Youngsters had their chances to play, Taylor Harwood-Bellis partnered with Eric Garcia at the centre of the defence. João Cancelo and Oleksandr Zinchenko got their chances to impress the manager as well, the Ukrainian played as a left-back, as the City academy buy-back player Angeliño moved into an advanced position. Raheem Sterling was the captain, he scored two today. They also played in a 4-3-3 formation.

Defence of Oxford

In the first half, Oxford defended high with a 4-3-3 block. They tried to disrupt the build-up of City by forcing Bravo played long. During the City build-up. Oxford front three matched the centre backs and goalkeeper of City, in a three versus three manners illustrated below. They understood Bravo was a good keeper on the ball, but not as good as Ederson. Therefore, there were chances force Bravo misplaced the pass by marking his short options.

In this situation, Taylor, Tariqe Fosu-Henry and Dan Agyei positioned themselves high to block the options of Bravo. Fosu-Henry’s position was wise as he kept a similar distance with Harwood-Bellis and Cancelo, marking both players. Despite Brannagan was the only player to cooperate the press (he was overloaded by Phil Foden and Rodrigo Hernández), both midfielders of City were covered by Taylor, Bravo did not take the risk. The Chilean was forced to play long and gave away possession.

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