Manchester City travelled to Goodison Park to play Everton in a must-win fixture for them to ensure they close the gap between them and the Premier League leaders, Liverpool. A win over Everton would put them five points behind Liverpool after suffering a defeat to Norwich and a draw against Tottenham so far in the English Premier League. Everton themselves needed their three points after losing consecutive games against Bournemouth and Sheffield United. They would require some optimism though, as Manchester City would be the toughest opponents they would face this season along with their rival neighbours, Liverpool.
Nevertheless, Everton’s tactics did manage to frustrate City during multiple phases of this game. By exploiting their aerial abilities and set-piece successes Everton elicited a heroic performance from City’s keeper Ederson Moraes to keep the hosts at bay. It was an absolute sugar rush for 90 minutes at Goodison Park as the toffees took on the Manchester side in their candy-coloured kits. In this tactical analysis, we examine deeper how both teams faced each other.
Lineups
Marco Silva’s side lined up in a 1-4-4-1-1 with a backline of Séamus Coleman, Michael Keane, and ex-Barca boys Yerry Mina and Lucas Digne. In front of them operated the double pivot of Morgan Schneiderlin and Manchester City’s former veteran Fabian Delph in midfield. Theo Walcott had to be substituted early due to a head injury by Alex Iwobi newly arrived from Arsenal. Along with Richarlison on the wing, the forwards Gylfi Sigurðsson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin worked up top.
Manchester City were looking ahead to a busy week with the Champions League fixture against Dinamo Zagreb coming up. It must have been a challenge to periodise the training and keep all the players in shape while ensuring that they take three points in Liverpool. Given the fact that John Stones is still injured and Aymeric Laporte is out, Pep Guardiola opted for Fernandinho and Nicolás Otamendi as the centre-half pair, after running riot against Watford. Alongside, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kyle Walker operated as fullbacks. Rodri played the single-pivot with İlkay Gündoğan and Kevin De Bruyne playing more advanced roles in the midfield. Gabriel Jesus was chosen as the lone striker with Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez on the wings.
Tactical face-off
We expected Man City to dominate possession and play the game in Everton’s half creating most of their chances with the deep balls to release the pace of Sterling and Mahrez. Everton would look to break quickly upon turnover of possession and hit City on the counter-attack. However in this game, at least for the first half, City had an expected goals (xG) figure of 1.84 which was one of their lower figures in the league. How did Everton manage this? We shall look deeper in this analysis.
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