On the 16th and last matchday of the Premier League before the Winter World Cup in Qatar, Manchester City played 11th-placed Brentford and lost the match 2-1. Manchester City were two points behind the league leaders Arsenal and five points ahead of third-placed Newcastle before the match. They hosted Chelsea in the evening and won the game 1-0.
Brentford will always be an unpleasant opponent even for big teams. However, they themselves have now been without a win for five games and were eliminated in the League Cup against fourth-division side Gillingham during the week.
In the end, Brentford deserved their victory thanks to united defensive tactics and the fact that they allowed fewer chances. City were given few opportunities to use their strong attacking pressing. Brentford switched quickly and were able to be dangerous by winning space quickly, especially at the beginning and end of the game.
In this tactical analysis article, we will focus on Brentfords defence and tactics that made the victory possible. But first, we will start the analysis by introducing the two line-ups.
Lineups
Pep Guardiola sent his team out in a typical 4-3-3 system. Ederson played in goal and the back four was made up of John Stones, Manuel Akanji, Joao Cancelo and Aymeric Laporte, who replaced Nathan Ake in the starting eleven. The midfield trio of Kevin De Bruyne, Rodrigo and Ilkay Gündogan was unchanged. And in attack, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland, who returned to the starting lineup, started.
Thomas Frank, Brentfords head coach, changed the formation from the last league game from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 system. Against the ball, it then became more of a 5-3-2 system. The back five then consisted of Rico Henry, Ethan Pinnock, Ben Mee, Mathias Jörgensen and Mads Roerslev Rasmussen. The midfield was formed by Frank Onyeka, Vitaly Janelt and Mathias Jensen. Bryan Mbeumo together with Ivan Toney were to provide the offensive moments.
Brentford´s defensive performance
Brentford played against the ball in a 5-3-2 system. The focus was mainly on closing down the centre. Overall, however, City were offered few spaces.
Brentfords two full-backs are not compact against the three centre-backs, but cover Citys outside wingers on the last line. As a result, they do not give City the space around a possible block that could be created in the 5-3-2 system.
As City score many g
