UEFA Champions League 2016/17: Monaco vs Manchester City – tactical analysis

Last Saturday, James analysis explained how Manchester City won at a 5-3 thriller at the Etihad Stadium. However, we all knew that Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City gave away the two-goal margin in the second leg as Leonardo Jardim’s Monaco were able to come back with a 6-6 aggregate at the Stade-Louis II, and so progressed in the UEFA Champions League.

In this tactical analysis, we will show you the details of this game by looking at the tactics of both Guardiola and Jardim.

Lineups and overview

Monaco played in a 4-4-2 formation and their lineup was very similar to the first leg. However, their key striker of that season, Radamel Falcao, missed the game because of a fitness issue. Kylian Mbappé and Valère Germain were paired as the forwards.

City’s setup was quite different from the last game and there were especially some huge changes at the defence. Fernandinho returned to the midfield, with Gaël Clichy playing as the left-back. The partner of John Stones was Aleksandar Kolarov instead of Nicolás Otamendi. Willy Caballero continued to start in goal over Claudio Bravo.

The below graph illustrates the xG dynamics of the game. Since City failed to register a shot in the first half, their xG was 0.00. After the break, City were trying everything to get a goal, and at the time Leroy Sané scored the goal, the xG nearly equalised.

Monaco’s style of play

Monaco successfully defended against City by bringing an intense game. Defensively, their shape varied from situations. The first one was a 4-2-2-2 shape as we outlined below. The two wingers were tasked to stay slightly higher at the half-spaces as they had to stay close with the full-backs. The central midfielders stayed deep, marking the advanced midfielders of City tightly. None of them were tasked to man-mark Fernandinho, hence why they left a gap between lines.