Beginning this campaign, expectations for Manchester City Women were high. A side that lost the league title to rivals Arsenal Women the season prior, they wasted no time in trying to right these wrongs for this term. Big names like Ellen White and Aoife Mannion were brought in over the summer to improve upon the side to give them the best chance to push Arsenal all the way.
Nick Cushing’s side are well-positioned to achieve this goal as we enter the second half of the season. They sit in second place, three points behind leaders Arsenal, albeit with Chelsea Women one point behind them having a game in hand. The next two match weeks will go a long way in deciding where the title ends up at the end of this season. On January 19th, Chelsea travel to play Arsenal. Next, on February 2nd, Arsenal make the trip up to Manchester, as City look to avenge their 1-0 loss to their rivals earlier this campaign.
Manchester City Women have had an up and down campaign. An early exit in the Champions League and losses to both of the other two title contenders will have been massive blows, but they remain in the title race. A surprise came in the past week in the form of the clubs announcement that Cushing would be leaving the side at the beginning of February. He leaves after six and a half seasons with the squad, and his departure will leave a massive gap. However, he has laid a foundation to be built upon. His recent alteration to the sides tactics has transformed a side that was faltering for much of the first half of the season into a side that is scoring at will in recent weeks.
This tactical analysis scout report will look at the tactics Cushing has implemented to his side. City have adapted due to circumstances such as injuries in a way that has offered a different dynamic. This analysis will look at these tactical alterations.
Manchester City Women’s start to the season
Manchester City Women began the season with a defined structure they used every week. Cushing has often mentioned the influence of Pep Guardiola on his philosophy and tactical approach. This is very evident in the City side we have seen. Below you can see a general set-up from Cushing’s side in the first half of this season. In possession, Mannion was tasked with dropping into a deeper position to give the side more defensive protection. With this, Demi Stokes was given the freedom to move up and down the left side and have an influence in the attack. This is a very similar approach to that of the men’s side, where we see Guardiola deploy Kyle Walker as a deeper defender on the right and allow Benjamin Mendy more freedom on the left.
In midfield, Keira Walsh was given the role of a single pivot in connection the defensive structure to the personnel higher up the pitch. Carolina Weir and Jill Scott were given the freedom to move forward into the areas behind and between the attacking trio. Up here the rolls differed depending on the situation. The right-winger, normally Tessa Wullaert, often played close to the touchline due to the Mannion’s central positioning from right-back, but the left-wing, often Lauren Hemp, worked with Stokes in moving between the roles of hugging the touchline and moving centrally into the halfspace.
In the images below we can see a couple examples of City’s general attacking shape at the beginning of this campaign. In this first-ever Manchester Derby, the Citizens recorded a season-low .68 xG. In this first image, you can see a common tactic City deployed as they attempted to get their wingers in isolation situations with opposition full-backs. While this has been achieved, there are issues with the structure of the side around the player in possession. Behind her, the full-back is too far back to offer any support from the wide area. This allows the United defender to focus solely on having to defend the attacker in front of her, rather than being forced into deciding whether to block off the pass out wide or move inside. Additionally, the other two attackers are not in positions where they can look to receive a pass from the player in possession. While the United defender has been isolated, the City attacker is isolated as well, making the defensive task easier than it should be.
