At the beginning of the season, everyone was questioning the performance of Manchester City. And after they lost against Tottenham in London, all news coverage reported this to be the poorest start to a season in Pep Guardiola’s career. The Citizens were far away from the top-four positions for a period, but finally, things have improved, and they have gradually climbed to a higher position on the table.
From fragility to solidity; we know that John Stones and Rúben Dias have contributed a lot defensively. They have been much better offensively as well, and what has made the difference? Pep said this very recently:
“The only difference is that we run less – we were running too much,”
What is he talking about? In their games earlier this season, Manchester City were not good enough to get all three points even after dominating possession. However, since the Newcastle United victory, they look like they are back. In this tactical analysis, we are showing you how they have been able to get back into the title race.
No need to run a lot with the ball!
The original quote from Pep is “Without the ball you have to run. But with the football you have to walk, or run much less: stay more in position and let the ball run, not you.” Our interpretation of this quote is that the player on the ball should not running with it, i.e. carrying the ball from the box to the halfway line. Instead, move the ball, pass to your teammates, then adjust your position to open up space and thereby help your team.
Under Pep, City are a unique team that must play in their own rhythm – not too quick, not too slow, but doing things at the right moment. If they are on the ball, the vision might be limited, and it is easy to invite pressure from the opposition. One thing that City did not do well enough was to play a useful pass when carrying the ball in the first phase.
There were a lot of examples of this in the West Ham United game. Eric García was one of the players who did too much on the ball and forced a pass eventually, resulting in a possession turnover. Some situations are not that obvious as City still controlled the ball after running with the ball, but the actions of the players did not help the attack.
Therefore, we skipped García in this scout report and focused instead on some events involving Kyle Walker. The right-back had the physical superiority to outrun an opponent, but it was definitely unwise to bring the ball into a group of defenders.
The first image shows that spaces were available in the centre when Walker was on the ball. He recognized this space and looked to move into it, due to West Ham shutting down options out wide.
