OVERVIEW
Manchester City again proved why they are the champions. Totally dominant for the entirety of the match, they were comfortable with a 1-0 lead until they conceded a goal from a Kyle Walker mistake. However, the lead lasted only a minute and Rodri yet again stood up to the occasion. The visitors took a comfortable win back to Manchester.
KEY MOMENTS
As the game started, Bernardo Silva drifted inwards into the pocket behind Haaland almost like a number 10. And Walker was allowed to keep the width in the right wing during the 1st half. Silva was seen dropping back to receive the ball from the right CB, Ruben Dias, almost as a RB.
Bernardo Silva is ideal for this role due to his immense ability to carry the ball forward with his sharp close control. He can draw defenders towards him leaving behind spaces for Walker in the wing or Haaland to exploit.
Kovacic and Rodri played the double pivot during the buildups. As City like to build from the back, now with 3 at the back, with Walker higher in the right wing, they need to add stability in the midfield to avoid pressing.
Whenever the ball is with Ake (central CB), Ruben and Gvardiol move to their extreme sides, allowing Kovacic or Rodri to drop a bit and get the ball.
When the ball is in the opposite half of the pitch, Kovacic is allowed to move just slightly up, but still conscious with the positioning of Rodri.
Creating the forward triangle with Haaland, Julian and Bernardo: This is a beautiful display of intelligent play. Bernardo shifts inwards to join Julian Alvarez just behind Haaland. Walker and Grealish maintain the balance by keeping the width and drawing a defender with each of them. Rodri and Kovacic are there to provide the defensive stability.
Now, Haaland can drop deep carrying the two defenders with him, which would give Julian or Bernardo a chance to make the forward run in behind Haaland into the box. Or, if the defenders do not commit to Haaland, he will have a free pass, with which he can turn, which is again dangerous.
But what if the full backs engage ? Well, then the wingers (Grealish and Walker) get a free pass to run down the flank. A through to the wings would open their entire defence.
In the 10th minute, Julian dropped into the pocket in the left midfield area to receive the ball. This attracted Ahmedhozic and drew him closer to Alvarez. As a result Haaland had a huge space to run through. If Haaland had made this run and Alvarez had made this pass, it could have been a goalscoring opportunity.
Otherwise, Haaland's run could have been a dummy one, as in that case, Kovacic now had the space in front of him to receive the ball.
The amount of flexibility and fluidity Manchester City has been showing is top notch. they are really 'playing' the game.
0:10:39 - Due to situational play, Bernardo got shifted in the wing position. But Walker instantly recovered the space left behind by Bernardo.
See in the 2nd picture below, it can be seen Walker telling Bernardo to stay in that position while he covered the inside midfield position.
But, it was not like that as it was not his original position, he would not do his job. Walker performed the role of that position and not what he himself used to do, originally as a RB or a RW in this match. He pressed up and got into the penalty area to create attacking positions.
This shows the experiece, intelligence and respect that Walker possess. He performed an ideal captain's role.
INTELLIGENT PRESSING: Sheffield's goalkick. They play short. 4 City players surround him pressing high. Julian intercepts the ball but loses it instantly. Bernardo go in for the final press. Walker is positioned just where, if Silva gets a touch to the ball, he will take the ball and run. Rodri and Julian close in for the Sheffield midfielder. The player with the ball have no option but to cover the ball or draw a foul. Ultimately City recovered the ball using the efficient pressing method.
0:37:00 - PENALTY MISS : HAALAND (#9)
I would like to mention the aspect of City's flexible positioning once again.
In the latter part of the 1st half, Kovacic was allowed to move up in a more advanced position creating almost a 3-1-3-2-1 system. Kovacic, Julian and Bernardo as the 3 attacking midfielders behind Haaland and Grealish and Walker were still doing their job to keep the pitch as wide as possible.
In the second picture, you can see Rodri and Kovacic have exchanged their roles. Now Kovacic is in the holding role -- immediately Rodri has shifted to the left side of the midfield to maintain the positioning.
As the second half commenced, it was seen Bernardo Silva back in his original position in the right wing and Walker as the RB, making the overlapping runs behind Silva. Now, the wide players were Grealish and Bernardo.
I believe Kovacic was instructed to move up, joining Julian in the pocket behind the number 9.
So Rodri was the holding player with 4 at his back. Julian and Kovacic moved up the pitch as the number 10s. Grealish and Bernardo were the wide wingers.
INTELLIGENT PLAY FROM MAN CITY: Kovacic made a forward diagonal run from the midfield drawing the Sheffield player with him creating a space behind him. Rodri was clear to get into the space and receive the ball from Gvardiol.
If Kovacic hadn't made this run, Gvardiol probably would had to pass the ball backwards to Ake. Hence, it was a great example of off the ball movement and the attacking mindset that the City players have.
CONSTANT PRESSURE AND OVERLOADING: Manchester City are known for their intense passing and keeping the ball for so long. But it is often overlooked how fast they are able to recover the ball after losing it. Constant pressure and they tend to overload the final third after having the ball for quite sometime, slowly increasing the pressure on the opposition.
In this picture, Man City had possesion for 4 straight minutes including two corners and 2 recoveries from goalkicks. Finally after this amount of pressure, there were 6 Man City players in the box with 2 waiting just at the edge of the penalty area. In all, Sheffield were 8v8 in the 57th minute in their own penalty box against treble winners. This is how the Champions play.
0:63:00 - GOAL! Patience from Grealish paid off. Jack Grealish waited and waited and finally lobbed the ball in the back post for Haaland to head it in. I have two observations here.
Decision making from Grealish. When he received the ball at the left edge of the box, no one was near him. He decided to take on the defender and took his time to get into the box. He knew if the defender comitted into a tackle, he would just move the ball and win his team a penalty. He could not shift to his right foot beacuse there were 4 defenders, two of them covering the far post. There was also no one he could play a one-two-one with.
The option he had that would turn this into a goal scoring opportunity was to lob the ball in the back of the far post. There was a a gap in between the keeper and the defender. But he couldn't deliver the ball with his right foot, as the ball would have a inswing curl which would be in favour of the keeper. But Grealish did the right thing.
He shifted the ball to his left foot and lobbed the ball above the defence into the back of the 2nd post. The goalie could never go for it, as the ball was moving away and he cannot risk his goal. This gave Haaland to get into the position and score a simple header into the back of the net.
0:82:43- This could have gave been a 2nd goal scoring chance for City. Haaland was through with no one in front of him. Grealish could have made a through pass and it was a 1v1 with Haaland and the Sheffield keeper.
Grealish chose to hold the ball and draw a foul. It was 82nd minutes and they were only 1-0 up. I think Man City could have taken this chance.
0:84:25 - GOAL! A poor decision making from the Man City captain cost them a goal in the late minutes.
In the 1st picture, you can see Walker is in total control of the ball ahead of the Sheffield winger. He had the time and opportunity to clear the ball. But he decided to heel the ball back. I don't know if he tried to pass the ball to Bernardo Silva or was he trying to avoid a corner. Nevertheless, the ball was intercepted and finally ended up in City's goal.
You can see the finish in the 2nd picture. The finish was top notch from Bogle. But all of this could have been easily avoided if Kyle had cleared the ball.
And I would like to add that, after losing possesion, Walker did not get up and regroup with the rest of the team (see the 3rd picture). So if Ederson had made the save, the ball could have been tapped in by the fullback. Bernardo Silva is clearly not in position to cover him. It would have been Walker's job to block.
Immediately after losing the ball Walker should be back in his feet trying to make up for his mistake!
SUBSTITUTE: 86'-- KOVACIC <---> FODEN: Bernardo dropped in centre midfield with Rodri and Foden operated from the right flank.
0:88:00 - GOAL! Immediate response from Pep Guardiola's men. Kyle Walker surely made up for his mistake.
No one could reach at the end of Bernardo Silva's cross. The ball was going out for a Sheffield throw.
In the 1st picture, everyone is seeming to jog after they could not the cross went past everybody. But Walker was the only one to react. He accelerated and beat the Sheffield defender and recovered the ball. Foden miscontrolled Walker's cut back into the 6 yard box. Luckily Rodri was postioned perfectly to volley in the winner for the Citizens.
Again, the positioning of the players did the trick. A beautiful volley with his left foot. No keeper could have saved it. A wonderful goal. Rodri is becoming one of the most important goalscorer of this Manchester City side.
They need to protect this lead for the last minutes. Bernardo Silva and Rodri operated as the double pivot with a back 4 behind them. Foden, Haaland and Grealish were up front.
CONCLUSION
Manchester City have grasped the possesion game so well that even if the oppenent is aware of their overall tactics, they cannot do anything -- that is how good Man City have become. They play with the ball with everything they have, just to have the ball. Learning from Cruyff, Pep has stated in numerous interviews his love for possesion play. But what he has done in Manchester City is very different from Barcelona. In his tenure in Spain, Barcelona were not this fast. They used to keep the ball at all times, yes. But it was different. I like to see as if Pep has somehow merged his experiences in Barcelona and at Bayern -- resulting in a very lethal fast paced possesion gameplay that we see in Manchester City.
If I point out some statistics of this match regarding how good City are on the ball,
Sheffield had completed only 95 passes after 54th minute compared to their visitors who did 451 passes.
Sheffield had only 2 touch in the Manchester City penalty area untill the 74th minute.
Another thing that I would like to emphasize is Man City's ball recovery. City have absoultely mastered the art of ball recovery and pressing in times of need.
Pressing is a quite powerful tool. One needs to be fully confident and aware of all the outcomes. And the final ingredient is timing. When to commit to a tackle ? Will that open my defence out ? Am I the last defender ? Will that start a counter ? Any player going into a tackle need to keep in mind all these, in order to make a good tackle. We see defenders making tackles every now and then. According to me this is where the game knowledge of a player comes up. And that is why I am a strong believer of Cruyff's saying that football is a game you play with your mind.
City were not at all at their best today, yet it seemed how comfortable they were to get the win. This does not happen in a week or two. Players need to get confident and comfortable with each other both on and off the pitch. Every positioning of players have a cause behind it and each player on the pitch know from where the next ball would come.
**NOTE : All the match screenshots are taken from the livestream of the match from Disney+ Hotstar. I have annotated them to provide my analytical perspectives.
A well written summary. The overview of the game has been described. The perspectives of the game have been discussed with great knowledge 👍. Keep it up.