Read on Twitter
What's up guys? Let's talk about the last match.
It was a tough one. Sheffield did a excellent job defending, but we were able to win, that's what it matters for now. But how exactly the blades defended so well?
First, the formations. They set up in a 5-3-2, and Pep did a little change in our formation, pushing Zinchenko a little high on the pitch to overload between the lines and to try to attack with 6 players against the back 5 of Sheffield.
The blades choose to not press high, so our back 3 had time and space to play, but here's the trick: the idea of Chris Wilder was to cut the pass lines and to protect the wide areas and the space between the lines. So we had the ball, but none was free to receive it.
One way to break this kind of defense is to do what we usually do: to overload one side of the pitch then switch to the other side of the pitch to make a 1x1 play. Fernandinho is the player who usually do that, but he was trapped all the time, without time to do that long pass.
As you can see, the shape of Sheffield allowed they to trap Fernandinho and to watch our midfielders at the same time, so our options were to play only outside, which was what we did, as you can see in the map from @WhoScored .
Sheffield also had a way to deny our attempts to drag their players out of position: when Laporte or Walker pushed high, one of the forwards followed our man, so they were able to still protect the spaces that they wanted and to watch our players.
But we were able to drag their players out of position when we switched fast. Fleck or Lustram were forced to push high to press Walker or Laporte, and then our midfilders had space to play.
Sheffield tried to adjust this with a defender following our free midfielder, but then they back 5 were undone and we had space to do a long pass behind their defensive line, which were how we made the majority of our dangerous plays in the game.
Another thing that we did was to fix their fullbacks with one midfielders when the ball was in the opposite side, to free our winger to receive a long ball.
Something similar like our goal was created. Of course, the main thing in the goal was the play that Ferran did, but since it was very difficult to break their lines, it's good to see that something worked it out.
Pep saw those difficult things, and changed to our usually shape, with 2 pivots, so Zinchenko dropped to help Fernandinho. It gave more space to our 25 receive the ball and to switch sides with his long passes. We're able to control more the possession and to progress more too.
Here's a example. This play ended in a very dangerous cross of Zinchenko, exactly in a quickly switch of sides, that Fernandinho had time and space to do.
Despise the fact that Sheffield did a great job, we could do a LOT better. Like we saw, we had tactical weapons to break their defense, but to work, we needed a faster pace in our passes and good long passes too.
Also, our players should've won more duels too, specially the 1x1. I think the early goal made our team more patient, but less aggressive with the ball too, so the game was what it was.
It was possible to see how much we miss Kevin and Cancelo in this kind of match. But, another 3 points, and lessons to learn. Better in a win then in a loss. Thoughts?
Hope you guys enjoy as always! @ManCityMEN @MaineRoadRamble @city_rabin @city_tactics @RealTalkMCFC @City_Xtra @City_Chief @CityOnACard1 @cityreport_ @ManCityzenscom
