Pep Guardiola's 2020/21 Tactics | Manchester City's Tactical brilliance |

Hello and welcome back to Football Made Simple Manchester City sit comfortably at the top of the Premier League, 10 points clear of their next rivals after a poor start to the campaign. This seemed highly unlikely, but Pep Guardiola has once again demonstrated his ability to adapt the team's style to him. game and find new solutions within his team, but what

tactics

exactly have allowed Manchester City to reach this position? Let's take a look. We'll start by looking at formations at the beginning of the season. City often adopted the 4-2-3-1 with de Bruyne in the tenth position to start and often a false nine, as Jesús and Agüero initially struggled with injury, but in recent weeks and months they have back to 433 and there has been extensive team rotation, but for the sake of the video, these will be the two starting elevens that we will use, let's start by looking at the preparation phase, as Manchester City have always generally dominated possession with the average of highest possession in the league and it is extremely rare for them to come under pressure in their own third, in fact City. faced the most pressure per game by virtue of having so much of the ball, but only faced the 30th most pressure per game in their own defensive third, as most teams sit deeper, as a result, the City usually leaves its own third unopposed after Edison finds a center. -back and here we see the first differences in the two approaches at the beginning of the season, we saw more frequently cansalo and in particular mendy starting at left back, while carl walker was at right back, both left backs are very offensive and cancello could get into the midfield. but we will focus on what happened when Mendy was in the team.

He is much less comfortable on the ball, so trusting him to invest in these high-pressure central regions would be a risk. Also, it's not really his natural game as it's more of a traditional dropback and he would hug the touchline and move further up the pitch and to the right we often see Car Walker moving towards midfield, although he tends to sometimes stay deeper to create a three in the front line, especially when City are being pressured by a front two as this will give them the numerical advantage so at the beginning of the gundam season one would stay deeper often to be the second pivot next to rodery in the 433 the composition of the backs is the first difference lately sinchenko has been more often the left back And we have seen more of Cansello as a right back, which has altered things when playing against teams looking to pressure them with two men.

It is Zinchenko who often stays further back with stones moving very far and Xiao Cancello moving towards the midfield region alongside Rodri. and they can just as easily build with a 2 when they are under less pressure with Zinchenko also draining the midfield so that they have a 2 and then a 3 in the early phases, this gives the center backs different angles to look to pierce the first line of pressure and, more importantly, means that all three eights are now free, unlike the previous formation where only De Bruyne would be free. Gundawan generally uses this freedom to move higher between the midfield lines, while Bernardo can do the same, but we see it too. move wider to provide another option if the center is too full to progress, this is all made easier by the facts and Cansella is extremely comfortable on the ball and more capable of progressing than say Walker and Mendy, and throughout Of the season there has been renewed emphasis on putting men between the lines and this was even more true when 4231 was used from the start; in fact, sometimes Mars tended to move towards the center early to help this, so Walker would initially remain wide, which would be the trigger for De Bruyne to move deeper.

This meant that the shape could be seen as a 343, as Rodri would drop towards the backline as Walker was higher while Gunderwan and De Bruyne stayed deeper, but overall higher up, Sterling started on the left very heavily. more frequently and with Mendy as a more vertical position. As a backup, it would allow him to get up and down the field much more, this meant that Sterling would enter the field much earlier and spend more time looking to receive with his back to the goal rather than running towards his man. He sometimes tried to run. from outside to inside in this space looking to receive the chip ball on the baseline, but it was advantageous because now the

city

would have many men rotating between the lines and Bernardo and de Bruyne in particular used the opposite movements well with Bernardo dropping deep and Como As a result, space was created for De Bruyne to run, but things are slightly different now, especially as the wingers are now kept much wider at the start, as Pep himself said we had to find a way at the end.

I felt the open, high ends helped. In order for us to be more stable and have control in many aspects, this was facilitated by the full-backs, mainly Zinchenko moved more towards the center, giving the left winger more space to start wide. Sterling has still often started there, but we've also seen more foden as a natural left. footer and Sterling in his place starting on the right, his natural side as well and where before Marte cut between the lines before receiving the ball, now he or Sterling on the right can hug the touchline initially facilitated by cancello, usually when Walker pushes towards these.

In the midfield positions it is more static but Kinsello runs and dribbles high into this right half space, as a result there is less need for the right winger to get in early and instead they can provide the width we often see when Mares or Bernardo start open. Since they can receive the ball close to the touchline, then look for the cross from these wider regions. Zinchenko initially in midfield instead of wide as Mehndi has also unlocked Gundam One, as he stands higher in this halfspace. Often from here it is often. able to receive and look to combine with Sterling who tends to draw defenders towards him, creating more space in the heart for gunduan to attack, as a result gundawan generally runs more towards the box, which explains his higher goal rate from the change, but Lateral overloads and changes are still a big part of the game for City on the left.

This often occurs when Zinchenko moves to the outside, along with Sterling and Gundawan and often the false Jesus knight who has generally operated deeper this season when the opposition meets the right. the winger is then free to receive similar mechanisms occur on the right where bernardo or de bruyne move to the right joined by the winger and cancel second one moves crucially towards this half space dragging behind so that the switch is on and when the ball goes wide for the cut-out City puts bodies into the area and Gundogan's spatial awareness has often seen him arrive late to finish.

Now let's quickly touch on the defensive side of things as City still like to press high sometimes with a midfielder like De Bruyner or Silva pushing. up to 442 temporarily and this protects the central regions, but overall they have eased the pressure by opting for a more cautious defensive approach in transition, this is facilitated by a strong shield in front of the central regions due to their attacking form. and therefore they can try to slow down their opponents, we see this with their most active defenders with the most tackles and interceptions per 90 and when they force deep for long periods the shape transforms into a 4-5-1 and the association Between John Stones and Ruben Diaz it has proven fruitful to communicate effectively to crucially cover the gaps, nor to dive into the tackles to stay on your feet to guide your opponents.

Of course, it is almost impossible to fully explore Pep's

tactics

in a given season, but these are just some of the key concepts, but how do you think City are doing in each competition this season and what other

tactical

elements have you noticed? Leave it in the comments below. A quick thank you to my sponsors for helping make this video possible. You want to directly support football on patreon.com and you'll get rewards like early access to exclusive videos and content and a huge thank you to benny and loic for their support on patreon, but that's all for today and remember, keep it simple.