The three key features of Pep Guardiola’s tactical tweaks to dismantle Huddersfield

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After a delightful afternoon of football, Manchester City thrashed Huddersfield 6-1.

It was a near-perfect start at home for the Premier League champions, and the vast majority of the conversation was built around their unique formation.

Here are three things we noticed about it.

1. Symmetry is overrated

Football formations are symmetrical, that’s just how they are. It wasn’t always that way; football’s early years are littered with asymmetrical systems and shapes, but that’s how things came to be. 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, you could stick a mirror down the middle of the pitch and the players would effectively have similar responsibilities.

There are exceptions to this, Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli (and now Chelsea) are a wholly asymmetrical system with drastically different roles depending on what side of the pitch you’re on. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are another. Pep has always flirted with asymmetry as a coach but at City, we’ve seen it constantly, and this afternoon in particular.

With no Kyle Walker, City lined up with John Stones ostensibly as a right-back in a 4-3-3. And that is mostly how the team lined-up in defensive phases, sure, but when City had the ball everyone shifted into an asymmetric shape. Aymeric Laporte drifted into the half-space and Vincent Kompany played centrally; leaving Stones looking more like a right-centre-back in a back three.

Ilkay Gundogan and Fernandinho held the centre of the pitch while Bernardo and David Silva both peeled right, sharing that flank between them as they worked combinations to repeatedly unlock Huddersfield. Meanwhile, on the left, Gabriel Jesus was able to play infield as a striker next to Sergio Aguero because the left-flank was being totally dominated by Benjamin Mendy.

This asymmetry left Huddersfield grasping at thin air, unable to cope with City’s ceaseless movement. It created countless chances for the Champions, including the one they took for their second, third and fifth goals. The ball was worked hard in the middle then played out to Mendy in space; in came the cross and bam… goal.

2. Route One as counter-counterstrategy

One of the main reasons Pep Guardiola discarded Joe Hart as an option in goal for Manchester City was because Hart is terrible with his feet. This was dismissed as an absurd reason, and his replacement Claudio Bravo having so many issues actually, you know, saving shots, wasn’t helpful. But in the end, good kicking is essential for Pep’s teams, especially if they’re successful.

Why? Because when City have joy playing out from the back, then the expected counterstrategy becomes to press them high to stop them doing this. Goal-kicks are a favoured time to do this, and Huddersfield did it perfectly today. The only way to ward this off is with confident short-passing and, as Ederson showed today: accurate long-passing.

With 25 minutes gone in the game and Huddersfield’s high-press man-to-man marking stifling things, Ederson took matters into his own hands. Or, feet. When taking a goal-kick he spotted Sergio Aguero making a great run about 60 yards away and then launched an absurd 70-yard pass perfectly into his striker’s path with just one defender and a goalkeeper to beat. A couple of seconds later, Aguero had scored and City had a lead that undid Huddersfield’s defensive gameplan and set the stage for City to unleash hell.

3. The Old-School in focus

Guardiola’s City side is full of exciting young talent, thrilling wingers like Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling, or the devastating Benjamin Mendy, or the solid and courageous John Stones, or the young prodigy Bernardo Silva or the brilliant Brazilian Gabriel Jesus. But today the focal players in their asymmetric system were their old guard; Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Sergio Aguero.

The veterans were quality. Kompany was at the heart of their three-man defence and looked more comfortable on the ball than he has in a while. He kept his defence so well organised and created a great platform for his attackers.

David Silva began the game with his son Mateo, now healthy after his issues last season following a premature birth. Silva put on a show for his son, dancing around opponents and creating chances galore (he put two on a plate for Gabriel Jesus in the first 20 minutes alone) as he moved with freedom through the middle of the pitch in a system designed to give him freedom. He even got on the scoresheet, launching a devastating free-kick up and over the wall into the back of the net.

Sergio Aguero… well, what more can you say about this goalscoring genius? The Argentine was the lead striker in City’s system, being constantly supplied by the movement of Gabriel Jesus and David Silva, and particularly Benjamin Mendy’s marvellous wing-play. Aguero’s first was a delicious chip after a supreme Ederson pass, his second a close-range effort capitalising on a goalkeeping mistake, and his third in the second half a gloriously guided finish from a Benjamin Mendy cross.

Constructing a system to protect and highlight City’s three great veterans is a very savvy move for Guardiola to make.

The post The three key features of Pep Guardiola’s tactical tweaks to dismantle Huddersfield appeared first on Squawka News.



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