Change of playing style?

[Carver]

We’ve got our 4 first choice defenders fit atm, so what better time to experiment with a 3 man defence, which we couldn’t do last season. Once we get used to it we can use it as and when, particularly in Europe.

Also notice that at the end It must have been really mind boggling for Huddersfield as we had 6 left footed players on the pitch, 5 of whom were the most attacking players. (Plus Jesus).

 

[taleofbluehalves]

Imagine being Wolves and guessing what we’ll do this weekend!

 

[cleavers]

Still need to work out who will start out of Sane, Sterling & Mahrez

Or none of them like Sunday ;-)

 

[cleavers]

Somewhere in Pep's book he talks about keeping the ball on one side of the pitch until the opposition comes looking for it and loses their shape, before a 50/60 yard diagonal pass is launched to a wide player who Pep has instructed to stay on the line - the wide player then bombs forward. At the moment, that wide player is Mendy mostly. Walker and Sterling do it. Mendy was further up the pitch than a wing back - amazing recovery pace.

Pretty much nailed what we did on Sunday really.

 

[foggy1974]

Thought the first 20 minutes attacking against Huddersfield were amazing. Probably the best under Pep for threat and intensity. Seemed a lot less passing in midfield to drag the defenders out, maybe down to Kevs injury

 

[Hoghead]

- the first goal on Sunday is stuff that sets us apart from a lot of teams.

What? Hoof ball? I thought that was the stuff of rags!

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

What? Hoof ball? I thought that was the stuff of rags!

There is a major difference! A kick it up field hoof to take the pressure off a defence and see if their strikers can make summat of it, and then there's the pinpoint pass to a world class striker who turns an opposition press into a goal at t'other end. Jaw-dropping! Particularly for the away bench!

 

[Hoghead]

There is a major difference! A kick it up field hoof to take the pressure off a defence and see if their strikers can make summat of it, and then there's the pinpoint pass to a world class striker who turns an opposition press into a goal at t'other end. Jaw-dropping! Particularly for the away bench!

Maybe I should have added a smiley to my post. ;-)

 

[Pughie]

Thought the first 20 minutes attacking against Huddersfield were amazing. Probably the best under Pep for threat and intensity. Seemed a lot less passing in midfield to drag the defenders out, maybe down to Kevs injury

Wasn’t necessarily to do with Kev’s injury, Huddersfield played narrow and packed the midfield so Guardiola went wide as that was where the space was.

In one of Peps books when he was at Bayern, they played Dortmund and Klopp started with a 3-6-1 to flood the midfield, so Pep told his players just to keep it in the channels and just knock cross fields balls to either wing, they won 5-0, Klopp said in his post match presser “they didnt do what we thought they’d do”

Think it’s fair to say Pep has more plans than there are letters in the alphabet, it’s a nightmare trying to recreate it on football manager!

 

[ChicagoBlue]

At one point on Sunday the possession was 79-21! I think Guardiola is giving more thought to the weaknesses of the opposition rather than attempting to bore them to death with moves that involve at least a thousand passes!

After 28 mins, the US feed showed possession at......91-9!!!

Guardiola has used different formations for the exact reason you cite...horses for courses!

When a team is going to play 1 upfront, the 3 in the back with at least one of them marauding into midfield is natural. Pulling “Park the bus” teams as wide as possible with the full/wingbacks, allows us to dominate the channels inside...which draws teams inside - narrow and compact (as you see from the hand gestures from other coaches on the sidelines)... allowing those wingbacks to get down the line and create the spaces in those channels we are dominating with runners OR whip a cross into the middle. In short, it is all about moving the ball around as quickly as possible to move the opposition players around and create options for the next pass...inside or outside, slotted or whipped in, slid through or chipped over....OPTIONS that smart, quick players see, create and exploit.

As Pep says, it is ALL about the quality of the players. It’s not about MONEY, but if you don’t have a team of Foden’s coming through the Academy (yet!), you have to go out and find the best quality youngsters in the world that you can build that team around, which gets you Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Mendy, Bernardo, Sterling, Sané, Jesus (THAT’S EIGHT PLAYERS WHO COULD BE THE BACKBONE OF THE TEAM FOR THE NEXT EIGHT YEARS!!). Given most of these players were bought before the “£50M+ for a slightly better than average Prem player” wave of this last transfer season, what are those 8 players worth in today’ market? HAS TO be well over HALF A BILLION QUID!!

Anyway, back to the tactics...The first 10 minutes of the Huddersfield game showed the mastery of Silva & Silva on the right wing and in the channel...pull the opposition wide, slot the ball inside the edge of the box, if the route gets blocked off, come back out and either switch the play to the other (open) side or go again. It was DAZZLING to see the rondos in action against opposition players in an actual game, and those first 20 minutes would have scared the shit out of anyone thinking City were going to rest on their laurels.

The Future is Blue.
The Future is NOW!