Man City tactics
Anybody else think Mancini has City playing too fluid a system, with players drifting from their positions far too much? Obviously when done properly players swapping positions and being free to move around the pitch can result in great football and drag the opposition all over the place, but City have just took it to extreme levels. When United play Rooney is probably the only player who plays with the same freedom. He can drop deep to pick up the ball or come out wide etc, and it is very effective. But when over half the team plays this way it causes the team to lose their shape and can make them easy to defend against. They play a 4-2-3-1 starting today with,
Richards-Toure-Kompany-Kolorov
---- De Jong--Yaya Toure----
Milner---- Balotelli---- Silva
---------Dzeko---------
and out of those players I'd class Richards, Yaya Toure, Silva, Milner, Balotelli and Dzeko all playing with the same level of freedom that Rooney does for United, which is just too much to be effective.
Today even Dzeko who usually spearheads the attacks and remains fairly static, occupying the centre backs, was popping up in central midfield to collect the ball and play from deep. It was crazy. It left no body up front and he is not exactly fast enough that he can make up the ground. In general it was counter productive, as without a clear striker at times there was no threat in behind the Sunderland backline, all the play was safely in front on the defenders. When Rooney drops deep for United, we have Hernandez maintaining his position up front which keeps a constant threat of a through ball for the opposition defence, or even if Hernandez wasn't there for some reason, our wingers are always available for the pass out wide. Similarly to Dzeko Milner who was playing on the wing, kept coming inside and playing in the middle making them narrow, Balotelli was pretty much everywhere, Silva drifted like he usually does, Richards plays all along the right hand side, Toure was both one of the holding midfielders, but also trying to get on the end of every attack. Too often it just resulted in a complete deterioration of their shape and made them narrow as players drifted inside.
Moreover the players would end up in positions that they are not supposed to play in, or where they play best. Richards is the best example today as in the first half the amount he got forward was absurd, it was like he was a right winger... but he completely lacks the technical skill to play there. If you want to play a right winger then why not play Johnson? There were times when he was literally the furthest player forward. Yaya is great at breaking from deep but too often he was just hanging around the penalty box which leaves them open to the counter. Milner was a winger playing as a centre mid for large portions of the game, so they were too narrow. He would just come inside where Toure and De Jong were and play simple passes in the already clogged up midfield, it was pointless and City needed him to stay out wide and stretch the pitch. There is no doubt more examples, Nasri is constantly doing it when he plays, he drops deeper than Yaya all the time, it is like they swap positions and the attacking midfielder plays in centre mid, and the centre mid plays in attacking midfield.
When it works, it can produce fantastic football, like at the start of the season when teams just simply could not cope with them, but at the moment it seems too much and when Aguero is missing the movement does not seem clever enough to pose much threat. Milner today for example was entirely predictable when he came in from the wing, so it gave no benefit.
The 4-2-3-1 formation they play is quite similar to Madrid, but they are the complete opposite in the way they play. The players stick to their position much more at Madrid, with the front four responsible for attacking and the midfielders maintaining position in the middle. None of Alonso, Khedira, Diarra would get forwards in same way as Toure. Ronaldo and Di Maria don’t drop as deep as Aguero, Silva, Nasri, Milner etc. Even Ozil and Kaka stay forward more and don’t try and drop deep all the time to control the tempo in the same way that Nasri or Silva do. They just leave that to Alonso and play further forward.
What do people think? City must be the most fluid side in Europe at the moment easily surpassing Barcelona, but it is counter productive in my view.
Find it hard to disagree too much, he makes some good points, what you think?
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