In the glow of a disappointing but extremely necessary victory over the Brugge club in its last match of the Champions League, Pep Guardiola put the watch in operation. He recognized his The Manchester City side was not ready for the test raised by Real Madrid (or Bayern Munich) there and then. However, he said, he could change a lot in two weeks.
Time is almost up. And, well, a little price has changed. In two games, English champions have been completely fluffy by arsenal Before a very turned side needed all the cavalry, the bank could gather to pass through the League one Leyton Orient. Price and little seems to have changed. The attack is heavy, the center of the field lacks dynamism and requires very little to open a defense that lacks its rodri -shaped shield.
Now Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe come to the city, taking to the side of Real Madrid that has its own vulnerabilities in a background full of injuries. All that is required is that City produces a way to obtain their blows in the weak torso of European champions, ideally when covering their own glass chin. Fortunately for them they have a manager who will go crazy in search of the perfect game plan to cancel Madrid. The stage seems ready for one of those games in which Guardiola tries something completely different, tremendously experimentally and/or potentially disastrous.
How could the city change to quell the threat of Madrid and increase yours? Let’s imagine.
Real Madrid score vs. Atlético de Madrid: Kylian Mbappe rescues the point after the penalty of Julian Alvarez Panenka
Chuck stand
1. Use an appropriate defender at the back
If there has been a constant through the many ways in which the city has inflicted a disaster in themselves this season, it has been the sieve with which they have tried to defend their own right flank. When Kyle Walker returned from an injury, he seemed to have lost half a jaga yard, but even that version after the premium of his former club captain would be preferable to the options currently at his disposal. Now it is in AC Milan.
Rico Lewis was the next man when Walker left and the young man has his qualities, forged on the sides of Guardiola who were so completely dominant that they never had to worry a lot about the defense. Lewis passes and carries the ball well, his movement is acute and has a strong sense of positioning when the city is camping in the Third Atacker. However, it makes it back and looks like a 20 -year -old defender who has spent most of his professional career that he is not really defending.
Lewis has evidently lost Guardiola’s confidence as a beginning in the biggest games. It is difficult to understand exactly what Matheus Nunes has done to win it. The goal of the Brugge Club in Etihad 12 days ago could have been the most obvious example of one end that blows by the International of Portugal, but was not the only one. It is not surprising. Whatever the nunes are not a right. A natural defender would have known that when Ferran Jutgla had him in the getaway, his best option was to be delayed so that the three midfielders they covered could return and give City the numbers. On the other hand, he promised a Tackle who never approached to win, the club forward was out and nobody could transmit to Raphael Onyedika.
These types of moments have been the norm, not the exception when Nunes is playing right. Perhaps it is a function of being an advanced midfielder for a Guardiola team that still provides lips service to his press. Those players need to snap their opponents when they face their own goal. Do that against a complicated end like Leandro Trosssard, particularly when Bernardo Silva looks so light in the muscle, and runs the risk of converting positions such as a free kick into a dangerous area.
Premier League
In an attempt to exploit the third-man races of Nunes, Guardiola has generally used a 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 in possession, his right back pushed towards that front line where he can keep the width of Phil Foden for move. That is something that could work if the city were more effective out of possession, suffocating the opposition with high pressure. Instead, even Leyton orient players can spend about four black and yellow shirts and create a shot for themselves seconds later.
Now imagine that Luka Modric is sliding those passes through the field, Vinicius running towards them. The center of the back of the right cannot transmit quick enough. There is little value, then, to return to Nunes. Lewis could not be whatever. John Stones or Manuel Akanji on the right? Maybe, but they would not have their legs to keep up with Vinicius or Kylian Mbappe.
There is one that could keep up. In Lens’s 2-0 victory in Reims in November, Abdukodir Khursanov reached a maximum speed of 22.67 mph. The fastest Mbappe or Vinicius have hit the Champions League this season? 22.18. The light inconveniences? Khusanov really did not play as a back for his previous club, although covering the right side of a three rear could be something on Tuesday requests. Well, that and the fact that his debut in English football was as difficult as any young footballer could desire. Speaking after Khusanov’s mistake in the 3-1 victory over Chelsea, Guardiola suggested that he could get his 20-year-old Uzbeko defender from the shot line for a while. Arriving it again in front of some of the most mortal sport shooters would be a little gambit.
2. Play through Haaland
From something that has not worked well for the city to a more successful approach, at least in flashes. Compare and contrast the Haaland Heat Map of Victory over Chelsea with that for its general season.
TRUMEDIA
One of the penalty box players of his generation was back in the midfield, only four of 26 touches in the box. For the season, more than 30 percent of Haaland’s touches have reached the box. Against Chelsea, that proportion was reduced to half. If this has been the performance not coming from a Norwegian of 6 ‘4 ″, it could even have been labeled as a false nine screen. It could be said that this is what it was. Before that term came to mean someone who does not seem like a number 9 that leads the line, a false nine was someone who fell towards the center of the field to create space for other strikers to attack.
In this case, Omar Marmous was starring the space that Haaland was creating. If their careers had been better improved, the objectives would surely have followed. Similarly, a strong jump from Levi Colwill 17 seconds in that contest could have been what prevented City from obtaining an even previous goal, since Marmoush is probably better positioned to claim any film than Trevoh Chabah.
Premier League
The city could have been trying the same against Arsenal last Sunday, it is difficult to be sure how rarely the long passes that tried even approached Haaland. Certainly, however, Marmoush’s positioning even closer to his number 9 suggested that Guardiola had seen something he liked against Chelsea.
Against Madrid it could work even better. Carlo Ancelotti will not be able to present Antonio Rudiger, the type of robust center that can be affirmed in Haaland aerially. David also praises, which means a possible central match of Aurelien Tchouameni and Raul Asensio with Federico Valverde backward to cover the right flank. That is many inexperienced players in their position with small precious repetitions together. Such circumstances tend to bring with them a rickety line that leaves space at the wrong points, whose off -game line hesitates at the wrong time. A little little boy who plays with the great boy at the top could be very useful.
3. A game of keeping away
However, the risk comes in Haaland not to win those films, in a faster fire attack by Madrid in the way Arsenal. There is a reason why Guardiola has never obtained comparisons with Charles Reep or Sam Allardyce. The long ball game could be the most direct route to the goal, but a game of second balls and duels is not easily controlled as one where City completes more than 500 passes. Open any contest to Transions and Mbappe, Vinicius, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham could go through you.
“It is impossible to control those four players for 90 or 180 minutes,” Guardiola said. “The four are exceptional, we know. We have to reduce their participation. They have skill, they combine well regardless of the opponent.
“But we will try to impose our game, be intelligent to get a good result to take the Bernabéu.”
These two concepts of control and imposition suggest the particular approach of Guardiola for the Champions League in the change of the decade, the defensive possession that led the city to the final in 2021. In the three years prior to the arrival of Haaland. That was as innocent as his, giving an average of 0.72 goals not expected by penalty per game. This was the 61 percent possession team, measured accumulation and a half full.
It could work again. Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundagan, Bernardo Silva, Mateo Kovacic: all of them seem to have lost a small explosion, if they ever had one in some cases, but against a Madrid team that really does not pursue them in the middle of the middle of half of the tone could manipulate space as they used to do it. Add a Jack Grealish to bring a little more pause For the center of the field, I hope that the presence of Nico González in training on Monday means that he will be sufficiently in the way to appear, his musculature approaches at least one of Rodri’s great features. Perhaps, and this is where we get really radical, we sacrifice Haaland in search of control.
Covet the ball, attack only when the defense is established, disseminated the responsibility of attack: everything has worked for the city before. If it will work again it seems unknowable, the only thing that can be known with certainty in the Etihad at this time is that what they have will not work against Madrid.
