Manchester City and Pep Guardiola do not want chaos. In fact, they actively avoid it. Their style is to inflict death by a thousand passes, defending through retaining possession, moving the ball to move their opponents until, eventually, a gap opens. Then comes the through ball, the cutback and the tap-in.
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Except in the era of the moment in Brentford last night, there is none of this.
Were it not for their sky-blue shirts, it would have been difficult to identify this visiting team as Guardiola’s City. The 2-2 draw threw up plenty of their repeat problems from the past three months: a vulnerable high line, weaknesses defending crosses and issues conceding goals in flurries.
Thomas Frank and his Brentford squad have a well-refined game plan against City. An initial 3-5-2 becomes a compact, counter-attacking 5-3-2 when they are in their own half, and they shift into a man-for-man pressing scheme. Often they have scored first, and early, in matches with City, which has facilitated them subsequently sitting back.
GO DEEPER
Summary: Brentford 2 Manchester City 2 – Foden marks two fragile defenses
That did not happen this time at the Gtech on Tuesday.
The tired adjustment after an hour and 2-2 full time. Brentford took a point with two goals in the last 10 minutes after a 12 -minute Phil Foden splint that seemed to have sealed 3 problems for the city.
Brentford’s shape (a 4-3-3) but its principles remained. They were competitive in the marking field of their men, combined their accumulation (some short passes to pass with a lot) and defended well in trios. Its rear back was widely left at the ends of the city, with the central fields and the ends guilty of tracking the races inside, providing central policies and preventing overloads.
City did very little property in the first half: 301 passes produced 8 shots and a wonderful opportunity.
They tried to accumulate in the midfield, moving towards one of the two No. 6, and then bouncing on the right side Manuel Akanji, who can pass or drip forward. In times, the two No. 6, Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, were deeply in accumulation and the city looked 4-2-4 with a quartet disconnected at the top.
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In the last third, the champions were hard and never generated anything close to a reduction. Savinho and Matheus Nunes presented options of wide and crossing, such as the left and right feet on their sides of herbs. Threats
Six of their 10 outdoor players at the beginning were left -handed footprints, which made them a little unbalanced, specific with Foden and Bernardo in the partial space, from which the two sought to enter inside. The disappointing demonstration of the first part of the city joined in the part -time when Kevin de Bruyne, who had derived to the left, skip an attempt from Cruz so up that he hit the roof of the position.
City had success with a direct technical for September’s reversed match, which they won 2-1, and a half-time adjustment last night put their attack on the ground.
Goalkeeper Stefan Ortega started going long to Haaland, who became a target man, with City’s midfielders running beyond him. Bernardo and Kovacic began making crossover runs in build-up, to manipulate Brentford’s man-marking.
Seven of the eight passes Ortega made to Haaland came after half-time, and there have been only two matches across all competitions since the latter joined City in summer 2022 where their goalkeeper has played long to the Norwegian striker more.
Brentford’s pressing game isolated their centre-back Sepp van den Berg against Haaland. He refused to defend touch-tight, clearly mindful of being spun and wary of balls being played in behind. This allowed Haaland to play off multiple touches and gave De Bruyne and Foden time to make runs.
City needed a few attempts to perfect it. From the first attempt, Haaland won the flick-on against Van den Berg and Foden raced through, only to panic with two defenders recovering and pass left to Savinho. The winger tried to find Foden with a hung-up cross but it got headed clear.
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“The long balls we’ve won and we can run, and at that point we made the right decisions,” Guardiola said later. “Matheus in the first half, Savinho once or twice, Erling once or twice. Phil, with a little more composure, would attack the goalkeeper more. »»
Then, from Ortega’s fourth long pass of the second half, everything clicked and the entire front four were involved. Haaland held the ball up and set it for Savinho, with City’s wingers coming narrow from wide starting positions.
After a brief dribble inside, Savinho hit a pass to the doors of his foot towards Bruyne in the wing. The foreigner of Belgium took it on the back and sent an early crossing for Foden, which attacked between two defenders of Brentford to take a look at a long -range finish.
The city moment also came here from a long ball, it’s much more of an clearance for the clouds after coming back next. Brentford’s right-hander, Mads Roerslev, deceived the rebound and Savinho won the ball. He dribbled straight towards the purpose and took a shot susceptible to “the purpose Mark Flekken can only stop, allowing Fode to ride on the loose ball.
The adjustment was transitory, the two groups finish the attacks badly and the referee Anthony Taylor remarkably lenient: he only gave 8 failures in the total adjustment, and none from Brentford in the first half. Savinho’s direct dribbles, specific on counterattacks, were an effective, but not save, way to create chances.
The challenge that the city continued to play for a long time and in transition after his two goals.
There was a moment at 1-0 where, after receiving Ortega’s long pass and turning, Haaland tried to thread Foden through, and the move broke down. Within two passes, Brentford had a tap-in opportunity at the other end. A through ball went inside City left-back Josko Gvardiol and Bryan Mbeumo raced onto it, dribbling around Ortega as he tried to sweep up. It took a goal line block from Nathan Ake to prevent Yoane Wissa equalising from Mbeumo’s pass.
“Of course, with 0-2, we have to close it, but to close it, we have express players to protect a result in the box for a long time,” said Guardiola. “We have to do it with the ball and have the ball and create and create in the last third. “
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City finished with nine direct attacks (seven of them in the second half), their most in a Premier League game since the 2018-19 season. Opta defines these as possessions starting in a team’s own half, with at least 50 per cent forward movement and ending with a shot/touch in the opposition box. From the moment they went 1-0 up, there were only three City moves featuring 10 or more passes.
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Frank defeated Guardiola twice before (at home and out of the gates for the city’s 2022-23 triple season), and hinted in last night’s post-night game that this draw could have ended his hat-trick if Brentford had scored first.
It’s a sign of genuine praise, not the empty edition of Guardiola PC gives ambitious and attackers whose groups won comfortably, this city ended up playing such a game from its standard.
(Top photo: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
Liam Tharme is one of the publishers of athletics football tactics, basically covering the Premier League and European football. Before joining, he studied for diplomas in football coaching and control at UCFB Wembley (first cycle) and in sports functionalities research at the University of Chichester (postgraduate). Originally from Cambridge, Liam spent last season as an academy functionality analyst at a Premier League club, and will be looking to provide technical, tactical and knowledge-oriented analysis. Follow Liam on Twitter @liamTharMetrainer