Manchester City — Revolution Through Evolution
A couple of quick thoughts on what Pep and Manchester City are doing in the league this season.
Look at the City passing plots for their Watford and Crystal Palace games. Against Watford they stretched the opposition wide using Mendy as an outlet for low crosses into the box and a right sided bias for combination play. Mendy being that far forward pinned back Janmaat and overwhelming the right side took care of Holebas, Chalobah and Richarlison.
For the Palace game they played narrower targeting the half spaces (almost in a Christmas tree formation) and played a lot more vertical passes and combinations in front of the opposition box. This meant that the Palace wide threats of Townsend and Van Aanholt were forced to play narrower as well, thereby negating their width.
Subtle variations from Pep. The most aesthetically pleasing managers and teams settle on an attacking philosophy and then tweak it based on the opposition. Too often this isn’t recognized as we tend to regard only the complete shape/formation shifters as tactically astute.
Revolution through Evolution is the key to success.
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