Aguero as False 9
Aguero played as false 9 and was regularly getting involved in the attack by dropping into the middle third. The gap left by Aguero was filled by either one of Silva or De Bruyne or by a winger cutting in from wide.
In the inward movement of the wingers, there was a peculiarity. Nolito, during his time on the pitch, drifted towards the center only a few times – probably two. He was mainly sticking to the wings. Whereas on the other side, Sterling and Sagna were regularly swapping between wings and half-space.
When De Bruyne was moving further central from his half-space position, Sterling was moving to half-space to create an overload on the back line and Sagna was drifting out wide to the wings.
After Clichy’s substitution
When Clichy was substituted and Kalechi Iheanacho was brought in his place, City moved to a proper and permanent back three of Kolarov – Stones – Sagna with Fernandinho just ahead of them.
The shape was a 3-1-4-2. Even before this substitution, City was changing to back three and was overloading the front line with five players in a 3-1-5-1 shape.
What did we learn from the game?
Manchester City’s performance against Sunderland, in contrast to its pre-season games, was a massive improvement. Caballero committed a few mistakes but was not as error prone as he was in the previous games. However, between him and Joe Hart, Guardiola doesn’t have a goalkeeper suitable for his playing style.
Manchester City should be entering the market for a goalkeeper who is a good passer of the ball and has the ability to play under pressure.
City displayed pressing resistance by placing players behind the line of press, played with exploiting width to stretch the defence and depth to open gaps between the lines, showed great flexibility and positional dynamism.
They also had a good understanding of positioning between the players and was quite comfortable in bringing the ball out of defence – all of which are tools required to play positional play of a high degree.
The future seems to be good but it is not correct to rate a team based on only one performance. However, in such a short time Guardiola has converted City from a typical English team, to play his style of football which features a lot of effective possession.
Watch this space for the analysis of Manchester City’s Champions League qualifying game against Steaua Bucuresti.
