Manchester City 1-1 Real Madrid on the night but it's an early Champions League exit for Pep Guardiola's side all the same. But why, despite playing well and creating some big chances against the Spanish giants, did City fail to win the game?
Adam Clery examines the game, finds how City were able to get on top, but also breaks down why they couldn't make it count.
Adam Clery examines the game, finds how City were able to get on top, but also breaks down why they couldn't make it count.
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00:00All right, so this was Manchester City, and I think with the exception of the missing
00:05John Stones, this isn't just their strongest XI, but it is beat for beat, the treble winning
00:10team.
00:11Now, the plan, as you are no doubt familiar with by this point, where Man City set up
00:14this way is to bring one of the defenders forward from the back line into the midfield
00:19to give us the 3-3.
00:22They do this because so many teams invariably set up in either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, so
00:26theoretically, that gives them four players in an area where most teams only have three.
00:32So this shape, combined with the fact that Ederson can just play as a regular centre-back
00:37if he wants, meaning they outnumber you absolutely everywhere when they're building up, means
00:40you have to come to play Man City with some kind of plan.
00:44And Real Madrid's plan was this, basically a 4-2-4 with all their attackers in a flush
00:50line sitting between the defence and the first line of City's midfield, with a plan to force
00:56them wide.
00:57You saw this loads before Madrid got that goal, like the defenders, the goalkeeper,
01:01they were allowed to have the ball in this area and just sort of circulate it around
01:05and Madrid's players would sort of trot out to them to close them down, but crucially,
01:09these central two here would only do so if they could leave their man in their what's
01:14known as, I think I always call it shadow cover, but someone in the last video told
01:17me it's cover shadow.
01:18Like, you get the idea, they block the pass even though they're not marking the man.
01:22They were basically trying to get City to go wide with it and then they jump far more
01:25aggressively and try and cut off all the passing options back in field at the same
01:29time to try and win it back.
01:30But the thing is, you're never going to keep City in this part of the pitch for too long.
01:34So their main part of the plan was more central-er and more clever-er-er.
01:40So two little facts for you here, friends.
01:43Fact number one, you can't really have serious aspirations of winning a game of football
01:47if your centre forward's primary job is just to be meat in the middle of the pitch.
01:52But also, fact number two, you're only ever really outnumbered if you want to be.
01:58Madrid's main plan for dealing with City's box midfield was to just forget about Akanji.
02:03Like, in a scenario with Rodri, De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva, he's definitely the least
02:08dangerous on the ball, he's probably the one you can most allow to have that space.
02:12So they were quite happy to let him sort of roam free.
02:16And if we show you his heat map from the game, you can see that as a result of that, he kept
02:21finding himself as the spare man in the final third of the pitch.
02:24So he was receiving the ball there absolutely loads.
02:26Now this is obviously an enormous gamble, because if he plays a blinder, then you're
02:30going to get absolutely hammered.
02:31Like, relaxing the marking and relaxing the pressure around a particular player so you
02:36can focus it elsewhere is a very Ancelotti, no tactics, just vibes idea.
02:41But if we show you his pass map at the same time, yeah, he gets it a lot.
02:44He's receiving it pretty much all the way across that front line.
02:47But how many of these passes are ending up in the box?
02:49How many of them are incisive?
02:51How many of them actually create chances?
02:53Well, virtually none is the answer to that.
02:55But City's best chance in that half did come about as a result of this Akanji situation,
03:00but also be the main thing they were trying to do in the final third.
03:03Like the three box three system is designed to do two things primarily.
03:07Like, first of all, it gives you numbers in the build up phase.
03:10You can play through a lot easier, but also it's supposed to give you space and numbers
03:14again in the final third.
03:15City's wide players, and this is sometimes, by the way, why we talk about whether or not
03:19this is a great fit for Phil Foden, because when you're stuck out there in this system,
03:23you are really stuck out there.
03:24Their job is to hold as much of the width as possible to try and like lure the defenders
03:29toward them.
03:30Now, given that one or sometimes both of the center backs will be concerned with Harland,
03:34if you can drag a fullback out of position, if you can bait them towards the touchline,
03:38that in theory leaves you loads of room in both channels for your three eights, as we call them,
03:44to get on the ball or possibly even running behind.
03:46And in that first half, City actually got in once or twice by doing this exact thing.
03:50Like Kevin De Bruyne was being man marked by Tony Cruz, but all he had to do was slip
03:55his marker, evade his attention for a couple of seconds.
03:58And when Mendy was getting drawn out to Foden, that space was there.
04:01Now, this is the build up to that chance, right?
04:02Foden has received the ball really wide.
04:04He's drawn Mendy towards him, and that is not one of the center backs.
04:08That is Tony Cruz.
04:09So the actual distance between Madrid's back four here is enormous.
04:13And of course, please note who is the unmarked player in this scenario?
04:17Manuel Akanji.
04:18So Foden rolls the ball into him, and obviously that means Real Madrid now have to become
04:22alive to the danger Akanji presents.
04:24And the only player in attendance is Tony Cruz.
04:27So he takes his attention off De Bruyne for a split second.
04:30De Bruyne can now exploit that space between Mendy and the defense.
04:34Akanji plays him in really well, and they should, with a slightly better delivery,
04:39get a goal from this.
04:40So I know that did happen before the Real Madrid goal,
04:42but just an example of how City did seem to have a really good handle on this.
04:45And despite Madrid's good setup, stopping them doing exactly what they wanted to do,
04:50they were still dominating and making chances.
04:52But anyway, none of that matters, does it?
04:54Because then Real Madrid managed to score a goal.
04:57And I have seen Kyle Walker getting pelters for this, for playing the lad on side.
05:02But can we just back that up for a couple of seconds?
05:06This is actually really good play by Madrid exploiting Man City's press.
05:12Yes, it is.
05:12Now the danger that Tony Cruz presents on the ball means that Kevin De Bruyne
05:16couldn't really jump off him to press the center backs.
05:19Because if he found some space and he got on it,
05:20then that's probably Madrid's most dangerous player in this area on the ball completely free.
05:25So he was tasked with this.
05:27You don't really want to jump Bernardo Silva either for similar reasons.
05:30So the job of joining in with the press of the defense,
05:32and specifically the center backs, fell to Jack Grealish.
05:36Now, that's actually quite a good thing from Man City's perspective,
05:39because Danny Carvajal was playing very aggressively.
05:41He was pushing really far up.
05:42So by having Grealish press this area, it means that they did win the ball back.
05:47Straight away, Grealish will be in loads of space.
05:50So it kind of, there's two good reasons to do that.
05:53But what it does force them to do is have Guardiola push all the way up this side
05:57to then make sure that Carvajal can't get on the ball.
06:00Just, yes, I know what you're thinking.
06:02That is a center back playing as a full back,
06:04being asked to press another full back in his own half.
06:08That's just Guardiola.
06:09That's what he does.
06:10And would you believe it?
06:11This shape here with Man City's back four doing this presents a problem
06:16if you can get the ball into that area, which they did.
06:19It's played out to Carvajal exactly the way Guardiola will have predicted.
06:22He's not really got anything on.
06:24You can put the pressure on him.
06:24Hey, maybe you can turn the ball over.
06:26But no, he just humps it long into the center of the pitch.
06:30And Jude Bellingham manages to take a touch.
06:32So good.
06:33I have legitimately been for a pregnancy test this morning.
06:37It's a ball.
06:38Now, obviously, because Guardiola has pushed up that much on the left hand side,
06:41Diaz has covered across and Rodri has sat in a little bit.
06:44So City are actually pretty good here.
06:47They've got an improvised back four.
06:48So the space isn't too much of an issue.
06:50But that's the problem with improvising anything, my friends.
06:53It can go slightly wrong.
06:54Diaz's natural instinct when Bellingham receives the ball in the center of the pitch,
06:58given that's probably his man,
07:00or to go back into that area, especially when he jinx around Rodri.
07:04So now Man City have found themselves in the position where this is their sort of improvised
07:09back four.
07:10Not good.
07:10And this is their actual back four.
07:13Either way, that now gives Valverde all this space to get into.
07:16And Bellingham duly obliges him with the pass.
07:19Now, OK, yes, Kyle Walker, you are an experienced England international.
07:22You're one of Man City's most important players.
07:25You are looking along this line.
07:27If you just stop, if you just hold your position, this move is finished and Real Madrid never
07:33score from it.
07:34But the reality is, and this is why I'm going to let Kyle Walker off with this.
07:36He is in this side to stop any of Madrid's attackers, whoever's over on the left,
07:41from breaking into the space behind.
07:43His job is to cover those runs.
07:45So in his head, he is constantly trying to give himself an extra yard or two.
07:51And it's that extra yard or two that plays him on side.
07:53What I don't think you can let him off for is his decision making here,
07:56because he's got everything under control.
07:59He's blocking off the pass.
08:00They can't make a run.
08:01All he's got to do is just have a quick look over his shoulder to see where his player is.
08:05Instead, he gets drawn towards the near post to stop a near post run that is never happening.
08:11There's nobody there.
08:12Nobody's going to do that.
08:13And as a result, he can't cut that pass out and the score.
08:16Now, this presented a pretty major problem to Man City because they were playing really
08:19well, exploiting the areas of space that Real Madrid are leaving.
08:22But now, Real Madrid had a goal to protect and started leaving a lot less of that space.
08:28Madrid just then went about as deep as a Jeff Buckley song and as compact as corned beef,
08:32more or less defended man for man and stopped City really having too much of the ball in the
08:37areas where they could hurt them.
08:38And just to show you how much Man City struggled to get the ball in the areas they wanted to have
08:43it, right?
08:44On average, in the Premier League this season, Man City have attempted about 16 or 17 crosses.
08:50Last night, and oh boy, they attempted 46 crosses from open play.
08:57Madrid routinely forced them around the sides, denied them any sort of penetration in the
09:02middle.
09:03And City tried everything to play through the middle of Madrid.
09:06Like, I'll just show you the average positions, right?
09:08Because this is quite funny.
09:10Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden are an amorphous blob in this right-hand channel
09:15because they kept interchanging positions so much from the two eights and the wide right
09:20to just try and find a bit of space to evade a marker to make something happen.
09:24But quite correctly, Pep Guardiola realised that the incision was not going to come from
09:29these three players in this space.
09:31It was from the one man who was holding his position, Jack Grealish.
09:35Or rather, Jack Grealish's area of the pitch behind Danny Carvajal.
09:40Because when everything is so tight and everybody is defending so manfully,
09:43the thing that will open this up better than any clever piece of play or interchange or
09:48positional yada yada yada is just take a man on and beat him.
09:52And you know what?
09:53As far as quite telling graphical representations go, this one is definitely one.
10:00Every single take on basically just running at another player with the ball, trying to
10:05get around them through dribbling that Manchester City attempted in that match.
10:09And the concentration of them, I'm sure you'll agree, is quite heavily weighted
10:14into Danny Carvajal's area of the pitch.
10:16Now, Jack Grealish, I thought, had a pretty good game.
10:19He was stretching Madrid really well.
10:20His work on the ball was good.
10:21His work off the ball was good.
10:23But it was when they subbed him, when they binned him for Jeremy Doku,
10:27literally a specialist in this sort of nonsense.
10:30That's when City looked their most dangerous.
10:32And case in point, this is that graph, but just Jeremy Doku's contribution to it.
10:37Now, I know there's a lot of reds in this, but you've got to think, like, even if you're
10:41not getting past the play with the ball, you're still forcing them back when you're doing
10:45that.
10:45So the amount is almost as important here as the success.
10:48And that is exactly how Man City got their equalising goal, because running at players,
10:52taking players on, creates moments of chaos and uncertainty.
10:56And they profited through one.
10:58Doku receives the ball out wide.
10:59And at this point, he's not even up against Camavinga.
11:01They've dropped Valverde all the way back because of how worried they are about what
11:05he can do.
11:06But regardless, he runs into the box.
11:08And this creates that moment of uncertainty.
11:11You can see Bellingham and Camavinga both pointing at De Bruyne, expecting the other
11:15person to pick him up.
11:16But in the few seconds that transpire after that, he finds the space required to be on
11:22the receiving end of the save.
11:23And he tucks it away.
11:24Now, if like me, you were watching this game, you probably thought, well, that is it now.
11:28City have got all the momentum.
11:29They've got the goal.
11:30They're finding a route through.
11:31This should surely let them get the winner.
11:34And everything I have talked to you about so far in this video should have combined
11:40perfectly for them to get a second goal.
11:43It is the 80th minute and you have seen every element of what is about to happen already
11:47in this video.
11:48Doku is wide.
11:50That has drawn out the fullback and created this enormous gap between him and the defender.
11:55But not only that, the unmarked player in this scenario, the one Madrid are choosing
11:59not to worry too much about is Manuel Akanji.
12:02And because he is deemed to not be the big priority, he's the one who can exploit this
12:07gap between the fullback and the centre-back.
12:09And Doku finds him with it.
12:11He gets to the byline.
12:12He cuts it back.
12:13And lo and behold, which Manchester City attacker has been able to slip off the back of his
12:18marker to find a little bit of room?
12:20Kevin De Bruyne.
12:22All he's got to do is bury this chance.
12:24And you have a living, breathing, top-level Pep Guardiola masterclass that you can show
12:31the world on YouTube.
12:32But he doesn't.
12:35He absolutely beams it over the bar.
12:38But then it goes to penalties.
12:40And if you want to know the real reason why Man City lost this game, right, it's because
12:44they just didn't learn.
12:46Wind the clock back what feels like a million years to the Community Shield final.
12:51Manchester City are playing Arsenal.
12:53It goes to penalties.
12:54They lose that one as well.
12:55And Muggins here does a video looking at the amount of time City were giving themselves
13:01between the whistle being blown and the ball being kicked.
13:04The science, people are obviously still doing the science behind this, but the working theory
13:08is that the longer you give yourself before striking the ball, the more you can get your
13:13breathing right.
13:14The more you can lower your heart rate, the better chance you give yourself of scoring
13:19that penalty.
13:20Arsenal just did it against Porto in the Champions League as well.
13:23They took way, way longer on average per kick, and they were much better at doing it.
13:27Obviously, it guarantees you absolutely nothing.
13:30Nothing guarantees you anything in this sport.
13:32That's the beauty of it.
13:33But margins, margins matter.
13:35The little things you can do to give yourself the best possible chance of doing well, and
13:40Man City did not do that.
13:42They rushed two of their penalties, and lo and behold, they missed those two penalties.
13:48Like everybody who saw that Bernardo Silva penalty was like, what on earth, what on earth
13:52is he doing with that?
13:53But remember, they couldn't get the ball out of the crowd, and he sort of like squabbled
13:57to get it back.
13:58Then he just put it down, hit the thing, and lo and behold, it was just so...
14:02I've never seen a penalty like it.
14:04Like, it wasn't down the middle with any finesse or power.
14:07It was just like he was passing the ball to the goalkeeper.
14:10And that was the difference.
14:11Man City were the better side by an absolute mile, but they missed the great chance they
14:16managed to carve out for themselves, and then they squandered the opportunity they had with
14:21penalties.
14:22And that's the way it goes, I'm afraid.
14:24If it's any consolation to you, a probable Manchester City fan, I do now think that you
14:29will go on to, how can I phrase this, dry bum the league.
14:32But still, it's never nice to get eliminated from such a big competition.
14:36Now, if you have enjoyed this video, and you bloody well better have, please do consider
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14:54New issue of the magazine out now, it's the Invincibles issue, featuring an incredible
14:58cover story about Arsene Wenger's side that never, ever lost a game in the Premier League
15:03that season, and everybody likes as a result.
15:05It's really good.
15:05Can't believe I caught that like that.
15:07Anyway, that's available from all good newsagents, you should enjoy that.
15:09Get me on Twitter at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y, and 442 socials are in the corner of the video.
15:14We have a cool newsletter that you can subscribe to in the description, and I think that's
15:18everything.
15:19Which I now say at the end of every video, I think that's everything.
15:21I should learn or write it down.
15:22I should have it on notes.
15:24Shouldn't I?
15:24I'm rambling.
15:26Yes.
15:26Sorry, Man City.
15:29Vamos, Madrids, and bye.
15:32That was it.
15:32That's the word I couldn't find.
15:34Goodbye.