london: Last week, Pep Guardiola replied to a journalist’s question by saying: “Do you want to be my assistant coach? You are brilliant, you are top.”
The journalist asking that question was me.The reason for my question was to try to gain insight into Manchester City’s increasing use of narrow and fluid attackers.
In City’s stellar side of 2017-18, Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling would finish games with white paint on their boots after being stationed high and wide.Almost a decade on, Guardiola’s system looks very different.
To understand why requires a deep dive.In my question I referenced an article Guardiola wrote for Spanish newspaper El Pais in 2006, in which he analysed Spain’s 3-1 win against Tunisia.
An important aspect of that column was his analysis of how to break down low blocks, which has been a key theme this season.“When you decide to play on the counter-attack, you have plenty of space. When you decide to attack [with the ball], you have less. [But] when you play on the counter-attack, the ball belongs to the opponent,” he wrote.
At the start of this season, City leant into the counter-attacking strengths of individuals such as Erling Haaland and Tijjani Reijnders. By November, they had scored more goals from fast breaks than in the previous two league campaigns combined.In response to increasingly physical and centrally compact defences in the Premier League, City were scoring by bypassing teams’ low-blocks altogether.
And although City still look to use their fast attackers, the Spaniard has applied the brakes in recent weeks, with his words from 20 years ago hinting as to why.Playing more directly can lead to more turnovers, especially centrally.
In those circumstances, the attacking side can become stretched with the forwards far from the midfielders and defenders.If a side’s shape off the ball is not compact and a team loses the ball often, the logic behind Guardiola wanting to minimise the risk around playing directly is obvious.“After [their opening goal], Tunisia wanted the game to be 14-a-side. They wanted a game with little space,” he continued in his column.
