City's victory does not paper over the cracks

Starting elevens

Yesterday's match between Manchester City and Swansea had created many expectations after City's latest loss for the Champions League - and subsequent questioning of Roberto Mancini's tactical and man-management skills. Would the Italian manager persist with the three-man defence or would he heed his players' call? In the end, the Citizens took the three points, but Swansea will probably count themselves unlucky not to get a point.

As it turned out, Mancini surprised many a pundit (yours truly included) by leaving his stubbornness aside for once and went with the player favourite 4xx4x2. The first half was basically a stalemate and it often reminded the Premiership of the late 90's - two teams arranged in the same formation sitting in front of each other, waiting for their key players to decide the match. 

While City came out flat, with hardly any dynamics, movement and creativity, there were no "parked buses" on Swansea's half. In fact, the Welsh were more than willing to play an open contest, trying to exploit City's vulnerability at the back breaking quickly - which they did fairly well, with Michu putting the ball in the net after a correct call for offside and forcing Joe hart to make a great save a few minutes later. City weren't even making Michael Laudrup's men work for the result. 

City were rather toothless throughout the first half,
but improved a great deal in the second.

Swansea were more direct than City,
often trying to play in Michu behind the centre-backs.

Mancini replaced the ineffective Kolarov (even though his poor game was not exclusively his own fault) with Balotelli and the change brought immediate results. While the Italian maverick did not exactly set the match alight, the different tactical arrangement meant Tévez was an extra man in midfield, but it also meant that the front four (Tévez, Balotelli, Agüero and Nasri) were more fluid in their positioning. Outnumbered in midfield, Swansea were no longer able to make as many interceptions as they had done in the first half, allowing City to pile on the pressure.

Swansea were excellent in breaking up City's play in the first half.
The Welsh were not as good at it during the second half.

The difference in passes in City's attacking third.
While subtle, it shows a greater presence in the centre, mainly thanks to Tévez.

The match should have been beyond Swansea's reach by then, but City never managed to dictate the tempo of the game (despite all of Touré's attempts) and finished the match with unnecessary suffering and going back to the three-man defence, this time trying to hold on to the result. 

Swansea were worthy adversaries; it's always refreshing to see a mid-table team resisting the temptation of playing route one football and insisting on playing out from the back, even when trailing - it most likely means their manager's ideas are coming across nicely and are being accepted by the players. As for City, the much-needed win can't hide the team's persisting problems and shouldn't allow players and coaches to believe the worst is behind them. On most matches, the start players will suffice, but harder opponents will not be as kind.

• Highlights

Carlos Tévez was absolutely critical for the victory - and his scoring the winning goal was only fitting. His movement, work rate and bravery were essential for his team to grab the win. This may well be turn out the Argentinean's best season in England.

Wayne Routledge showed an interesting skill set and often provided his team's out-ball. His wonderful trickery with the ball made him a safe bet for his team to break out from City's initial pressure zone, hugging the touchline and forcing City to spread out to deal with him.

Routledge was often the men Swansea looked for to escape City's pressure.

The ultimate clash of styles

Starting elevens

Last Monday, Newcastle and Manchester City played for their highest hopes - City aiming for the title, of course, after defeating Manchester United a week ago, and Newcastle still holding on to the dream of Champions League football. Even though it was an interesting match, we will focus on specific aspects and how they translate a different vision of football.

Indeed, this was one of the best examples of how English and continental football fare against each other. Just like Roberto Mancini, Newcastle manager Alan Pardew chose to keep the team that won at Stamford Bridge a few days ago intact, which meant the Magpies were something of a hybrid 4x4x2, because Gutiérrez plays much narrower and helps out more defensively than Ben Arfa. Additionally, Ba played just off Cissé, drifting to the left.

Manchester City, in turn, also maintained their starting eleven and their approach, even though Yaya Touré was a bit more restrained than usual - that is, up until when he was moved forward. With Nasri, Tévez and Silva, they were extremely mobile and, due to their forwards' size, kept charging down the wing.

• Attack

As explained, the two teams were very different in their approach. Newcastle resembled a typical 90's British team. With Ba and Cissé, they were unafraid to hit the ball long and stick to route one (especially the goalkeeper Tim Krull), usually with Ba trying to flick the ball towards Cissé. Whenever that didn't work, they turned to Ben Arfa in hope of a more individual option.

On the other hand, Mancini's men stuck to their favourite intricate passing. As mentioned, Touré was concerned with his defensive duties, but the Citizens kept motoring down their right wing. Unlike their opponent, they overloaded the wings, especially when Tévez drifted towards that side, along with nominal right-winger Nasri. With Cabaye further up, Tioté had to decide whether to slide over and leave the middle open or leave it to Santon and Gutiérrez. More often than not, he went with the second option.

• Defence

This was a perfect example of how the strategy of two banks of four can be outwitted. Newcastle used this rediscovered approach and were made to pay for it. By affording to leave at least two men high up (Ba and Cissé, and sometimes Ben Arfa), Newcastle were constantly overrun and outpassed with simple triangle movements, even though they are a very well-drilled team defensively. Nevertheless, it was odd not to see a perfectionist such as Pardew make the necessary adjustments at half-time.

It was clear that Mancini studied his opponent and he deployed Touré on the right of the central partnership with Barry to help Kompany and Zabaleta on the aerial duels against Ba and Cissé. By doing that, his men were able to keep Newcastle at a distance, since their favourite out-ball was smothered. Here, Mancini proved once again that he prefers a cerebral approach (the continental way) over a emotional one (the British way). City's only mistake throughout this match was the freedom they conceded to Ben Arfa, who could have proved decisive, but their manager was wise enough to introduce Nigel de Jong so that Barry could keep an eye on Ben Arfa.

• Transitions

Another important difference was how both teams reacted when they gave the ball away. With their 4x4x2-ish shape, Newcastle were often caught off-guard either because they couldn't get back into shape quickly enough or because Cabaye couldn't find find the legs to track back. On the contrary, Barry and Touré kept their ground and both centre-backs (especially Kompany) showed no hesitation in moving high up to break Newcastle's moves.

With two physical imposing forwards as they have in Ba and Cissé, it's odd that the side they choose to attack down - the left - is filled with two players who cannot cross a ball with their left foot and who both have the tendency to drift inwards. When both teams started to lose their shape (Silva rarely tracks back during second halves), the Magpies could have hurt City, but neither Santon nor Gutiérrez were able to deliver the cross.

• Conclusion

All in all, it was an interesting and evident clash of styles between two very distinct football philosophies. City were closer to their full potential, while Newcastle's frailties and lack of a plan B were there for everyone to see, even though there are some real gems in their team - Cabaye immediately springs to mind, along with Cissé, of course.

Near miss for interim coaches worldwide

Starting line-ups

Roberto Di Matteo was just a few minutes away from becoming the poster boy for every club chairman/CEO aching to fire their coach for a string of bad results. Had Chelsea won last night and they would have made it 5 wins in 5 games under Di Matteo. As it is, the Londoners were brought down to earth and should be thinking in terms of Europa League.

Manchester City were very strong for the first ten minutes. With Cahill taking the injured John Terry's place, Chelsea are less intense and more vulnerable to short diagonal movements between Cahill and his full-back. This meant David Luiz was the left centre-back, a position he's much more used to and where he's most effective.

Chelsea's plan was obvious, apparently drawing inspiration on Sporting's display in the last Europa League tie against City: drop back with two banks of four and let Torres take full advantage of his newfound happiness, with Meireles as the link-up man. In fact, the Spaniard was very good working the channels, but the Portuguese is clearly not cut out for this position, since his decision-making is not always that good and he is not the most proficient player with his back to goal.

Chelsea strangely similar to Sporting

City were clearly the more dominant side, but it was clearly part of Chelsea's strategy. Apart from Samir Nasri's shot that hit the bar, the Citizens were only able to shot from distance, without being able to penetrate into the box. As has often been the case, Balotelli and Agüero showed that they are too prone to blowing hot and cold (nice moments of flare, but blatantly inconsistent) and that they are not very inclined to work and open up spaces for others. With opponents less and less inclined in going head-to-toe with City, Mancini's men are having a hard time finding free space.

Even though Meireles was not offering a decisive contribution offensively, he was being successful at (almost) man-marking Yaya Touré out of the game. With the Ivorian stationed next to De Jong, Meireles' task was clearly to break up City's build-up play. Silva was missing and Touré had too many defensive duties. Mancini's furious reaction on the touchline was a clear proof that City were getting nothing out of the game.

For the second half, Mancini brought on Gareth Barry for Balotelli, proving that less (attackers) is sometimes more. With the centre in good hands, Yaya Touré could finally break free and tread onto Chelsea's comfort zone - which meant Silva and Nasri were able to play farther up front, too. In turn, Meireles wasn't sure whether he was supposed to keep closing down Yaya Touré or stick to Barry.

The goals had something of a chance factor in them. Chelsea's goal came from a deflection off Yaya Touré's leg and City's penalty was a desperate shot that hit Essien's arm. Apart from that (Nasri's mentioned effort aside), there were no clear-cut chances for either side and City's victory, while deserved, almost didn't happen. In the end, Mancini's gung ho approach - with Tévez, Dzeko and Agüero - proved too much for Chelsea. Nevertheless, Di Matteo's team is now more calm and collected, better organized and even Cech looks now like his old self, much less prone to mistakes and distractions.

Sporting near tragedy after a perfect first half

Starting lineups

Both Manchester teams had one last opportunity to make it to the next round. City's task seemed less daunting, but Mancini wanted no compromise, choosing a rather different side for the second leg. Instead of the more defensive-minded De Jong and Barry, the Italian coach went with Pizarro and Touré in the middle and Johnson instead of Milner. It seemed Mancini had learnt enough about his opponent in the away match and tried to counter with his own strategy.

Pizarro's presence meant City could coordinate their attacks from behind, instead of relying on David Silva.  If there's one thing Pizarro excels at, it's shuffling the ball from one side to another and spraying diagonal balls to the flanks. In fact, that seemed City's route of choice - Pizarro (or Yaya Touré) would move the ball around and then try to connect with Johnson on the right wing. With Micah Richards also trying to push forward and Yaya Touré on the same side, there was enough space for Sporting to break away.

As for Sporting, the picture below is a perfect example of their strategy - in fact, it wasn't that much different from the first match. The Lions had a good start, with clearly defined pressure zones and a tendency to exploit the space behind Richards. However, that strategy wasn't necessarily the most useful here - since Pizarro was running the show in an area that Sporting wasn't prepared to reach.

Sporting in a classic 4x4x2, with Izmailov tucked in

One of the key aspects of every opponent that goes up against City is how to defuse David Silva's threat. Sporting manager Ricardo Sá Pinto chose once again to use Izmailov narrower than Capel, but this time the Russian midfielder was almost man-marking the Spanish wizard. By doing that, Kolarov was able to motor down the right wing, which meant Carriço was dragged on to that side, to make sure that the Portuguese team always had 2v1 situations.

Izmailov often came narrower than Carriço and Schaars, following Silva

Conversely, it meant that Sporting found it easy to overload Kolarov down that flank, since Silva was not eager to track back and there was no De Jong or Barry for the defensive work. On the other wing, Capel showed once again that he may never fulfil his potential, since his movement and decision-making are strangely similar to a winger from the '90s.

Sporting's two goals came from City's oddly bad defensive positioning. The first one was a wonderfully taken free kick by Matías Fernández, as a result of a desperate tackle from Balotelli on Insúa in the space behind Yaya Touré (once again). The second was even stranger, since it was a dead ball some 60 yards from goal. Polga made a long pass to the right wing and Savic's decision to go for the aerial duel wasn't as awkward as the team's decision to provide absolutely no cover for the second ball. Sporting were two goals up by half-time - and deservedly so.

Savic goes for a late aerial duel with unbelievably poor coverage from his team.
Notice how far his team mates are

Mancini replaced Johnson with De Jong for the second half, going for something of a 4x2x3x1, with Pizarro and De Jong in the middle. The Italian seemed to finally realise that it was pointless to insist on the wings, where it was obvious Sporting always had the numerical advantage there. City's first goal was a logical follow-up to that reasoning, with Balotelli creating indecision on who should mark whom and opening up space. Sporting's classic 4x4x2 was easy to bypass through the centre and once City realised that, the floodgates opened up.

As if that wasn't enough, the removal of both Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Matías meant that Sporting had no out-ball and that City was able to pile on the pressure. The Lions were tiring out and Renato Neto's foolish penalty didn't help things. The Portuguese ended the match in unnecessarily desperate fashion, forced to last-ditch efforts to try to avoid what would be a tragic and overall unfair outcome.

Pereirinha and Izmailov's performance should be highlighted. The former was his usual self: sensible, solid and level-headed. The latter was a true hero and it's not every day you see a player of his calibre going to such lengths for the sake of the team.

When in Rome

Starting lineups

In a standoffish match, Sporting managed to grab a 1-0 victory that could prove absolutely decisive in one week's time. Sporting manager Ricardo Sá Pinto was clearly humble enough to learn from FC Porto's mistakes in the last round against the same opponent and chose a very different approach from Vítor Pereira.

In fact, Sá Pinto went with a somewhat unusual (for Portuguese teams, that is) lopsided 4x4x2 (see image below), mirroring to perfection the expected City's lineup. Carriço and Schaars were in charge of patrolling the area in front of their back four and, even though Capel and Izmailov both completed a line of four, the Russian was much narrower, most likely predicting David Silva's tendency to drift inward. Schaars was instructed to sit a bit further up from Carriço, so that they would be better spread out on the field.

Manchester City were roughly their usual selves in away matches. With Clichy deputising for Micah Richards as right-back, Milner as a sort of right-winger and Silva on the left, City were compelled to go down the central route, crashing against the well-drilled Sporting defence.

Instead of playing the match as if both teams were equal, the Lions started carefully, wary of leaving their defensive line exposed (like FC Porto did on both games). Faced with an English team with Italian DNA, Sá Pinto was happy to play the underdog and give the control of the match to City, hoping that Sporting would outpace them in quick breakaways. With Izmailov helping out defensively in the middle of the park, almost every intercepted ball quickly found João Pereira's path, particularly because - it's a well-known fact - David Silva is not keen on tracking back as soon as possible.

City were slow and seemed to think that things would naturally fall into place, shifting the ball from side to side, waiting for Silva to do his usual thing. Van Wolfswinkel and Matías Fernández, in turn, worked very hard trying to keep City's centre-midfielders busy by reducing their passing options. After 25 minutes, Sporting became less cautious and fearful and tried to take the game back to City, namely by shooting from long range.

The first half came to its end and both teams seemed more afraid of conceding a goal than willing to score one. Xandão scored a wonderful back-heel quickly into the second half and it looked like the game had to open up. Even though Sporting were a bit too eager to take their cues from the crowd in the minutes that followed, they managed to maintain their emotional control and resisted the temptation to ride the wave, sticking to their game plan instead.

While Mancini replaced Dzeko (another uninspiring display from the Bosnian) with Balotelli, Sá Pinto tried to make sure that Sporting would not concede what might prove to a crucial away goal to City by bringing on Pereirinha and Renato Neto for Izmailov and Matías, respectively. The message was clear to everyone: the result was perfect and their one-goal advantage was to remain intact. Balotelli was in fact the only Citizen able to cause problems for Sporting (chiefly the short-tempered João Pereira) and City came very close to the equalizer in the final stages of the game, including a header from Balotelli that hit the crossbar.

In conclusion, Sporting manager acknowledged the differences between the two teams and managed to convince his players that they had to work very hard and be willing to see less of the ball, if they were to succeed. His Italian approach worked to perfection and Mancini is once again reminded of his own shortcomings when it comes to European competitions, even if Sporting can count themselves fortunate.

Individually, I would like to highlight Matías Fernández's work rate and presence, since he was the main link between defence and attack, providing the team's first out-ball, but I would also like to praise the ill-regarded Anderson Polga. While Xandão showed once again that he can be a valuable asset to the squad, the Brazilian world champion showed that he still is a very good player when the defensive line is not constantly caught off-guard.

City dominate, suffer and win it (very) late

Starting lineups

In what could prove to be a decisive match for Tottenham’s title hopes, the match between Manchester City and Tottenham was very interesting indeed, with numerous tactical nouances and and uncertain outcome. Mancini left out De Jong, playing Barry and Milner in the middle instead, with Agüero just behind Dzeko, who also got the nod. Spurs went with what seemed to be an attacking lineup, but it proved otherwise. 

With both teams wary of the other’s potential, the first few minutes were a bit of a standoff. Both Barry and Milner lack Yaya Touré’s attacking drive in the final third, which meant that it was up to Silva and Agüero to try and stir things up offensively. However, despite their manager’s claims otherwise, Spurs were tactically aware and went for a conservative 4x1x4x1 approach, with van der Vaart side by side with Modric (they would eventually change sides), Parker patrolling the space in front of his defense and Defoe a bit stranded up front. The chart below shows van der Vaart's limited influence throughout the match.

This meant that Modric got Barry and van der Vaart got Milner and both pairs ended up cancelling each other out of the game. The problem for Spurs came when Silva or Nasri pulled inside (Silva was the key orchestrator, as always), the wingbacks were not willing to track them down, meaning Parker had to chase them, which in turn freed Agüero.

Spurs' midfield, with Parker behind Modric and van der Vaart

As for the Londoners’ offense, Adebayor’s absence was key. Even though Defoe has improved his link-up play and here tried his best to challenge Savic (a strategy what would pay off for their first goal), he just didn’t provide the presence Spurs needed to hold up the ball and allow the rest of the team to join, which made the team lose the ball more and more quickly.

The second half brought a more dynamic approach from City. Even though Barry and Milner continued to stay put, the wingbacks started to push forward and, most importantly, Silva and Nasri were much more active. Their movement, together with Dzeki’s, were essential for City’s first goal. Silva strayed to the middle all the way from the right, Dzeko moved to the left and Nasri made a short diagonal to the middle, leaving the opposition’s defense stranded, not knowing who to mark – and suddenly, there was a huge avenue right down the middle.

Even though City’s second goal came from a corner, the most important aspect is the play that led to it. Silva drifted once again to the left to overload that side and was only stopped by a last-minute ditch, revealing the growing difficulties Spurs were having to know who to mark – especially with Parker often being dragged out of position.

When it seemed City were in total control, Savic threw it all away two minutes later, allowing Spurs back in the game with a disastrous headed approach that left Defoe free to go around Joe Hart (who also had a terrible approach, incidentally) and score. A few minutes later, Bale equalized with a great goal, revealing a curious tendency: out of the 5 goals, 3 were the direct result of a winger pulling inside.

After that, Silva and Nasri started tiring out, meaning they were not as willing to track back, and Tottenham started pushing men forward, especially after Livermore came in for van der Vaart and brought more stability to the midfield. In fact, the penalty that gave City the victory came 30 seconds before the 5 minutes of injury time were up and Spurs had actually had the best chance to finish the game just a few minutes earlier.

In conclusion, City dominated most of the game, deserved the lead, but were not able to put the game out of reach. Spurs were very fortunate with the timing of their first goal and their conservative approach could have brought heavy consequences once again at the hands of Mancini’s team. The Italian, in turn, will surely be missing Kompany’s skills and leadership.