City dominate with intense pressing
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JD am
24.01.2017 in den Kategorien
Premier League mit
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http://spielverlagerung.com/2017/01/24/city-dominate-with-intense-pressing/
Guardiola’s Emirates Marketing Project hosted in-form Tottenham in a highly anticipated clash on Saturday evening. Fresh from their
4-0 defeat at Everton City were under pressure to win to keep alive their increasingly slim title hopes. This task was made tougher since they welcomed the league’s most in-form side with the North Londoners enjoying a 6 game winning streak.
City’s intense pressing out of 4-1-4-1
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of City’s performance was their intensity in high pressing actions. Starting from a base 4-1-4-1 shape City were able to prevent Spurs progressing from deep with a combination of sprints, man-orientations and accurate shifting movements.
From the front Aguero would press either the central defender (Alderweireld) or Lloris depending on who the phase started with. With his pressing run and use of his cover shadow he prevented direct passes into midfield and directed the pass into a wider area. After the pass went beyond him, Aguero’s positioning had interesting effects. From his position behind the Spurs defence (particularly if he pressed Lloris) he could prevent Spurs from re-circulating the ball across by anticipating any passes back to the French keeper. Furthermore the distance between Aguero and Alderweireld was small enough to ensure he could prevent any passes to the Belgian by threatening with aggressive backwards pressing.
When one of Spurs’ side backs received the ball City’s ball-near wide man would sprint out towards them again using their cover shadows to prevent easy passes into midfield. The timing of these runs were crucial, if made too late they would be easily sidestepped and their efforts would be wasted. However, by timing these runs in line with the pass being played they could reach the Dier or Wimmer almost immediately after they received the ball and their proximity gave them the ability to cover a wider distance.
City’s ball-near midfielder would cover any dropping movements with a man-oriented coverage and their close proximity was often enough to prevent passes into the likes of Dembele with the threat of immediate tackles or even interceptions. If Spurs passed from side back to wing-back, City’s ball-near full-back would rush forward to engage them and often ensured that the advantages built up through the last few actions were not lost. With Rose or Walker receiving passes on the touchline from players only metres behind them, they at times received the ball facing their own goal, and City’s full-backs aimed to prevent them turning.
These pressing movements were supported by effective layering in deeper positions. The ball-near central midfielder (De Bruyne or Silva) would move slightly deeper and assist Toure in covering the space in front of the defence. At times the Ivorian was required to drop into the defensive line to cover for advancing full-backs.
The away side experienced large difficulty in coping with this pressure and their build-up was severely disrupted leading to low stability in the game and several turnovers inside their half thus giving Guardiola’s side numerous opportunities in transitional attacks. However the home side squandered several of these opportunities blighted at times by indecision, poor decision making and at times inaccurate finishing.
City’s diagonal attacks
One key feature of City’s attacking game was diagonal entries into attacking areas and moving to attack Spurs’ backline directly from there. At times this was done through vertical passes into one of the forwards who would then turn their opponent and dribble diagonally towards Spurs’ backline. On other occasions City were able to set up these attacks after beating Spurs’ pressing with diagonal passes into one of the forwards.
Sane and Sterling in particular at times used intelligent double movements to get free in the half spaces. On other occasions the distances between them and their direct Spurs opponents (Dier and Wimmer) meant they had small time frames to receive the ball free from pressure. They could then use the Spurs defenders’ pressing momentum against them to turn.
The key to these attacks were effective balancing movements from the likes of Aguero and De Bruyne. By moving from the centre or half space to the flank they could open space for the ball carrier to dribble diagonally into the centre. Alternately their runs into depth could offer through ball options if Spurs did not track their movement.
In line with this City’s ball-far winger, Aguero and at times De Bruyne would offer runs in behind either giving the ball carrier more time to take the ball forward or giving options to break through Spurs’ last line of defence.