Juventus 2-0 Manchester City Review

Champions League - League Phase GW6

Another starting lineup from Manchester City that you’d expect based on the injuries to key players and previous match selections. Another performance where you can see all the good parts of the team in action. Another match where the same problems come back to bite them again.

Notable Stats:

• Since the start of November, Manchester City have conceded more goals across all competitions than any other team from Europe's big five leagues (21 in nine games).

• Bernardo Silva is now Manchester City's all-time appearance holder in the UEFA Champions League, with tonight being his 74th game for the club in the competition.

• Manchester City have now only won one match in the last ten.
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Game Stats:

Juventus 2-0 Man City

• xG: 1.37 - 1.16

• xThreat: 0.95 - 1.25

• Possession: 31.4% - 68.6%

• Field Tilt: 13.7% - 86.3%

• Penalty Box Shots: 7 - 8

• Deep Entries: 8 - 19

• PPDA: 23.4 - 14.7

• High Turnovers 0 - 3

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Manchester City lined up as was probably expected, if not miss the odd youth players fans would like to see. Whether that’s Simpson-Pusey in the backline. O’Reilly or Wright in midfield. The former would have allowed Kyle Walker to rest ahead of the Manchester derby that Rico Lewis is suspended for. Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku return after their issues last weekend preventing both from starting against Crystal Palace.

One real problem that’s become clear to me over the last few matches is how preoccupied with control of the match and tempo all the players are, in the absence of Rodri, that it takes away their focus on taking risk and being creative. Playing it safe instead of making the right movement to pull away markers and open up space, looking for through balls, making the runs to support the winger, and finding players in the pockets. Rodri lifted that weight off the shoulders of the other players so they could focus entirely on being creative and taking those risks.

Jack Grealish playing as a midfielder against Juventus was a clear example of that, instead of being an eight who wants to help get Jeremy Doku isolated or move into space himself, he’s playing it safe. Always too early or too late to play the pass into him in the pockets. Not dragging a marker away from Doku but instead pulling one towards him. Slow to release the ball.

Manchester City looked to press Juventus and weren’t particularly great at it with only one of three high turnovers leading to a shot. As mentioned by Football Bunseki below, both Gundogan and Grealish jumping only left space in midfield to expose. Something they’d later do bringing on McKennie. Trusting your back four to win the duels, something they’ve just not done well enough of late, nor in this match.

There were very few chances in the match but this one for Erling Haaland needed to be scored. Played through by De Bruyne 1v1 against Di Gregorio. First-time shot or taking it around the keeper was his best two options but instead goes for the chip which he can’t get up quick enough as the keeper closes down the space very well.

D. Vlahović (53') 1-0 

This was a gift to Juventus and exactly what the team didn’t need since they could not handle losing game states. They only spiral. Manchester City not applying enough pressure on the opposition in many situations is pretty common this season, one of those is letting players have too much time to put in crosses. Although Locatelli has pulled out wide, look how many other midfielders are free around the box. Gatti is behind Dias, and Vlahovic is right behind him so I understand why Gvardiol passes across to Walker. He'd then have the time to clear it before Yilidiz reached him.

However, Walker was not ready to receive the ball and hesitated in going out to close down the cross which gave Yilidiz time to pick out the back post. Gvardiol scans to see Vlahovic three times before the cross comes in, he's well aware of him and should do better to win the ball. Ederson finishes off the goal and the run of individual mistakes leading up to it. If your keeper is not going to be dominant in collecting crosses then you cannot afford to have either post defended poorly in the air.

W. McKennie 75' 2-0 

I mentioned the space left when Grealish and Gundogan press forward, in the second half, Motta brings on McKennie (69’) with the legs to run into that space. These are the type of goals we are used to seeing conceded by Manchester City throughout this season. Danilo wins the ball off Doku 1v1 and drives forward, playing a quick 1-2 to lose Walker. Gundogan comes across with Vlahovic but once Dias picks him up doesn't return to the middle leaving it free for McKennie to run into. No other midfielder is tracking back either. Plays the pass out wide and makes his late run into the box without a Man City player managed to catch up to him. Kyle Walker and Gundogan both head back but both don't reach him.

Gvardiol spots Savona running into the box so moves to block that pass/shot before realizing McKennie is free. Pass over the top for him to score.

Jeremy Doku swapped sides in the second half which seemed a bad decision as it stopped all success he was having beating the full-back and getting into the box. Savinho (79’) came on for Doku towards the end of the second half and didn’t have much more joy himself. Nunes (87’) came on for Nunes just before the end of the match.

Notable how few times the team loses the ball in the danger zone, some poor ones down the LHS with Rico Lewis and Gvardiol that they managed to ensure don’t end up being shots on goal. But the threat doesn’t lie in the danger zone losses as we saw against Juventus, it’s losing the ball high up the pitch and needing to defend big spaces. Whether that’s attacking the box, which Jeremy Doku should be doing, or pressing the opposition high up the pitch. The team cannot bend when put under pressure. You won’t be successful with every dribble, your press will get broken at some point, but the team must be able to adjust. This season Manchester City has not.

The last point to end on with the Juventus match is to recommend this post by Tactics Journal on the lack of through balls played into Erling Haaland. It’s fine to mention the lack of movement in the box, particularly when you see Jeremy Doku get into promising positions so frequently. But one of Haaland’s biggest strengths is the runs he makes behind the back four, and you are not seeing enough chances taken with those passes.

Why keep making those runs when everyone has their head down?

Moving Forward

For me, it’s clear that we are waiting for injured players to return or a transfer window to open if we are to see any significant impact on the team's performance. You need a new defender to move other underperforming out of the lineup given Nathan Ake, Manual Akanji, and John Stones are all injured. The same for midfield, particularly getting a player capable of handling the control of the match, and dictating the tempo from the middle.

I think it’s fair to be critical of Guardiola for not utilizing the young players more sat on the bench, despite how little they likely solve with their technical ability or physicality. You would remove underperforming players and at the very least know if they could make a difference. Right now it seems the only takeaway is Guardiola does not trust them.

In my opinion, O’Reilly and Wright are a year behind where you’d want them to be and next season is when you’d expect them to come through. But Simpson-Pusey has shown enough in his matches to play more. McAtee could be contributing more minutes to take the load off other senior players.

Next up for Manchester City is the derby on Sunday 15th December, against the worst version of Manchester United. Quite the spectacle that both teams coming into this match at their lowest point of at least the last few years if not longer. Manchester United have lost their last two matches in the Premier League, against Nottingham Forest at home (2-3), and Arsenal away (2-0). Currently sit 13th in the Premier League table on 19 points, their lowest return after 15 matches in the league's history.

Whilst Manchester City is struggling for scorers outside of Erling Haaland, the top scorer for Manchester United is Rashford (4). Bruno Fernandes, Alejandro Garnacho, and Joshua Zirkzee have three goals each. It’s not easy to see where the goals will come from whilst Manchester City will need Haaland to take one of his chances. Amad Diallo has six assists and Bruno Fernandes five in the Premier League, when it comes to creating chances those two are the threats.

At the other end is one of the best-performing keepers in the league despite his viral moments of poor decisions. Andre Onana leads the Premier League for clean sheets (6) and is overperforming his PSxG by +3.9. Simply put, without him performing at this level this season Manchester United would be close to the relegation zone on 14 points.

Here is how they lined up in the last Premier League match against Nottingham Forest, despite losing the match, this is close to their preferred eleven and likely what you’ll see tomorrow afternoon.

Rashford might be considered given the loss of pace Kyle Walker has had, and previous success against him. Mason Mount is another just from how smart he can be pressing from the front. Mazraoui might be a safer choice at RCB instead of Yoro.

Ones to Watch:

Amad Diallo has one goal and six assists in the Premier League for Manchester United this season, 2nd most progressive carries (51) in the team, 2nd most passes into the penalty area (18), most goal-creating actions (10), and most carries into the penalty area (32). He’s a player that ETH should have used during his tenure, and should have been bought in the summer by another club, and fortunately for Manchester United Amorim has realized that mistake. Immediately giving him a key role. Whilst Hojlund is the obvious threat with his running in behind, Diallo could do more damage on our LHS against Gvardiol and the form he’s currently in.

Erling Haaland has had chances in the last few matches that he’s got to score, aside from how much is created for him, and the lack of through balls. When those moments come, especially with the form of the team, it’s the goal that could change the whole outlook of the team. We’ve seen across this losing run what going a goal behind does to their confidence. They’ll need the early goal.

Predicted Lineup:

Predicted Score: Manchester City 2-1 Manchester United