Leyton Orient 1-2 Manchester City Review

FA Cup 4th Round

We saw ‘the magic of the cup’ so to speak with the halfway line goal from Leyton Orient but despite all the changes Manchester City made in preparation for Real Madrid midweek, they managed to come back and find the winning goal that took them into the next round.

Notable Stats:

• Since his debut in the competition in January 2016, no player has been involved in more goals in the FA Cup proper than Kevin De Bruyne (26 – 9 goals, 17 assists).

• Jack Grealish has now created more big chances than any other player in the FA Cup this season (5), while no player has provided more assists (3).

Game Stats:

Leyton Orient 1-2 Manchester City

• xG: 1.19 - 4.21

• xThreat: 1.07 - 2.95

• Possession: 27.6% - 72.4%

• Field Tilt: 19.5% - 80.5%

• Penalty Box Shots: 9 - 17

• Deep Entries: 6 - 20

• PPDA: 14.4 - 5.9

• High Turnovers: 1 - 6

As mentioned before, there have been improvements of late, in comparison to the November/December run of losses. But until the central defenders are fit and Nico Gonzalez is a regular, there will always be significant holes defensively. They won't be solved this season entirely, but those players can make enough of a difference to secure the top four.

Jack Grealish gets his second start in 2025, Rico Lewis starts his first match since West Ham (H), and Vitor Reis makes his debut for Manchester City. Ruben Dias and John Stones both played 45 minutes or more in the same match for the first time since playing Spurs in the League Cup last year.

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. 👇

First of all, it’s important to highlight the number of changes and players involved that have played little minutes across the season or the last ten matches. That’s naturally going to leave the team disjointed when traveling away to face a team that was from minute one pumping the ball into the channels. For Vitor Reis in his debut, it was a quick adjustment to English football and you saw as the first half went on he grew into the match.

Not since the December 2023 season has Jack Grealish started four or more matches consecutively, he’s been for the last two seasons in and out of the team, but now he’s firmly out of it by starting two in the last ten. Rico Lewis grabbed his first start in the last ten matches. It’s not only new signings or academy players finding their feet. In the first ten minutes, you saw exactly that, players caught off guard by the approach of Leyton Orient. At one point Dias points to O’Reilly to let him know he’ll head the ball over to him, and he was still surprised and lost when the ball arrived.

After that the team took back control of the match, we saw both full-backs tuck inside alongside Nico Gonzalez in midfield to form a 2-3-5 as Gundogan/McAtee attacked half-spaces, and they looked to find Grealish/Savinho 1v1.

One of the positives from Nico González in his short appearance is that we've got this type of pass back, and from a player other than Rodri. Savinho is capable of making that run just like Mahrez used to. The passes over to Gundogan, who as mentioned earlier, has the freedom to attack the half-space and get into the box, this time not getting his footing right to score a great chance.

Leyton Orient opened the scoring with a Man City own goal after this long-range strike caught out Stefan Ortega who was far off his line, hitting the crossbar and going in off his back.

Good lesson for Nico González to learn in his first match, taking a poor first touch, and trying to take a couple more gets him into this situation. Guardiola mentioned as much post-match. Whether it's a foul is another debate. Hopefully, the injury doesn't keep him out for long. Bernardo Silva (22’) came on for the injured Nico Gonzalez.

With Bernardo coming on, Guardiola had Gundogan drop deeper into the six role, still flanked by Rico Lewis and Nico O’Reilly tucking inside.

Jack Grealish created a few excellent opportunities throughout the match, one of which was his back-post cross to Bernardo Silva which was cleared on the line.

At half time both central defenders were taken off as Dias and Reis (46’) were replaced by Stones and Khusanov. Speaking after the match Guardiola explained that the plan was for Dias to only play one half, and to make sure both of the new central defenders played alongside an experienced one.

It wasn’t just Grealish who created chances in this match, Savinho should also have been expecting a couple of assists. Providing a lovely pass here with the outside of his boot for Omar Marmoush to score his first goal but he’s unable to find the back of the net. The movement from Marmoush and the intent behind his actions are all really good, but he’s got to put away one of the chances he had in the match. With the teams coming up next, he’ll get more opportunities if his runs are picked out.

Manchester City equalized after a short corner was worked into a shot from Rico Lewis on the edge of the box, deflected in by Khusanov inside the box for his first goal for Manchester City.

Toward the end of the second half, Guardiola brought on De Bruyne and Foden (72’) for O’Reilly and McAtee. Ideally, you wouldn’t have wanted either to get minutes but despite all the chances that were created, the team was not taking them. Bernardo Silva finished the match at left-back, which along with Rico Lewis at RB gave Leyton Orient an area to attack towards the end of the match but both did a great job at handling those. Supported by some excellent recovery challenges by Stones and Khusanov.

A good step forward from Khusanov in his performance today, a fortunate deflection for his first goal but excellent decision-making whilst defending in recovery. Showed his pace that's needed long-term and a couple of passes between the lines into the final third. His job will become a lot easier once Nico Gonzalez is a starter and Rodri is back in midfield.

The winning goal comes from Jack Grealish picking out the run of De Bruyne through the half-space into the box, and tapping it as the keeper rushed out.

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Moving Forward

We’ve seen plenty of performances from the best City teams under Guardiola similar to this one, struggling to convert the array of chances created, and an opposition team making it difficult in any way they can. A referee making some strange calls. Getting some fortune with the opening goal. But in the second half, you saw several players up their level from the first, sharper passing, and encouraging displays from our central defenders ahead of the Madrid match.

Erling Haaland, Josko Gvardiol, Mateo Kovacic, and Manuel Akanji were all rested ahead of the Champions League match. De Bruyne and Foden with limited minutes. If it wasn’t for the injury, Bernardo would have also been rested. That’s going to be important against Real Madrid.

The real negative takeaway depends on the length of injury to Nico Gonzalez. Until it’s confirmed it’s hard to know whether he’ll be back for Madrid, out for a couple weeks, or much longer. After the ‘injury’ Savinho got in his first match, I wouldn’t jump to any early conclusions.

It's far too early to be making a judgment on O'Reilly City career. Guardiola highlighted his combination of technical and physical qualities as being perfect for a deeper role in midfield long term, also explaining why that transition would take time. Should have been given a couple more starts during the losing run, but he's still on track for 500 - 1,000 minutes in his first season with the first team. The rumored move to Chelsea would have resulted in the same if not fewer minutes, for a team more stocked with young midfielders compared to Manchester City heading into a rebuild in midfield and openings.

McAtee is in a different boat to O'Reilly, he's had all the time needed out on loan to develop before trying to push into the Manchester City team this season. Like, O'Reilly, he should have gotten a couple more starts during the losing run. With the minutes he has had, the all-around performance hasn't been at the level you'd expect to see if he's going to force those ahead of him out of the team. Leicester City (A) is his best one. That along with his desire for minutes, rightly so, at 22 will more than likely see him off in the summer. Bobb/Doku are returning from injury. He'll do well wherever he goes, but it's the right move for both parties IMO.

Claudio Echeverri is currently out in Venezuela competing for Argentina in the U20s CONMEBOL Championship and won’t arrive in Manchester until the end of February. If you want to learn more about his performances so far then check out this thread below on his match against Uruguay. 👇

If you want to learn more about Nico Gonzalez, the development of the player, and a look at the differences between Portuguese and Spanish football then check out this podcast below. 👇

Next up for Manchester City is the home leg of their tie against Real Madrid in the Champions League, on the 11th of February at 20:00 (GMT). Taking a 2+ lead into the second leg is crucial and despite sitting top of La Liga, Real Madrid is facing their injury woes this season.