Manchester City 1-0 Wolves Review

Premier League GW35

One of those games you’ll not remember the performance from, and only think about the valuable three points to start the weekend, as Manchester City beat Wolves. Capitalizing on Nottingham Forest losing to Brentford and putting pressure on rivals for the Champions League. Newcastle play Brighton (A). Chelsea play Liverpool (H).

MOTM: JOSKO GVARDIOL

Notable Stats:

• Against Wolves (H), Bernardo Silva completed the most passes (78) he has done in a Premier League match all season. He also led the team in short passes (5-15 yards) completed (48).

• Jeremy Doku had 10 carries into the penalty area against Wolves, the joint most in a single Premier League match this season.

• Jeremy Doku had the most progressive actions (21), box entries (13), ball recoveries (5), and key passes (3) in the match against Wolves. Provided the assist for the game-winning goal.

Game Stats:

Man City 1-0 Wolves

• xG: 0.61 - 0.40

• xThreat: 1.25 - 0.6

• Possession: 63.4% - 36.6%

• Field Tilt: 80.4% - 19.6%

• Penalty Box Shots: 5 - 4

• Deep Entries: 17 - 7

• PPDA: 8.3 - 12.8

• High Turnovers: 5 - 2

Ederson (3,041) and Ilkay Gundogan (3,046) have now passed 3,000 minutes this season. Josko Gvardiol (4,153) has played more minutes this season than Nathan Ake, John Stones, and Jack Grealish combined. Matheus Nunes has now passed the 2,500 minutes mark. Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias have started seven consecutive games as a CB partnership this season. The previous record was four by Dias-Akanji in August 2024.

Josko Gvardiol and Jan Paul van Hecke are the only Premier League defenders to have completed 12+ progressive passes in five separate matches. In Europe's top five leagues, Josko Gvardiol is the only U23 defender to have five separate matches with 12+ progressive passes made.

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. 👇

Here is how the two teams lined up on Friday evening, with Manchester City bringing in Jeremy Doku, Kevin De Bruyne, and Ilkay Gundogan to the team. The inclusion of Doku was a welcome one to give the team a real drive down the left side, and gave us a look at how this system changed to fit him in.

In previous matches, it’s been Nico O’Reilly providing the width who can arrive in those wide areas higher up the pitch. Against Wolves, Jeremy Doku is holding the width as O’Reilly moves into the half-space and Ilkay Gundogan pins the central defender. On the other side, you saw the usual setup but with Marmoush now pinning the central defender, looking to make runs into the box.

Against Wolves, Manchester City completed their second-highest number of long passes (51) in a Premier League match this season. Trying to move around the opposition block to open up space. Bernardo, Kovacic, Akanji, and Gvardiol all completed 6+. Two switches, each from Nunes and Kovacic. Ederson mostly passed the ball long, looking to go directly into the full-backs out wide or two central defenders split.

We’ve seen the team play against back fives several times this year. Wolves do not look to play consistently short through a double pivot that comes deep like Spurs and Villa have done. So we saw the front three of Doku, De Bruyne, and Marmoush applying pressure on the central defenders. Keeping back four and Kovacic in a position to deal with any passes behind. Nunes is tracking the movement of RAN.

Cunha was a real handful for the team in this match. Someone that Rodri would have been able to handle, but Bernardo/Kovacic struggled with at times. Good at using his arms to keep opposition players off, creating enough space to wriggle out of pressure. Nunes has been better at dealing with the upper-body battle against a forward on the ball, but it is by no means his strength. Kyle Walker was excellent at it.

Nico O’Reilly lost possession eight times in the match, with five of them coming around the same position as seen below. It became an area of the pitch where Wolves were able to squeeze Manchester City.

Manuel Akanji (58’) came on for Nico O’Reilly in the second half, which helped a lot with this issue, pushing Josko Gvardiol to LB, who is more comfortable in these positions and using both feet. Manuel Akanji is then playing as the LCB.

For more on this point, check out this thread linked here by Bebo_55.

K. De Bruyne 35'  

During this season, not only have Manchester City struggled with their high press, but they've not been able to adjust well once played through. This goal begins with Wolves playing through the 1st line to Joao Gomes in plenty of space. Bernardo Silva reacts where Kovacic does not, jumps up to win the ball, and passes it on to De Bruyne. He lays it off to Gundogan before Andre can close him down, who can then drive forward to play a pass through to Jeremy Doku wide on the left side.

You'll notice how Kevin De Bruyne goes from in line with Omar Marmoush to dropping back into the space at the top of the box as Jeremy Doku bursts past his man. Cutting it back across for De Bruyne to score.

Final mention for Jeremy Doku, who I thought performed well against Wolves, as I mentioned at the start, gave the team a drive forward down the left side. Always an outlet, getting the team up the pitch and into the box. Assist for De Bruyne. Created a few other chances as well, notably putting O’Reilly through for a shot.

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Moving Forward

Chelsea and Newcastle have difficult fixtures on Sunday, so the win against Wolves puts pressure on those two teams to win and moves the team as it stands to third, should Newcastle not pick up all three points. Three points behind Arsenal, who play against Bournemouth this weekend.

That’s the important takeaway from this match: to pick up the win, rather than a performance that was by no means fluid and dynamic attacking football. It was about controlling possession, probing for an opening, and containing Wolves in transition. Maybe suffering and riding luck more than they would have liked!

You’ve got Erling Haaland on the bench, who’ll want to start in the FA Cup Final. We could see him get minutes next weekend against Southampton. No doubt, Rodri will also want to play in the Final. Either of them being back for the match is a huge boost to the team. With Haaland, you wonder the impact he’ll have on the 4-2-2-2 setup used lately.

The number of players coming back, along with those who are already in the squad, highlights that it’s not a numbers game, but instead about quality and availability. In the summer, the senior players on huge wages who are not available consistently must be offloaded. Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis are getting left out of the squad for some matches, even with Nathan Ake and John Stones injured.

This is the match Jeremy Doku passed 100 successful take-ons in the Premier League. Below is the top twenty for U23s across Europe’s top five leagues since 2017/18. All the players ahead of him have 500+ minutes played; for Jeremy Doku this season, especially next season, he’s got to move past injuries.

If available and surrounded by better box movement, he’s a game winner. Last season's performances against Bournemouth (H), West Ham (A), Luton (H), Spurs (A), and West Ham (H). Games against Aston Villa (H), Wolves (H), Ipswich (A), Forest (H), and Wolves (A) in the Premier League this season show that.

This highlights the number of minutes Nico O’Reilly has had in such a short space of time. Starting the last seven and completing ninety minutes in five of those. Contrasting with Nathan Ake and John Stones, two senior defenders who, if fit, would have played much more. Both have had a few injuries rather than one long one. Guardiola spoke about players needing to handle games every three days next season, otherwise they must go. Nathan Ake and John Stones fall into that group.

Next up for Manchester City is Southampton (A) on the 10th of May at 15:00 (UK). The last match before the FA Cup Final. Southampton has already been confirmed for relegation. The only Premier League match they have won in 2025 was against Ipswich Town (2-1).