Variety To Game City City Primes Them For Success League

Before Manchester City seized Borussia Monchengladbach in their last 16 League Premier League debut at Puskas Arena in Budapest, Gladbach manager Marco Rose was asked in an interview with the Guardian to describe how e for playing the side he is coaching.

His team, he said, “is always active in a game, against the ball and with the ball. He tries to win balls in a high position on the pitch. If we have a chance to score quickly we should use it, if not we should keep possession … Move the ball quickly, move the opponents; win it back in the shortest time we can if we lose it. Playing cleverly, playing hard, not just for the gallery. ”

The question was asked in a general sense, not specifically with the City game in mind – but the same principles would apply to the mainstream Premier League.

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leaders. But anyone watching his team for the first time on Wednesday night would have had a hard time making that statement. Always active? Moving the opponents? Playing hard? Really?

While it may look like one, that’s not Rose’s dig – he’s done wonders to bring Gladbach into the last 16 of Europe’s premier football tournament, and he’s not. there by chance he got the job of Borussia Dortmund. Over the past 18 months, the 44-year-old’s team has looked just as inspiring and strong as that description would suggest.

Instead, it is a credit to Manchester City; Boa constrictor Pep Guardiola is a football predator who, for the past three months, has been suffering against any team that is unfortunate to stand in his way.

City scored nine hits for all three Gladbachs on the night, with 61% ownership of the ball. But the story was not in the numbers, but how the game looked and felt. The city was non-stop.

In possession they were passing remarkably crisp, balls got stuck in legs at a fast pace and moved forward quickly before the Gladbach player got close. At times they went to lose him, the pressure was so quick and intense that you almost felt sorry for a Gladbach player with the ball at his feet.

In the first half in particular, land and action controlled City, not letting Rose’s side sniff. And when João Cancelo left at left-back – who had his dual role as left-back and center-back so crucial in City’s 19-game unbeaten run – they got opportunity, they accepted.

Against Arsenal in the previous game the level of control they had exercised was similar for long periods. Arteta, you’d think he’d use a lot of the same influential words as Rose to describe what he wants to see from his expenses, but again, Pep’s men didn’t let them get close to the level their highest.

But the game against Arsenal also showed another side, a little different to their style of play. In addition to pushing and squeezing the face in the final third round, City showed they were able to fall back after the first press, getting into a 4-4- hard form. 2 and keeping the Gunners at bay.

Playing a full 90 minutes shouldn’t have defended a 1-0 lead against a Premier League team, but they did make it appear that way. And that’s the key this season.

There has been a lot of debate in whether this is Guardiola’s best version of City, even better than the one who scored 100 points in the 2017-18 Premier League. But thinking about the debate is about better and worse. This team is different.

It now looks like they will go on to win the Premier League, although it is nowhere near 100 points. They are also popular for the League Cup and FA Cup. But the most interesting thing for Guardiola is another European crown, and that difference between this side and his predecessors in Manchester stands his side in better place to win.

As well as the top line and high media that has always been a garrison of Guardiola’s teams – but which had its problems, especially the place he left behind the defense – he’s on track another way to win, another way to challenge opponents. In the tight tight games in Europe that will be especially important.

Whether Guardiola was inspired to innovate when he lost out on the title and Champions League last year, or whether he designed this little strategic tweak in response to the weird circumstances and a packaged calendar that made coronavirus pandemic difficult to say. What is certain, however, is that his team is more rounded, more multifaceted.

There will be tougher tests ahead for Arsenal in the Premier League and tougher tests ahead for Borussia Monchengladbach in Europe, but City are looking ready for them in a way they have never been before.