Few observations on Arsenal–City game, but before going deeper, I should tell I understand the frustration of people not enjoying the game. Tbh although I am obsessed with Guardiola’s Arteta’s brand of football, enjoy following their teams, I also didn’t enjoy the game a lot. I think the main reason why the game was less enjoyable is that both coaches were fine with 0-0. City wanted to control the game, and Arsenal mostly wanted to close the space, both to minimize the risk.

Anyways, let’s go into a bit details:

Here are my threads, articles, and videos related to Man City and their rise in the second half of the season:

1) Haaland's role and intro to 3-2-2-3:

https://twitter.com/pstionalplay/status/1608337818102956033?s=20

2) vs Everton (3-2-2-3 struggles against back 5):

https://twitter.com/pstionalplay/status/1609261472995233793?s=20

Guardiola’s structure in possession was certainly not overthinking. To overcome 5-3-2, you must create these overloads and City’s structure provided advantages over Inter’s structure on the paper, but implementation was a bit below City’s average. Even after winning CL, Guardiola slightly complained about how they couldn’t use the space at/around Stones’ zone. Against City’s 3-1-5-1, Inter’s 5-3-2 mid/high press was a bit risky. We saw Dzeko was located at the center and Lautaro was at the left side at the first line.

Just watched the game again. I am considering to work on it further and write something longer, but just a few notes:
1-City's high press in 1H was very good but they got really tired towards the end of the game. 2-Inter's press was surprisingly risky. As City overloaded left side, a huge space opened at right inner corridor but City couldn't switch the ball there effectively.

The line-up was a bit confusing but structures were almost the expected structure for City both in and out of possession. The only thing I am surprised regarding structure is that City are using 3-1 at deep build-up, but it looks like it is to bait wide CM and create space for no 8 behind him. I still have some question marks with the personnel selection though.

City might have used the same structure in possession and the exact same lineup of 1st leg, but with totally different intention; destroying their opponent.

All of us had talked about how cautious Pep was in the 1stleg. We had all looked for that extra man coming from behind… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Position is a communicative element in football, and City players are masters of this language. In that sense, De Bruyne is the reference for all teammates. His movement tells his teammates what they want to do in attacking third, while his dynamism (lateral mobility) makes the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Few thoughts on City vs Madrid:
- First game, Guardiola preferred to have a style that resulted in a low variance/no surprise result. It was very rare that one of the players from the back 5 joined City attacks. This left 5 City attackers between 6 Madrid defenders, so Madrid… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… - In the press conference, Guardiola admitted that they will play their regular home game, meaning we will see more overloads. Considering Ake’s absence and Akanji’s limited offensive contribution at left flank, these overloads will mostly come from City’s right wing; either… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

I believe Madrid’s defensive strategy against Man City had many flaws that City couldn’t exploit. Let’s look at it closely. Defending 5 against 4 at the tip, Kroos on KdB, Valverde on Gundo, FBs on wingers, and two CBs very close on Haaland. This structure could've resulted in huge pockets between Madrid FBs and CBs, but after first 20 mins, City was usually too focused on control and potential Madrid counter attacks and couldn’t do something they normally do really good; creating 2v1s at wide areas through switch… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

I believe both City and Madrid are in a better place than where they were at the previous semifinals. City’s reasons are obvious, Haaland, flexibility, new structural confusions over opponents etc. But Madrid’s youngsters are also improving every day. Today, Vini imo is the best at his position/role, Rodrygo is on a crazy momentum and looks like really found his role in the pockets. Camavinga improved a lot at this underlapping FB role, Valverde overlapping CM role etc.

Bayern – City game didn’t cause a lot of surprises but two points should still be noted because Tuchel gave some great tips on how to possibly beat City in future:
1) Build-up and progression against City’s narrow 4-2-4: Firstly, as you probably know, City has been using this… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… In the 1st half, Bayern were effective in progression and entering final 3rd, although they didn’t show high efficiency and efficacy inside City’s box. The enabler of this effective progression is to use the center-backs in an asymmetric way to draw Grealish out of position while… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

It was definitely a very high-level game as anticipated between Man City and Bayern, the strongest two teams in the world right now according to FiveThirtyEight. Eventually, the score line was mostly decided by individual mistakes but there were many things to talk about… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Tuchel used 4-2-3-1 to perfectly get the shape with Man City’s on-ball structure. City’s narrow 3-2 build-up was matched with a narrow 3-1, and Goretzka and Kimmich controlling the central channels, 2 CBs on Haaland, FBs on wingers.

Man City’s build-up against Liverpool was very successful. For sure, Liverpool’s ineffective high press played a role, but here are two important things Man City was significantly better at compared to previous games: 1) Double pivot positioning: Rodri and Stones always tried to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Some more examples for double pivot positioning:

https://twitter.com/jdp_el/status/1642627502706397185

Except a short period at the beginning of the 2nd half, Brighton had another excellent display and deserved 3 points against Leeds.

Javi Garcia’s plan to stop Brighton build-up was effective at the beginning of the game. Leeds used 1st and 2nd pressure lines very close to each… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… This disconnected them from the game a bit, but Brighton could still break the high press by using Steele as their extra man in build-up.

xT and xG are popular terms in football analytics. xG gives us an idea on attacking output while xT tells how frequently our team arrives to threatening zones, how good our progression is. If we combine these two, we can get more insight about offensive and defensive efficiencies If we plot xT vs xG, we see a clear trend showing the teams that progress and create a lot. However, it doesn't tell us how efficient a team is in creating chances out of each progression.

Brighton lost 2 pts but had another good game. They could enter the final 3rd for 43 times out of 75 poss seqs according to @twelve_football.
Leicester had a plan to cut Brighton’s 2-pivot connection by staying narrow and shadowing with a 1st line of 2.
@twelve_football This worked well for Rodgers' team. Brighton struggled in progression and could mostly progress by directly finding one of their double false 9. The progression was not that advantageous though, as they couldn’t create any numerical advantage in the final 3rd.

Lallana on De Zerbi’s style:

“There is no tiki-taka for the sake of it, it’s not good, it’s not that. There is an angle, and the angle is to create 4v4s, 3v3s in a big space to go and hurt the opponents in a way [dribblers] do what they love doing, create 1v1s.” “The madness beyond the methodology is to find the spare player; draw the pressure, draw the numbers out, and find the spare man."

Guardiola on recent performance:

"Our game, our shape didn’t help to Erling to score. We had too many players outside, and few players inside, and without players inside, you cannot defend and you cannot play good. This is mainly the problem." "In the build-up, you can be wider if you believe it, but in the middle and final 3rd, you have to have players [inside]. If Erling is alone there, we are not going to score goals."

Two well-thought set-pieces from Real Sociedad within the same minute:

1) Each fake pushes Mallorca's defensive line further and distorts their shape.
Zubimendi (the target) intentionally waits until SP taker, Mendez (the SP taker) starts his steps.
Zubimendi earns advantage by taking his steps and speed over defenders and can make a shot attempt.

City used the identical pressing structure of Liverpool game against Chelsea with Walker instead of Lewis, and it destroyed Chelsea as they lacked quality to play out of defense and direct attack threats.

https://twitter.com/pstionalplay/status/1606088831626711041

In possession, City started the game with a WM in first 10 mins with Gomez in Lewis’ role at the opposite flank. After 10th min, we started to see more of a 4-2 build-up with Bernardo dropping deep, and 235 settlement at opponent’s half with one of the full backs providing width.

As I read more about history of football tactics, I'm getting more convinced that football is in saturation regime regarding tactical evolution. What we're seeing are mostly recycled from ideas used in past. What we're discussing were mostly thought of by some greater minds. Although information is much more accessible, we're still mostly reinventing the wheel. Do we have significantly larger tactical knowledge than the people worked in this area 50-60 years ago? Have we really extended the knowledge pool?

Haaland compensates regular link-up requirements asked from center-forwards in associative plays thru different ways. He may not touch the ball to help progression, but his fixation at depth over opposite-side centerback helps his team to progress in very advantageous situations. No doubt that WM formation in possession facilitates the progression with interiors pushing higher alongside with Haaland and fixating opposite full-back.