Manchester City attempted 683 passes in their 1-1 draw with Everton, but Nathan Ake’s rejection exposed the tension plaguing them.
This came just as another flurry for Pep Guardiola’s side was beginning to calm down. A familiar anger was already boiling in the stands. Fans recalled Iliman Ndiaye’s stunning equalizer from Everton’s first touch in the City box. But the adrenaline was high in the second half, including a rare Erling Haaland missed penalty kick. And then anger began to set in.
There was a roar as City regained possession deep in their own half, with fans urging their team on with Josko Gvardiol running down the left flank while Ake went forward. But when the Dutchman turned to find Bernardo Silva in midfield, a collective groan from the home fans prompted Guardiola to rush to the edge of his technical area and appeal for calm.
Everton got back to form – Guardiola was still pleading with his supporters – and a slow attacking movement through the middle eventually fizzled out the other way.
This could have been the kind of sweeping move that City will struggle to contain during their increasingly drawless run. No team in the Premier League this season has conceded more than 5.3 expected goals (xG) on fast breaks. But this only emphasized their disgust. It’s about taking advantage of those situations yourself.
Gvardiol charged past Jack Harrison and certainly had the forward momentum to skip 36-year-old Seamus Coleman at full-back, but Guardiola’s insistence on a controlled build-up trumped common sense on this occasion. City had enough numbers to deal with loss of possession and counter-attacks in the opposite direction, and the current problems allowed them to keep those situations under control. is If they were in the form of defense they wanted, they certainly should have taken their chances.
Of course, that was just one personal decision in a game played by millions. But City once again looked more threatening when they picked up the pace and made attacking moves, raising the question of whether Guardiola’s side should be a bit more accepting of the disorganization of their direct forwards.
Despite extended periods of safe attacking play, City were not entirely risk-averse in their approach. In particular, in the 15th minute of the first half, they looked desperate to score the first goal, knowing that their opponents had kept consecutive clean sheets against Arsenal and Chelsea and could turn this into a 90-minute slog.
City usually bring one of their full-backs into midfield to help with their build-up, but the way they flew out of the blocks to overload Everton’s back four, pushing both Rico Lewis and Gvardiol high and wide, was noticeable. . Stretch out across the stadium.
As you can see in the grab below, the approach was effectively 3-0-7 with City applying pressure in the early stages with Luiz blocking a shot down the right.
However, after Silva’s opener, Luiz quickly returned to a more central role to provide more control in the build-up and make City more compact if they lost the ball.
Here he went close to midfielder Mateo Kovacic three minutes after scoring.
It was a conscious decision by Guardiola to take the sting out of the game and return it to a more settled form, and his point might have been vindicated had N’Diaye failed to produce a moment of brilliance on the break. But City are so vulnerable to dumb punches right now that it felt like a missed opportunity to see them take their foot off the gas quickly.
One of the side effects of Luiz’s return to midfield is that his winger Sabinho loses support on the wing yesterday. The Brazilian had 15 touches in the 15 minutes leading up to City’s goal, but had just 16 touches for the remainder of the first half.
Data from SkillCorner helps paint the picture further. City are the team in Europe’s big five leagues with the fewest duplicate goals per 30 minutes of possession. They also attempted the fewest passes to find runners behind compared to their possessions, and when they do score, they have about 46% of the opportunities to find that run. Surprisingly, this is the lowest rate in the Premier League this season.
There are several factors that affect these numbers. That said, City tend to play against teams that sit deep and don’t have space behind them. However, in recent weeks it has become increasingly clear that while the team has been inching forward, the lack of movement from the attacking players has been evident. It makes things predictable, as it did at Aston Villa, and makes it harder to find players in crowded central areas (which are mostly static and have their backs to goal).
There was an encouraging example of position rotation in the 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest earlier this month. Jack Grealish dragged a defender into midfield to allow Gvardiol to score, but City seemed reluctant to do so. Make such disruptive progress as often as possible.
The gloomy view of the situation is that City are so far away from the top that dropping points doesn’t really matter. In terms of chasing the title, if not Champions League qualification, the damage has already been done.
But starting three winnable games with yet another setback feels like a missed opportunity for the team to rebuild their confidence in front of goal. Had City been more ruthless in their approach and attempted a pass that Ake had turned away, their firepower might have overpowered some of the bad luck.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
