How City’s press exposed Chelsea’s left side and removed risk that cost us last season
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Chelsea’s 3-4-3 caused City lots of problems at the end of last season. One of the main issues was the 2 vs 2’s it created when City’s full backs pressed Chelsea’s wing backs. The goals that knocked us out of the FA Cup and Champions League both came from such situations 2/
On Saturday City adapted the press to expose weaknesses on Chelsea’s left side.
Chelsea build in a 3-2 with Kovacic and Kante in front of the back 3.
The wing backs can join the front line but when pressed they often drop back to create a 7 man build up 3/
Chelsea build in a 3-2 with Kovacic and Kante in front of the back 3.
The wing backs can join the front line but when pressed they often drop back to create a 7 man build up 3/
As you’d suspect Grealish covers Rudiger in the press and Foden looks after Thiago Silva. But City use Sterling inside with De Bruyne to match up with Kovacic and Kante. This leaves Sarr free. City are happy to funnel possession into Chelsea’s left sided centre back 4/
City don’t want Chelsea to progress possession through the centre of the pitch. So Sterling blocks off Kovacic and leaves Sarr free. Sterling is only triggered to press Sarr when he receives the ball. He makes sure he cuts off the pass inside to Kovacic 5/
With City funnelling possession into Sarr, they were then happy for him to shift it wider still to Alonso. Early on we see Walker engage Alonso. This removes Walker from the back line and potentially exposes City’s cbs with a decent ball over the top to Chelsea’s front 3
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But we rarely saw Walker up high in the press again. Instead City utilised Bernardo Silva, who is almost a spare man in this set up. He’s not involved in the initial press and isn’t too concerned with Chelsea’s front 3, who Rodri and the back 4 are looking after 7/
Here when Sarr receives possession unmarked and passes to Alonso, it’s Bernardo who engages him and stops him progressing. If Alonso played a ball over the top it won’t result in a 2 vs 2 like we saw last season because Walker is part of back line instead of pressing Alonso 8/
Because Chelsea often split their team 7-3 in the build up, City’s central midfielders can almost be redundant holding the middle ground. By using Bernardo to press Alonso, Walker can remain in the back line and the numerical issue we saw at the back last season is solved 9/
We see Bernardo shuttle across to press Alonso time and again. The pressure he applied often forced errors. City were happy to funnel possession into Sarr and Alonso to expose their relative weakness on the ball 10/
City’s biggest chance of the 1st half comes when Sarr, unmarked, finds Alonso. Bernardo’s press rushes him into a pass inside to Kovacic. De Bruyne wins possession and Grealish should score.
The goal eventually comes from another ploy we saw all afternoon, Foden pressing Kepa 11/
The goal eventually comes from another ploy we saw all afternoon, Foden pressing Kepa 11/
With City focussed on funnelling possession to Chelsea’s left side, they put their weakest links in charge of their build up. Deploying Bernardo to press Alonso stopped the 2 vs 2s problem we had last season when Walker pressed the wing back.
Strike this one up for Pep 12/
Strike this one up for Pep 12/
Much of what I cover here has already been brilliantly analysed by Tayyab’s thread below on City’s press. Check it out 13//
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