Football writer Alex Keble analyses Manchester City's 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
What will most please Pep Guardiola about his team’s hard-fought 1-0 victory on Friday night - about a game defined by the gradual subduing of an early attack of Wolves pressure - was that it looked so much like a classic Man City performance.
Had this 90 minutes played out in any of the previous four Premier League seasons it would have passed without anyone taking notice. Just Man City doing Man City things: grinding a talented side into submission.
But as a tumultuous campaign finally settles down for Man City, wins like these are priceless, not just to take control of the race for UEFA Champions League football, but because they indicate that things are returning to normal.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
38 | +35 | 74 |
| 3 |
Man City
MCI
|
38 | +28 | 71 |
| 4 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
38 | +21 | 69 |
| 5 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
38 | +21 | 66 |
| 6 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
38 | +7 | 66 |
| 7 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
38 | +12 | 65 |
It wasn’t a scintillating performance, but it was quietly efficient. For now, that will do nicely.
Wolves’ brave counter-attacking start shows the best of Pereira
It’s worth starting on Wolves, because although they ran out of steam after Kevin De Bruyne's goal – and struggled to make much of an attacking impact in the second half – for a period Wolves showed all the best qualities of Vitor Pereira’s football.
In a lopsided 3-4-2-1 formation, Wolves unsettled the Man City defence by launching direct attacks that bravely used four players on the Man City defensive line.
Brave is the operative word. Both wing-backs pushed very high and Matheus Cunha and Marshall Munetsi completed a four-man attack that continually made runs behind the high line.
This was complimented by some – again – brave play in possession, with Emmanuel Agbadou, Joao Gomes and Andre all looking to evade the Man City midfield in the dribble, knowing that once the first wave of the press was punctured, those front four could steam into space.
And that they did, pushing close on a few occasions before the game’s sliding-doors moment, when in the 22nd minute, Wolves had two players through on goal, but Jean-Ricner Bellegarde's ball failed to connect with the sliding Munetsi.
Within 10 minutes, Man City scored the decisive goal and Wolves fell flat. As if that wasn’t cruel enough, in the end they were punished for that very bravery in possession.
Man City’s winner epitomises Guardiola’s recent tactical success
Andre loses the ball in midfield, Wolves – their bravery backfiring – are now overly-committed to an emerging counter-attack, and Jeremy Doku assists De Bruyne for the winner.
In this one play we saw the tactical pattern of the game as a whole - and the benefits of Man City’s new formation.
In the last three matches, Guardiola has played a striker-less 4-4-2, defined by an ultra-narrow formation that includes Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic at the base of midfield, De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan as false nines and two full-backs cutting inside to join them.
That’s six players – and six central midfielders by trade – crammed into the same team, occupying the midfield, full-back and forward positions.
Ultimately it controlled and squeezed Wolves, bringing back a shadow of the Man City we’ve known over these last few years. Wolves’ 5-4-1 blocked the middle well and created a congested game, but more importantly for Guardiola, his shape shut down a lot of breaks.
The most important of these occurred when Andre was pincered by that new-look deep midfield of Silva and Kovacic, leading directly to the goal.
In the goal-creating moment, too, was evidence of the tactical battle at large. Throughout the contest, Doku created space with his dribbling, putting in one of his best performances in a City shirt, with three dribbles and three key passes.
His assist was magnificent, a drop of the shoulder that took two defenders out of the game before a smart cutback for De Bruyne to score.
But he was able to do so – and able to entertain throughout the 90 minutes - because of Man City’s ultra-narrow six-man midfield, which pulled Wolves inwards, in turn leaving space for Doku to excel.
Control of the counters, control of the ball, creating space for Doku and punishing Wolves’ bravery: that one move summed up why Guardiola’s new formation is working and how the hosts won the three points.
City's Champions League fate in their hands, but box formation feels like a stop-gap
Man City, now four points clear of Chelsea in fifth and only three behind second-placed Arsenal, look set to turn a potentially disastrous season into a relatively successful one.
They could still finish as runners-up and with two trophies, the FA Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, a feat that would be a miraculous season for almost any other club in English football.
But it’s unlikely Guardiola would be particularly happy even in that scenario, and indeed will probably feel relieved when 2024/25 is over.
After all, the new box-midfield formation is not here to stay.
Man City produced an Expected Goals (xG) of just 0.65 here, their second-lowest tally of the season, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out why.
Without a striker on the pitch - and with only two non-midfielders out there, both hugging the touchline – City lacked the movement required to feed passes into the box.
What’s more, Guardiola will need to adapt the formation when Erling Haaland comes back.
That’s the first conundrum. The second is the imminent departure of De Bruyne, whose intelligent movement between the lines has been integral to this system working; his goal was a timely reminder of the end product Man City will miss next season.
Finally, Omar Marmoush didn’t look comfortable shunted out to the right, managing just 28 touches of the ball, creating zero chances and producing two off-target shots.
In other words, this is a stop-gap system: one not built for his star forwards Marmoush and Haaland, and one reliant on a star playmaker on his way out.
But those are problems for another day.