De Bruyne's genius strikes fear into Man City's title rivals

Alex Keble reviews Manchester City’s sensational 3-2 turnaround win at Newcastle United and analyses where the match was won.

Overview

Even at their most excited and optimistic – when Anthony Gordon curled a shot into the bottom corner to put Newcastle 2-1 up, or when Man City’s waves of attack were met with stoic resistance – there was a nagging sense of dread in the back of the mind.

Newcastle supporters knew Kevin De Bruyne would come on at some point. They knew he would disrupt the rhythm of the contest and redraw the shape of City’s attack.

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We all knew, in our heart of hearts, he would change this game.

De Bruyne is back and, just like that, Man City are transformed.

This was the same City we’ve seen consistently since the Treble; a little wayward, a little soft, their edges sanded down. Just with one crucial difference.

De Bruyne scored Man City’s equaliser with a controlled finish that summed up everything he brings to this team. He celebrated by pointing to his head, preaching focus.

He stayed calm, and therefore so did his team-mates. And why wouldn’t they? All they had to do was wait patiently for De Bruyne to come up with the matchwinning moment.

A brilliant piece of skill from Oscar Bobb won the three points but the pass from De Bruyne was absurd, invisible to everyone but him. And with that, Newcastle’s resistance was broken.

Guardiola’s tactical surprise triumphs, eventually

De Bruyne’s individual brilliance was the difference here, and yet it formed part of a wider tactical story where Pep Guardiola got the better of Eddie Howe.

The Man City manager produced a classic Guardiola tactical wildcard at St James' Park which, despite some ups and downs, ultimately worked.

He deployed Jeremy Doku and Phil Foden as ultra-narrow wingers to leave City with a ring of five players occupying very similar spaces centrally, counter-balancing it with Kyle Walker and Josko Gvardiol as attacking full-backs.

Playing Doku so infield, and essentially operating without wingers, is very unusual for Guardiola. But it’s nowhere near as unusual as playing two full-backs in such advanced positions.

The idea was to exploit Newcastle’s biggest weakness throughout the last couple of months when, as fatigue sets in, Howe’s side have consistently left a huge gap between their defensive and midfield lines.

It worked from the outset as Doku, Foden and Julian Alvarez constantly found space in a No 10 zone left maddeningly open by Newcastle’s shape.

This happened again and again, giving Man City total control in the first half and pushing Newcastle back. More importantly, it drew the hosts ever narrower, until eventually Walker had an enormous amount of space on the right to assist the opener.

This was the defining feature of Man City’s play for most of the game, although as Newcastle dropped deeper in the second half, that No 10 space disappeared – right up until De Bruyne came on, that is.

De Bruyne sniffed out those spaces again as the tactical pattern went full circle. For his equalising goal, De Bruyne discovered the pockets that had been so decisive up until the hour mark.

Newcastle counters expose City system until Pep correction

The other reason Man City’s tactical success diminished (until De Bruyne came on) was that Newcastle’s counter-attacks hurt the visitors so badly that Guardiola was forced to rein things in.

With Walker and Gvardiol so high up the pitch, there was inevitably room down the flanks for Newcastle to break into, and that’s exactly what they did for a quickfire first-half double.

In fact, from the first whistle Howe’s tactical plan was obvious; look for defence-splitting balls over the top at every opportunity.

An early offside goal set the tone, and Alexander Isak, Gordon and Miguel Almiron were making runs on the shoulder so frequently that, in the build-up to the second Newcastle goal, Bruno Guimaraes didn’t even have to look before playing the pass.

These passes were easy for Newcastle to play because, with Doku so far infield, there was always time and space for a right-sided Newcastle player to progress the ball, as the image below shows.

For a while, City were shaken. Newcastle began to win every 50-50, tackling aggressively as they revealed a now-familiar brittleness in the champions.

Isak almost made it 3-1 and Guardiola knew he had to act, calming the game down by moving Walker into a deeper position. For the rest of the contest, the right-back was more conservative, still overlapping when appropriate but also operating either in a back three or as a shield alongside Rodri.

This stopped Newcastle’s threat, but it also diminished the effectiveness of Guardiola’s initial masterplan. Things clogged up and Newcastle, in a hunched formation, created a stalemate.

But then De Bruyne came on, Newcastle tired, and the inevitable happened. He is back. The rest of the Premier League should be very, very afraid.