Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League by thrashing a helpless Southampton side at the Etihad. An own goal from centre-back Wesley Hoedt in the sixth minute set the tone for the encounter, with Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Raheem Sterling also getting on the scoresheet in the first half to give Pep Guardiola and his players a comfortable lead at half-time. Danny Ings did pull one back from the spot at the half-hour mark after being brought down by goalkeeper Ederson, but his finish was quickly forgotten. Sterling scored his second of the game midway through the second period, before Leroy Sane completed the rout in injury time.
Starting line-ups
Manchester City
Southampton
Match Stats
Manchester CitySouthampton
18
/
8
SHOTS / ON TARGET
12
/
5
753/694
Passes / Accurate
381/315
13 / 1 / 0
Fouls / Yellow / Red
9 / 1 / 0
Analysis: Manchester City
City set up in a 4-1-4-1 attacking shape in possession, with Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane, Bernardo Silva and David Silva operating ahead of Fernandinho and behind Sergio Aguero.
City looked to dominate possession and create overloads in the wide areas and half-spaces to penetrate Southampton’s out-of-possession structure. To do this, they generally looked to use groups of three or four players – typically the wide attacker and inside attacker, along with the full-back and centre-back on that side.
Within this diamond structure they would utilise a variety of movements to separate the Saints. These movements were typically designed to draw players to the ball and away from the man, attracting the press before moving to create a passing lane that would take the opponent out of the game.
Against the pressing of Southampton, this was straightforward in the first half, but it became more difficult in the second period when the visitors changed their structure.
In the first half, City would try to get Nathan Redmond and Shane Long to press their centre-backs, at which point they would merely bounce the ball into Fernandinho and out to full-backs Kyle Walker or Benjamin Mendy. The aforementioned pair couldn’t be marked by midfielders Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg or James Ward-Prowse as they were busy dealing with David Silva and Bernardo Silva. Cedric Soares and Ryan Bertrand were similarly tasked with taking care of Sane and Sterling.
The principle in the second half remained the same in terms of attracting pressure and ensuring the opponent lost sight of their man, but City started to play around rather than through, bringing Mendy inside and dropping the wide attacker much deeper. While this approach didn’t necessarily take the wide opponent out of the game, it presented Sane with the option of getting on the ball and beating the wide midfielder, or playing inside to David Silva who would advance as Mendy moved inside.
Similarly, Aguero could be seen dropping into the midfield areas and receiving the ball – this would again attract Southampton midfielders towards him and free up spaces elsewhere for his teammates.
City would look to counter-press immediately after losing the ball and did so with high intensity and numbers, often forcing an immediate regain or a mistake. If the counter-press was broken, or their opponents moved the ball backwards to a point that was too far to continue the pressure without the ball being switched, they would drop into a 4-1-4-1 mid-block, generally taking up the same positions as their in-possession structure.
With their lead so comfortable, they opted for the mid-block in the second half. In favouring this defensive tactic over sprinting after the ball, they were able to preserve energy and ultimately add to their lead. They would typically wait for a pressing trigger, such as a slow, horizontal pass or even a pass into an opponent who was marked, at which point they would initiate high pressure again.
In pictures
Manchester City set up in a 4-1-4-1 in possession, with Leroy Sane, David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling positioned behind Sergio Aguero.
City would look to counter-press immediately before falling back into a 4-1-4-1 mid-block, should the press be broken, or the distance of the nearest man be too far to initiate the counter-press.
City would look to create overloads through diamonds in the wide areas and half-spaces, looking to draw Southampton's players away from their man, towards the ball.
Attracting the pressure would then bring about blindside movements that created new passing lanes to allow for penetration.
In the second half, City had to adapt to Southampton’s new out-of-possession structure. They did this with the same principle of attracting pressure and freeing up teammates through intelligent movement.
Southampton set up in a 4-3-3 in possession with Nathan Redmond, Shane Long and Danny Ings leading the line.
Out of possession, the Saints generally set up in a 4-3-3 and tried to press City high up the pitch in an attempt to force direct play.
When the Saints pressed high, Redmond and Long would press the centre-backs which would leave full-backs Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker free out wide. The roles of Mario Lemina, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and James Ward-Prowse meant they couldn’t affect them either. City regularly broke the press by playing into Fernandinho and then out in one touch to Mendy or Walker.
The Saints looked to get their attackers in behind the City full-backs as much as possible.
Analysis: Southampton
Southampton set up in a 4-3-3 in possession with Mario Lemina, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and James Ward-Prowse as the midfield three, behind Nathan Redmond, Shane Long and Danny Ings in attack.
The Saints predictably had limited time in possession, but when they did have the ball they would attempt to play out and through midfield to build their attacks. Their primary strategy was to try to exploit the areas in behind the Manchester City full-backs, either through building the ball into these areas and then running from deep, or through playing early in behind for the runs of Redmond, Ings and Long.
On the occasions they did manage to evade City’s counter-press, they would look to switch the play quickly and take advantage of their opponents’ numerically weaker side through the opposite winger and full-back.
The Saints saw more of the ball when the hosts fell back into a mid-block, but they still struggled to break them down. In these situations, they would push their full-backs on either side to have two men outside, or to move their wide attacker inside.
Out of possession, they began in a 4-3-3 high press – in the same positional structure as their in-possession formation. Ings would operate between the two City centre-backs, ready to press goalkeeper Ederson should he get the ball, while Redmond or Long would press the centre-back in possession, depending on which side the play was being built up on. Lemina would look to press Fernandinho from behind, as Ward-Prowse and Hojbjerg would track Bernardo Silva and David Silva, leaving the back four to deal with Sterling, Sane and Aguero.
The objective of the high press was to force City into long passes that the back four could defend. When they pressed, however, they couldn’t cover the passing line into Fernandinho well enough. Lemina would press the Brazilian, but he was helpless to prevent the one-touch pass out to the full-back which was consistently effective in breaking this press.
They switched to a 4-4-2 in the second half, with Redmond dropping into the midfield line. This allowed the front two to apply pressure to the centre-backs, while the midfield four could cover the full width of the pitch.
While this prevented the previous regular occurrence from happening, City adapted by looking to play in between the wide and central midfielders. They would either take them out of the game, if the attacking player was beyond them, or attract one or both of them to the ball, should the attacking player receive between them. This was successful in creating space elsewhere for the next move.
Southampton were simply unable to cope with the fluidity and movement of City’s attacks, regularly finding themselves outnumbered and pulled out of position. Pep Guardiola’s players were also at their most ruthless in front of goal, giving the visitors little chance of shocking the Etihad and ending a winless run of now seven league games.
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
Performance cookies
These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
Additional Cookies
This website uses the following additional cookies:
Cookie
Purpose
More information
join-mailing-list
WordPress sets this cookie when you load any page, We will hide newsletter form after click on close button and it will not show again on any page.
Cookie Value: 1
Expiry time: 1 week
gated-list_
WordPress sets this cookie when you load an article page, We will hide contact form after you click on the close button and it will not show again on the particular article page.
Cookie Value: dynamic cookie value generated here
Expiry time: 1 week
wordpress_test_cookie
WordPress sets this cookie when you navigate to the login page. The cookie is used to check whether your web browser is set to allow, or reject cookies.
WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customise your view of admin interface and in some circumstances the main site interface.
Cookie Value: Text indicating your preferred settings
Expiry time: session
wp-settings-time-1
WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customise your view of admin interface and in some circumstances the main site interface.
Cookie Value: Text indicating your preferred settings
Expiry time: session
wordpress_logged_in_xxxxx
WordPress uses this cookie to indicate when you’re logged in, and who you are, for most interface use.
Cookie Value: Your login details in an encrypted form
Expiry time: session
wordpress_xxxxx
WordPress uses these cookies to store your authentication details, and their use is limited to the admin console area.
Cookie Value: Your login authentication details in an encrypted form
Expiry time: session
Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after the expiry periods stated in the table above.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!