Manchester City 2 Manchester United 1: FA Cup final tactical analysis

Manchester City completed a second Premier League and FA Cup double in five seasons, with victory over local rivals Manchester United in front of a packed Wembley. Ilkay Gündogan's two goals, the first of which came after only 12 seconds and set a record for the fastest goal ever in an FA Cup final, edged Pep Guardiola's team one step closer to an historic treble.

Gündogan's early strike set the tone for a first half City dominated, but Erik ten Hag's team were handed a lifeline when Jack Grealish was adjudged to have handled in the City penalty area. Bruno Fernandes stepped up to score the penalty and send the teams into the break level, but another Gündogan strike – hit with more accuracy than power – beat David de Gea early in the second half and United were unable to find a second equaliser. City have now won two FA Cups under Guardiola, to go with five Premier League titles and four League Cups.

“Now is the first time I can talk about [the treble] because it is one game away," said Guardiola. "But it is not about the treble, it is about winning the Champions League. Everything will not be complete if we don’t win the Champions League, so we have to do it. I said to the players, you have to put the pressure on yourself to be recognised as something good – so you have to win Europe. We are one game away.”

In possession: Manchester City

Overload in central midfield

Pep Guardiola set his team up in a 3-4-2-1 shape, with Ilkay Gündogan and Kevin De Bruyne playing as two numbers 10s behind Erling Haaland. A world-class strike from Gündogan put them ahead inside the first minute, after which City looked to use the overload in the first part of their build-up to dominate possession. The back three and double pivot of John Stones and Rodri made a five that overloaded the Manchester United front four (below). Both De Bruyne and Gündogan were tightly marked by United’s own double pivot, but they looked to take up wide positions. This gave City’s deeper players the opportunity to penetrate with either forward passes or dribbles into midfield.

Direct access into Haaland

The number 10s held their positions in the inside channels, freeing up space for Haaland to drop in and connect with the City back line. Whenever the United front line marked closely around City’s deeper midfielders, the back three of Manuel Akanji, Rúben Dias and Kyle Walker simply bypassed them and played into Haaland’s feet. This served to take out four United players with one pass (below). Curved runs inside from De Bruyne and Gündogan then created wider passing options into wingers Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish.

Number 10 runs in behind

Forward runs from the two number 10s proved key to City’s attacking threat in the second half. Both Grealish and Silva moved more towards the ball and received deeper than United’s back line. The full-backs initially let them receive freely, but eventually jumped out in an attempt to limit their ball-carrying threat. From here, spaces emerged for De Bruyne and Gündogan to run in behind. As one penetrated into the corner of the penalty area, the other would join Haaland as a second central threat. One of the double pivot – usually Stones – would push through central spaces and lock off the edge of the box. It was one such run from De Bruyne (below) that led to the free-kick from which Gündogan scored the winning goal.

Dealing with United’s man-marking

As they chased the game, United ended with only one real centre-back, in Raphaël Varane. Adding an extra player in central midfield effectively made it a man-for-man contest in every area of the pitch. This negated City’s overload in midfield, but it gave Haaland the time and space to pin Varane and offered his teammates a direct forward passing option to keep gaining territory as they looked to see out the match. Grealish and Silva maintained their width (below), which stretched United’s back three and provided spaces for Gündogan and Foden, who had replaced De Bruyne, to attack into. Ultimately, though, City needed only the one-goal advantage to secure yet another trophy under Guardiola.

In possession: Manchester United

Narrow attacking numbers

Erik ten Hag set his team up in their now familiar 4-2-3-1 shape, with a narrow three-man attacking unit of Jadon Sancho, Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes supporting Marcus Rashford. This shape put United in a great position to counter-press high up the pitch, but on the ball they lacked quality. Despite gaining some good possession and territory, they struggled to work clear shooting opportunities. The width was offered by full-backs Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (below), but the team lacked a focal point at whom to aim crosses. Casemiro or Fernandes tried to make late runs towards the back post, thus avoiding Manchester City’s aerially dominant centre-backs, but United didn’t try this potentially effective strategy enough in the first half.

Counter-attacks on the right

As United dropped deeper to defend in the first half, counter-attacking moments offered their best chance of progression. This was particularly the case on their right side, where Rashford would make bending runs to stretch Rúben Dias at the centre of City’s back three. Fernandes would drift inside and pull off to seek space on the opposite side, with Eriksen and at times also Sancho moving across to provide support for Rashford and Casemiro (below), the latter of whom looked to push forward from his starting position in the double pivot.

Garnacho’s attacking energy

The introduction of Alejandro Garnacho on the United left with half an hour remaining gave the team more energy and dribbling threat. His ability to cut inside Kyle Walker helped United work more chances on goal, with Sancho and Rashford often forming a front two to work the City defence more (below). Wan-Bissaka then created the attacking width on the right, with Fernandes and Casemiro operating as number eights in the inside channels. David de Gea’s targeting of Walker with his distribution for the first time in the match helped get Garnacho into the game more, as United landed on more first and second balls than at any other time in the game.

Committing numbers forward

Ten Hag’s shift to a brave man-for-man approach in the second half allowed United to commit extra players forward. With Garnacho continuing to progress on their left, they added the height and power of Wout Weghorst and Scott McTominay to the front line (below), with others joining the attack from the right or locking the edge of the box. Guardiola responded to these extra numbers by introducing both Nathan Aké and Aymeric Laporte late on. Although United hit the bar late, they couldn’t grab the equaliser and send the game to extra-time. Ten Hag ends a still successful first season in charge with one trophy: the EFL Cup.

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