Man City were just held to a 3-3 draw by Feyenoord at home. In fact, the Etihad team did well for 2/3 of the match. They dominated possession, continuously created dangerous opportunities and did not give the counter-attack method a chance. However, somehow, the Etihad team still dropped the victory in just the last 15 minutes. So what were Man City’s problems in this match?
Individual mistakes
First of all, we have to mention the wrong individuals. Feyenoord would not have had a chance to improve if it were not for Gvardiol’s dangerous play in the 75th minute. The Croatian player was not under much pressure but chose to go back instead of clearing the ball.
This play could determine Gvardiol’s main point and Moussa did not miss the opportunity to punish his opponent. Notably, after this problem, Man City’s No. 24 had to regain his composure. However, Gvardiol continued to make mistakes in the second goal of the Etihad team.
First, Gvardiol missed the ball at home. Changing the coordination on the left wing or falling long, he chose to pass the ball into the middle of the field to McAtee. The young Man City player quickly lost the ball to the opponent’s applications. Then, Gvardiol automatically broke the offside zone of the home team when trying to chase Timber.
That was the reason to move forward with 3 Feyenoord players approaching Ederson’s goal while Man City defended with 2 to 3 steps. Things got worse for Gvardiol when this player chose the wrong landing point of the ball. If the Croatian defender headed accurately, Man City could have only had to accept a corner kick instead of the second goal.
The third goal also came from an individual error. Youngsters Lewis and Simpson-Pusey failed to catch the offside flag, allowing Paixao to get past Ederson and then run the ball to Hancko to make it 3-3.
Guardiola admitted that he did not see any danger from his opponents, so he made these changes. It seems that the “upper hand” mentality and being 3 goals ahead made the Spaniard forget that this is the highest level of competition for clubs in Europe.
Guardiola’s carelessness can be clearly seen in the choice of replacements. Replacing Foden with McAtee is acceptable, but replacing Gundogan with De Bruyne and especially Simpson-Pusey with Ake were the wrong decisions.
When Gundogan left the field, Man City lost the link between defense and midfield. This made the team system unbalanced. Gundogan’s task was given to McAtee and this player played extremely poorly, often losing his position.
In the first goal, Gvardiol could not find the central midfielder, so he decided to speed up. The Croatian defender’s decision was wrong, but it was the result of a poorly run system.
Taking Ake off early showed Pep Guardiola’s intention to face Liverpool. However, the Spanish coach must have calculated too much while the personnel were too weak. Instead of giving Ruben Dias or Kyle Walker a few minutes to get used to the pitch, Pep brought in player Simpson-Pusey.
Man City’s defense already had the inexperienced Lewis. 2/4 defenders were on the learning surface, including the midfielder with the best ball-sweeping ability, Pep Guardiola himself went to Man City’s home field to become more sophisticated than ever.
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