Pep Guardiola Needs to Replicate Manchester City Away Form at the Etihad Stadium

There was a time when Manchester City fans might not have relished going to watch their team play. Especially in the mid-2000s—when the club were strapped for funds and relying on cheap transfers and loan signings—supporters might have considered why they were spending their hard-earned cash on watching yet another poor performance.

The displays got so bad at the then-named City of Manchester Stadium during the 2006-07 season—the final year under Stuart Pearce’s management—that some season-ticket holders stopped going before the end of the campaign.

In effect, they were paying to do something else on a Saturday afternoon other than suffer the 90 minutes of uninspiring and dull football that was on offer—and that would probably end in a defeat, too.

Back then, City didn’t see a lot of the ball. Unlike the teams that have had the likes of David Silva, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero controlling play, City’s 2006 setup of Joey Barton, Darius Vassell and Bernardo Corradi didn’t quite cut the mustard.

There’s a small sense of irony, then, that City are struggling at home right now because they see so much possession. From being in a position of barely being able to get a kick of the ball a decade ago, they’re now so much in control that they have their opponents running scared and shutting the game down from the start.

What does a manager in the visitors’ dugout do when his team are faced with 11 players who can ping possession around them like they’re not there? The answer is frustrating for City fans: They drop their side deeper into their own penalty area, stay tight and narrow, and make sure there are no gaps.

It’s doubly problematic at the moment because, as Everton, Southampton and Middlesbrough have shown, it’s an effective way of leaving the Etihad Stadium with something to show for an afternoon’s work. Even Sunderland, in the opening match of the season, presented City with a problem by doing something similar—and the result only became a home win thanks to a late own goal. 

Three consecutive 1-1 draws at the Etihad against sides that a title challenger would expect to be beating at home is disappointing, but they have highlighted what could be a problem for Pep Guardiola throughout his time in the Premier League.

His tactics rely on the opposition leaving their own box from time to time. While it’s not playing on the break in the traditional sense—sitting deep, conceding possession, and waiting for an opportunity to steal a goal, much the way City’s opponents have been playing at Eastlands—it is still a counter-attack style.

Guardiola wants the other team to believe they can steal possession off his defenders and create themselves a goalscoring chance. That means they’ll come hunting for …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com