Match date: 17 September 2014

The two sides met in last year’s campaign as well, with Bayern playing some of their best football all season at the Etihad, pinning the English club back with some excellent pressing. When the two sides met in Germany, Manchester City won 3-2.

Bayern Munich are still without several first team players because of injury, including Ribery, Thiago, Schweinsteiger, and Javi Martinez. New signings Benatia, Bernat, Lewandowski, and Xabi Alonso were all named in the starting XI with Guardiola starting the match with Bayern Munich in a 3-5-2.

Manuel Pellegrini had to serve a touchline ban for the match as Manchester City named arguably their strongest XI available, with the exception of Aguero on the bench, in a 4-2-3-1.

Bayern’s Formation and Early Change

As mentioned above, Bayern Munich started the match in a 3-5-2, with Benatia, Boateng, and Alaba as the back three. Operating as wing backs were Rafinha and Bernat, with Lahm, Alonso, and Götze in the middle behind Lewandowski and Müller. For the opening 15 minutes, Bayern Munich were getting more comfortable in the game and allowed more flexibility in the side, but the shape still seemed very much like a 3-5-2. At around the 20th minute, however, the positioning of David Alaba and Xabi Alonso became interchangeable, with the Austrian pushing into midfield and the Spaniard dropping to the position of left centre back that Alaba had started in. It wasn’t too significant of a change, as Alonso is a holding midfield and is used to dropping between centre backs to get the ball, which seemed to be one of the reasons he and Alaba switched. When he played in front of the back three, Silva and Dzeko would both offer pressure, which limited Alonso’s influence on the match. Below, you can see Alonso unable to get on the ball as Manchester City had numbers forward to press, which was a rarity, as well as the pair of Alonso and Alaba switched.

This switching happened until the 25th to 30th minute, when Guardiola switched his side to a back four, with Alaba moving much further up the pitch, in almost a number 10 type role. Benatia and Boateng stayed at the back with Rafinha and Bernat on the outside and Alonso in front of the back four. Below is Alaba’s passing from the start of the game to the 25th minute compared to from his passing when he was moved further forward.

As the game went on, Bayern played in a 4-1-4-1, with Alaba and Lahm ahead of Alonso, which has been Bayern’s shape for much of their time under Guardiola. Below is a good example of the bank of four behind Lewandowski, with Götze and Müller in the bank of four rather than acting as inside forwards as they would in a 4-3-3.

Bayern’s Attack

There was more fluidity to Bayern’s play than just Alonso and Alaba switching positions and then Alaba’s move up the pitch. While Bayern were still playing in a 3-5-2, Götze and Müller were constantly on the move. Müller is perhaps one of the best in the world at creating space for his teammates and finding unoccupied spaces, which is one of the reasons he is a top finisher. Many of his goals come from clever runs into space in and around the six yard box, but very few come from outside that area. During this match, Müller would consistently drop into midfield or drift wide, not so much to look for the ball, but in hopes that Kompany and Demichelis would follow him and open up more space for Lewandowski. Kompany, in particular, repeatedly follows players into midfield and usually commits one or two fouls in that area because he gets turned too easily.

As Müller would do this, Götze would drift to a wide left position. Below, you can see where the pair received their passes while Bayern played in a 3-5-2. When Guardiola changed the team shape, the two began receiving the ball in wide areas much more frequently.

Much of Bayern’s best play came down the right side as Rafinha, Lahm, and Müller would all drift into that area, leaving Clichy in 1v3 situations at times, especially as Nasri was not great at executing his defensive duties. It makes sense that this would happen, not only because of Nasri’s lack of defensive play, but because of the Bayern personnel. For the majority of his career at Bayern, Lahm has played at right back, with Guardiola moving him into midfield just last season. Rafinha is a very attacking right back and, as mentioned above, Müller is constantly on the move, leaving spaces and in search of new spaces. So not only was the tactic effective in exploiting City’s weakness on that side, it was a comfortable one for Rafinha, Lahm, and Müller to play into.

Bayern’s Pressing, City Absorb

While Bayern’s pressing was not as impressive as it was during their performance at the Etihad last season, they still looked to get numbers around the Manchester City ball carrier, win it back quickly, and continue and their patience in possession. Below is a fairly good example of Bayern taking advantage of the position of the ball on the field as well as Fernandinho’s body position. It allowed good numbers around the ball without a high risk of the back four becoming exposed if a pass broke the pressing.

While Bayern were willing to press, Manchester City were willing to sit deep, in two banks of four, with Silva and Dzeko in front, and absorb Bayern Munich’s possession. It was effective for long periods of the match, but was also a cause for concern and if it wasn’t for Joe Hart, Manchester City could have lost this match by a significant margin. Far too many times, a Bayern midfielder was able to receive the ball deep in Manchester City’s half, turn with the ball without any pressure from Yaya Toure or Fernandinho, and play a ball into Lewandowski, Müller, or another midfielder breaking forward. Below are two perfect examples. The first is Lahm receiving a pass from Rafinha. Notice where Yaya Toure, the closest Manchester City player, is with the ball more than half way to Lahm’s foot.

The second screen capture shows Alaba receiving a ball a bit further forward in a quicker phase of Bayern’s play. Again, notice the closest Manchester City player is far off from being able to apply good pressure on Alaba. He is allowed to bring the ball down from his chest, turn, and play.

Yaya Toure’s performance summed up Manchester City’s play, especially on the defensive side of the ball. In the image with Lahm receiving the ball, Toure is almost ten yards off the ball. Usually dynamic and powerful, Toure seemed incredibly off the pace of the game and lethargic, with Fernandinho forced to do a significant amount of defensive work to cover for the Ivorian, which caused Fernandinho’s energy level to drop as the game went on.

Changes

Cousillas (Pellegrini) made the first two substitutions of the game, bringing on Milner for Nasri, which pushed Silva into a wide left position and Yaya Toure into a role behind Dzeko. The move was an odd one only because of where Milner was played. He went in as a holding midfielder, which allowed Toure to play behind Dzeko, and then Dzeko’s sub Aguero, and forced Silva left, but one would think his defensive qualities could have been used on the left with Bayern Munich consistently overloading that side. The last substitution was Kolarov on for Navas in the 88th minute, pushing Silva to the right.

Guardiola, with Bayern playing a 4-1-4-1, brought on Robben for Müller for his first change. His second change was much more interesting, bringing on Pizarro for Rafinha, which moved Lahm to right back and, while Pizarro played deeper than Lewandowski, he certainly added more presence into the penalty area, as did the third sub in Dante, which helped lead to Boateng scoring the winner as a result of a Bayern set piece.

Conclusion

Not as dominating for Bayern Munich as the first time the two sides met last year, but a good win for the German side. Guardiola’s consistent changes and Bayern’s fluid play made it hard for Manchester City and Cousillas to adjust quickly and without Joe Hart, the score could have read more than 1-0.

Yaya Toure’s performance was the biggest surprise of all the players on the pitch. The Ivorian midfielder is usually full of energy and can dominate the midfield of the pitch with ease, but he looked sluggish and uninterested in what was going on around him.

Manchester City will be hoping that their second match against Bayern Munich will be more like last year’s second meeting than this, but first must ready themselves for Chelsea.