Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, so the narrative goes, proved technical could triumph over physical with a 2–1 derby win over Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United.The media exaggerates, of course, but this was a victory achieved with very Guardiola-esque football.

City naturally dominated possession but also constantly looked for penetration, constantly circulating the ball across the pitch to find gaps in Manchester United’s defensive structure. Guardiola’s positional play philosophy is essentially distilled into possession with purpose.

“The intention is not to move the ball, rather to move the opposition”

Fundamental to this is the notion of clean build-up — where the ball is progressed smoothly from the back third into more advanced areas of the pitch. Guardiola sees build up as crucial to the clean progression of possession, arguing that in starting the play from deep positions, you provoke pressure from the opposition by inviting them forward, thus creating more space for midfielders and creative players when the ball arrives in their zone.

“Everything is much easier when the first progression of the ball is clean”

The cult of Guardiola first swept through football with his all-conquering Barcelona side of 2009–2011, who utilised what we today may consider the ‘orthodox’ build up methods. As explained in detail here, the back four splits across the full width of the pitch, with the full-backs getting high and wide, the centre-backs starting on the edge of the penalty box, and Sergio Busquets (#6, or holding midfielder) acting as the pivot through the centre of the pitch.

As Guardiola moved on to Bayern, so did his preferred build-up methods. In Germany, he regularly experimented with a back three, as well as the unusual ploy of central full-backs. This involved Phillip Lahm and David Alaba tucking into the centre of the pitch alongside Xabi Alonso (the #6), helping to overload the centre and creating vertical passing lanes from the centre-backs that increased Bayern’s ability to penetrate in build-up.

It was almost inevitable, then, when Guardiola first arrived at City that his first act at training was to teach the players how to build up.

In their opening match of the new Premier League season against Sunderland, Guardiola’s City appeared more of the Bayern school than Barcelona, with Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy tucking into central positions when City built up from the back. Since then, they’ve gradually progressed to more orthodox roles, positioning themselves in high and wide positions to give the team full width in the first phase of build-up. More interesting has been the movement of the back three (nominally the two centre-backs and Fernadinho, who has been the #6). While their starting positions are typical — the centre-backs split to the edge of the penalty box in the half-spaces, and Fernandinho starts central and in a position behind the opposition first pressing line — they constantly adjust this shape according to the movement of the player in possession.