Match Date: 2 October 2018

This is one of the best groups in Champions League at the moment; Manchester City won the Premier League in historical fashion last season, Hoffenheim have one of the best young coaches in the world, Lyon have a good amount of attacking talent, and Shakhtar Donetsk are consistently in the group stages and have a good manager in Paulo Fonseca. In the first games, Hoffenheim picked up a point in their first match of the season against Shakhtar Donetsk, while Manchester City lost to Lyon. Of those, despite Lyon’s attacking threats, it was still a bit of a shock that Manchester City dropped points.

This match was particularly interesting due to the Hoffenheim’s defensive structure and the flexibility that it showed. Nagelsmann made five changes to the side that drew Shakhtar Donetsk 2-2 and altered the shape of the team from a 5-3-2 to a 4-3-3.

Guardiola made four changes to the side that lost 2-1 to Lyon.

Hoffenheim’s Mid-Block and Hoogma

Hoffenheim scored within the first minute of play, which makes it difficult to determine how Nagelsmann would have set his side up otherwise. While it is impossible to really answer that, it was evident that Hoffenheim had a plan that if they were to go up, they were going to then allow Manchester City to have the ball in their own half of the field with the line of confrontation near the halfway line as they defended in a narrow, mid-block. The interesting aspects of Hoffenheim’s mid-block were how flat the midfield three positioned themselves and how narrow the two wide players, Joelinton and Belfodil, came. With Demirbay, Hoogma, and Grillitsch flat and Joelinton and Belfodil filling the spaces in between, it made Hoffenheim very hard to break down centrally. Below you can distinctly see the Hoffenheim midfield three and the two wide players tucked in filling the passing lanes that would be between the midfield three.

Manchester City struggled to build through Fernandinho, Silva, and Gündoğan and were forced to play wide into Walker and Laporte, with City having to play around Hoffenheim’s block. Below you can see City passing into the wide ares, struggling to find space centrally and build.

There were a number of times that Silva and, particularly, Gündoğan and Sane made runs beyond the Hoffenheim back line and received a ball from a deep position in midfield when Hoffenheim were not able to put adequate pressure on the ball relative to the positioning of their back four and the ball. Below you can see two good examples of this, one of which led to the City’s equaliser. Gündoğan’s runs in particular, as he made a number that were not picked out with a pass, destabilised Hoffenheim’s midfield and allowed more space for City. It was these passes from deep and during transitions where Hoffenheim looked a bit disorganised.

Hoogma’s positioning in the game was interesting. He was very much in the midfield three of Hoffenheim’s 4-3-3, but would occasionally drop into the Hoffenheim back four, allowing both Brenet and Kaderabek to push forward. The two full backs were a consistent outlet for the German side and were important to their transitions. It is not unusual for a centre midfielder to drop into a back line to pick up the ball and also allow full backs to push forward, but Hoogma also dropped between Akpoguma and Posch during both negative transitions and at times when Hoffenheim were in their mid-block setup.

City Forced Wide

With Hoffenheim keeping things very narrow in the centre of the field, it forced City out wide. Sane and Sterling were positioned right on the touchline in attempts to spread Hoffenheim’s back four, which also led to some of the success that Gündoğan had when making those runs in behind. As the game went on Silva and Gündoğan were forced to get on the ball in wide areas rather than centrally or in the half spaces. This left Agüero isolated at times.

There were a number of times when Sane and Sterling were isolated and could have been found with a good switch of play, but, again, it was difficult for City to play centrally without first going back to Kompany and Otamendi to shift Hoffenheim, but this then allowed Hoffenheim to easily adjust as there was no danger from either Kompany or Otamendi. Had City been able to play within the same line or forward during a switch of play, it would have done more to unbalance Hoffenheim, as the German side did allow space between the lines horizontally, but as soon as the ball was played backward, Hoffenheim were able to maintain their shape.

Hoffenheim’s Transitions

As mentioned above, Hoffenheim wanted City to play wide and provided space for Walker and Laporte to move up the field. This essentially left Kompany and Otamendi at the back. With Joelinton and Belfodil narrow in support of Szalai, Hoffenheim were able to break quickly with numbers against the two City centre backs. Hoffenheim’s goal came early and was not a goal scored in transition, but it did show how easy it was to disorganise City’s back four with some quick movements from the Hoffenheim forwards.

The first two minutes of the second half were a perfect example of Hoffenheim’s compact shape and quick transition and City’s issues in possession. (The clip below is sped up a bit.)

As soon as Hoffenheim win the ball back, they look to counter in the wide areas. Szalai does an excellent job holding off Otamendi and then playing Brenet into the space behind Laporte. Brenet then plays the ball into Belfodil who ran into the space vacated by Otamendi. It is an excellent example of what Nagelsmann and Hoffenheim wanted to do on the day and had Belfodil made a better decision, they could have very well gotten another goal early on in the half.

Guardiola Changes

The first change was a purely tactical one for Guardiola with Stones coming on for Otamendi. One would think this would be a straight swap where Stones would partner Kompany at centre back, but instead Stones joining Fernandinho in centre midfield. It looked like the City players were not entirely sure of the change as play restarted. Laporte began moving wide, but Stones directed back inside to play closer to Kompany in City’s build up. Walker, too, tucked inside closer to Kompany making City look more like a 3-4-3. The second change was forced, with Gündoğan going off injured and Bernardo Silva replacing him. Below you can City’s shape. Should after Bernardo Silva came on City started to stretch Hoffenheim more, destablising their shape much more than prior to Stones and Silva’s introductions. Silva created a chance for Agüero that the Argentine headed into Baumann’s hands and the Portuguese playmaker played the cross in that Silva eventually scored from.

Stones would drop into City’s back line when Hoffenheim had the ball, whether or not they were in transition, to allow Walker and Laporte to move back out wide to cover those areas and prevent Hoffenheim from playing into those areas of the field.

Looking Forward

Nagelsmann got his tactics right for much of the match. He got City to play into areas of the field that he wanted them to and made it difficult for them to create chances centrally. With Guardiola’s changes, City were able to start creating more chances out of the space that they were given and were able to destablise Hoffenheim’s shape more. The changes helped stretch Hoffenheim and helped lead to David Silva’s winner.

It will be interesting to see what this match up will be when they meet in Manchester and Nagelsmann has a full squad to choose from.