Old Trafford hosted the latest chapter of the rivalry between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, after a four year hiatus from this managerial duel. Both have taken charge of their respective sides this summer and started the Premier League season with three wins in three. However, there was only one winner today, as the Citizens left with the three points.

Manchester City made notable changes to their side from their last match against West Ham. Former Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo made his first start for his new club after signing near the end of the transfer window, while Kelechi Iheanacho replaced Sergio Aguero, out due to suspension for violent conduct. Gael Clichy was demoted to the bench in favor of Kolarov. United made two changes of their own, electing to start Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard over Juan Mata and Anthony Martial.

City dominate the first half

The opening minutes of the game provided an indication as to how this duel between Pep and Jose would unfold. Rather than high press immediately from the onset as Mourinho had once employed at Real Madrid, a medium-low block was preferred. United have defended in this set up throughout the whole season (my thoughts on it against Southampton) so far with great success, but City found ways to create decisive space in center where they could exercise their control on the match.

City had an impressive attacking dynamic throughout the midfield, as their clever movement overwhelmed the man oriented behavior of Pogba and Fellaini. De Bruyne was a hassle to deal with throughout the match, as he consistently was one step ahead of whoever was marking him at the time. The Belgian drifted in between the lines for City and consistently lurked at the blind side of Paul Pogba. Since Pogba naturally had difficulty tracking him and did not want to concede space centrally by following him, De Bruyne found himself in dangerous space all afternoon and became the focal point for City’s attack. This movement trend led to him opportunistically pouncing on a flicked header from Iheanacho and putting the visitors ahead after 15 minutes. For more on the use of the blind side, I highly recommend this from JD of Spielverlagerung.com

Elsewhere on the movement front, David Silva was equally influential in City’s dominance of the match. Starting initially in a deeper role, he would drift higher to create a line of four in City’s midfield and flatten out United’s defensive structure, creating space in between the lines for the team to work with. During scenarios where City had the ball wide, Silva would intelligently manipulate Fellaini by positioning himself wider and closer to Nolito so that City could change the point of attack easily with a high speed of ball circulation. His calm and collected presence on the ball was the metronome that the Sky Blues needed to breakdown Mourinho’s athletic United team.

There were a couple other interesting components of City’s attack that provided additional defensive security against a United team that was designed for effective counter attacking. Whenever City would enter United’s final third, both full backs would pinch inside into the half spaces to offer additional central security for any incoming counters. This tactic was used at Bayern Munich during Pep’s stint in Germany, as he found that having sufficient numbers in central areas helped with the prevention of counter attacks. Due to this maneuver, United were forced to counter out in wide areas mainly through Jesse Lingard and Mkhitaryan, who both struggled tremendously.

Another example of a facet of City’s attack that assisted with defensive security was the vertical rotation of John Stones and Fernandinho. This simple movement between the center back and holding midfielder helped establish more of a defensive presence in the middle while City were in possession, while also making good use out of Stones’ skills as a ball playing center back. Stones was of great value when City constructed their attacks in United’s half, providing a key outlet for recycling the ball and changing the point of attack.

Manchester City’s counterpressing was also important in their dominance of the first half. Given that United planned for their attacks to take place in transition, any foothold on the game that City wanted to establish required that a strategy take place to nullify their counter attacks. Due to City’s solid possession structures, hunting for the ball to regain possession after losing it becams easier. To sum it up, because of City’s counterpressing, United couldn’t create their individualistic counter attacks due to City’s collective effort to recover possession.

United’s High Press + Claudio Bravo

As mentioned earlier, United for the most part played with the same defensive system that they have used throughout the young season. This was the set up in which they were positioned the majority of the time. This match however, there were moments where the Red Devils looked to press high when Claudio Bravo had the ball. The high press in the first half was disjointed, as only some players put in the steps necessary to effectively pressure the opponent. This led to City easily playing around United and marching up the field. In fact, both of City’s goals arose from this uncoordinated pressing from United. Due to the bad vertical compactness that comes from poor high pressing, the visitors had plenty of time on the ball once they beat the initial press, allow them to easily pick out opponents up the field and construct attacks.

Claudio Bravo, from a goalkeeping perspective, did not play well, as his errors led to a goal from Zlatan and a potential penalty kick for United. However, today he showed why a goalkeeper with solid feet and decision making is pivotal to an attacking minded system like Guardiola’s. With exception to his attempt to beat Ander Herrera on the dribble, Bravo was solid today with his decision making and demonstrated good composure on the ball. Given it was his first match in the team, issues were naturally expected. Add in that Bravo has a limited knowledge of English, and you can expect that some communication errors would occur. However, there is a reason that Chile and Barcelona have been successful with Bravo as their #1, and those reasons will likely appear as he gets more familiar with his new surroundings.

At halftime, United made smart adjustments to their pressing scheme, which led to more success in preventing City from easily being able to build up. Through their man orientations and a change in structure where City’s center backs were now covered, Bravo was forced to play difficult aerial passes, allowing United to develop more of a rhythm on the match.

Second Half changes and Later Developments

At the interval, Mourinho brought on Marcus Rashford and Ander Herrera, replacing Jesse Lingard and Mkhitaryan, who were underwhelming in their first league starts of the season. Herrera partnered with Fellaini in the center of midfield, pushing Pogba up to the 10. Wayne Rooney was moved out wide to the right side in what was primarily a 4-2-3-1, took the shape of a 4-4-2 during the high press as mentioned earlier.

United began to push City back a little bit more and generate forward momentum, looking to break through City’s defense. With Pogba and Rashford further forward, United had more strength and speed in attack, using their physical advantages through 1v1 dribbling and more direct play in the attacking third. Fellaini was moved higher as well during the attack to provide an additional option in the box for long balls and crosses to utilize his heading prowess. United caused some danger in this spell, tipping the scales in their favor for this moment as they spent this time in City’s half.

Pep Guardiola reacted quickly to this pattern of the match. In order to gain defensive control in the center and better equip his team for a physical battle, he brought on Fernando to play as an anchor in the center and substituted Iheanacho. Shortly after, Sterling made way for debutant Leroy Sane. From here, the framework that Guardiola had his team operate with was a 4-3-3 structured for quick counter attacks as the game became more stretched out.

United became much more direct with their attacks as they chased for a goal to even the scoreline. This led to an up and down, physical contest. From the inevitable counter attacks that result from this type of game, City had multiple counters where they had a 5v4 or 4v4 situation that they could not capitalize on.

The game went down to the final whistle as United kept knocking at City’s door waiting for an opening, trying to exploit their physical advantage through long, flighted passes. Even though the ball fell to a couple of very favorable chances for the home side, they were unable to put any of them away.

Conclusion

The first half was a display of footballing brilliance from Manchester City, whose dominance reveals some of the weaknesses that the Red Devils have to address as they progress through the season. Although the second half wasn’t as clean and comfortable as Guardiola would’ve liked, he will be pleased to have gotten the result. Pep was intelligent with his second half changes to even the scales back in his favor.

From Jose Mourinho’s perspective, he will be frustrated with his initial team selection. While Mkhitaryan was a bit unlucky to not have much action, he would agree that his performance was not his best stuff and will hope to put this one behind him. Rashford offered much more to United than Lingard did, who was woeful on the day, which begs the question if the match could’ve had a different outcome if Rashford had started from the beginning. Now though, Mourinho has to regroup his team and sort out the dynamics of his attack if he expects to beat City for the title or in the next derby.

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