Manchester City came into their game against Crystal Palace with a need to gamble. They only had John Stones, just back from injury, available at centre-back, so instead of forcing him back, Pep Guardiola decided to play not one but two defensive midfielders in the heart of the defence. Fernandinho and Rodrigo were tasked with the role and while it paid off, it was not without its risks.
Pep Guardiola Gamble Pays Off Against Crystal Palace
Manchester City’s Gamble
It’s hard to pinpoint where the biggest gamble is with playing two defensive midfielders as centre-backs. The one that sticks out is its effect on their personal instincts. Both Fernandinho and Rodrigo are used to stepping up and having the cover of centre-backs behind them. Things can get a little tricky when they are the ones doing the covering.
There were a couple of moments where Rodrigo made the wrong instinctive decision. He had a bad step and slip in the first half but was saved by a back-tracking Raheem Sterling, and there were a couple of times where he stepped higher than he should have where Fernandinho could have been exposed had Palace played the right pass.
Part of Pep Guardiola’s gamble in this game was understanding that Palace do not have the ballplayers to hurt City in that way. The Eagles did a lot right in this game, but their ball-playing was nowhere near good enough to exploit City’s defenders.
Crystal Palace Tactics
Credit needs to be given first to the Crystal Palace manager, Roy Hodgson. He understood that his side were not going to be able to take everything away from City, but their best chance was to identify what they could take away and execute that plan.
They decided to try and take away City’s ability to combine near the top of the box. Hodgson flooded the midfield with a block of five; three central midfielders and two wingers focused on their defensive responsibility, and while saying it worked might be strong, Palace did force City to go to their backup gameplan, which leads to a lot of crosses. It is a good thing that Guardiola decided to have both Benjamin Mendy and Joao Cancelo in from the start. Their ability going forward is what eventually overwhelmed Crystal Palace.
UEFA Champions League Preview
Manchester City face Atalanta at home on Tuesday in what will be the debutant side’s last throw of the dice. The Italian side are in danger of being eliminated from the group stage already after two bad losses to Shakhtar Donetsk and Dinamo Zagreb in the first two games. Now they get the lovely prospect of Manchester City, which will only increase their reason to gamble.
Coached by Gian Piero Gasperini, Atalanta will come at City in their trademarked 3-4-3 formation. They will press and attack City, but luckily they won’t defend them. Atalanta are being sliced up by everyone they see lately; they blew a three-goal lead away to Lazio at the weekend and they are without their top goalscorer from last season, Duvan Zapata, who got injured during the last international break.
As Guardiola said in his press conference, Atalanta are a joy to watch. This, and the next game in Italy, will both be must-watch games. If for nothing else, they will be a high energy show from start to finish.
Bad Week for the Women
Manchester City Women got hit with the one-two punch of a loss coupled with a major injury. First, right-back Aoife Mannion announced on her social media that she had torn her anterior cruciate ligament and would be out for roughly six months. It’s a huge blow for City as Mannion had been playing well at right-back this season since coming over from Birmingham City in the summer.
It got worse when City lost their first game without Mannion, a 2-0 derby loss to Manchester United in the Continental Cup. United were the better side throughout the game and their two goals were compounded by Keira Walsh being sent off. It was just City’s second domestic defeat since May 2018.
The ladies now have the week to pick themselves up before travelling to face Women’s Super League power Arsenal next Sunday. The Gunners are the defending WSL champions and have quite the formidable squad.
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