How Real Madrid Broke Pep's Best Tactics This Season

in 2425 City blowing a lead should come as a surprise to absolutely no one they've been leaking goals all season but this was the first time we've seen Guardiola make significant tactical changes to try and stem the bleeding and for long spells it did work the aim of the Tactical shift was presumably to fix the one element they've been trying to deal with all season the Counterattack but these changes had fascinating Ripple effects across City's entire tactical setup All Season we've seen the blues use a 343 diamond in possession as pep has looked to make

up for defensive weakness through offensive prowess but the problem with that shape going forward is it's left them with just four men at best and the rest defense when the ball is high up the pitch these four men are the pivot and the three center backs but the thing is this shape would mean on the Counterattack the single pivot would be easily overloaded meaning the opponent would immediately be running at the back line but that changed against Madrid in a bit to fix this issue pep went back to a shape that we saw a lot

of in perhaps his finest Cityside in 2017 2018 this was by building with just two center backs Diaz and AK and having a single pivot being flanked by two inverted fullbacks as aangi and guardal tucked in meaning that they had a two three shape and sure having three center backs in front of the two center backs did provide more defensive steel but more important than the Personnel change was the change in the shape as having three men here meant they had better coverage of the width of the pitch theoretically making it harder to break through

the first line of defense before they were running at the last line of defense but their new rest defense shape wasn't just a defensive tweak it transformed City's possession game entirely as pep Prime City to try and take advantage of Madrid's defensive shape in deep areas Diaz and AK would split either side of Edison and as mbappe and venicius operated as a front tier in defense there were occasions where they could get split with Madrid in a 442 the risk of the Midfield overload was always present and Jon Stones would drop much deeper than gardio

and akanji to exaggerate this Advantage this is because neither mbappe nor venicius were great at cutting out the past into Stones meaning that when he received either he would have the space to drive forwards or if the Madrid pivots pushed higher to press him the risk of Bernardo or de bruyne being free between the lines became even bigger but there was also a fascinating secondary effect that worked in two ways Madrid's 442 defensive shape can become notoriously too narrow this would only be made worse by the fact Bellingham and Rodrigo could be drawn further infield

by The fallbacks Who were inverting so Madrid's shape was even narrower City could exploit this to try and create space elsewhere a fallback could drop even deeper and more centrally essentially alongside stones and ask a question of the Winger will you come all the way to apply pressure and make progression harder or will you follow and leave even more room on the flanks that brings us on to the biggest advantage of this shape for City the new shape naturally meant they had a five versus four advantage against Madrid's backline and more pertinently a two versus

one against Madrid's fallbacks due to the Wingers being so narrow this gave City options in the buildup as the channels were now open for them to find the Winger in The Wider region as much as possible and we have seen over the years just how devastating the combination of a Winger in space and a run through the half space can be so when the Madrid fallback was drawn wide that's exactly what we saw with City getting into good positions for the cutback but often not making it [Music] [Music] count but Madrid of course adapted particularly

in the mid block they sat slightly deeper cutting off the passing Lanes into City's Midfield three but the wide two versus one still presented an issue the Winger or more often the half Spaceman could drop outside the narrow Madrid block to try and receive to be the progressor but the real danger was when the fallback looked to follow the dropping man as it left a huge space high up the pitch and this is no more evident than in the the opener Rodrigo has been drawn infield by the fallback giving de bruyne space to drop into

valde follows meaning space is created higher up the pitch so the Madrid backline begins to shift across Shu manyi on the Winger and Harland in a one versus one against his Center back now both the center backs are wide creating space for gal's late run eventually leading to the goal but Madrid were Victors in the end so what did they do well their approach in possession was fascinating City also defended in a 442 with harand being joined by De bruyer to Pres Madrid center backs from the first whistle we saw just how dangerous this approach

could be kinger operated as the deepest pivot and Bernardo Silva was given an incredibly aggressive pressing assignment the 442 men city were already at a numerical disadvantage as Bellingham and sabios were free to operate higher up the pitch in advance of kaminga and the issue was already beginning to present itself Bernardo would try to cover kaminga while leaving Stones isolated in a two versus one against Madrid's remaining midfielders the theory was if they enough pressure Madrid wouldn't be able to effectively play through this first phase in the Midfield but this was walking a tactical tide

rope because saas could drop deep as a second pivot creating an overload in the first phase thus making it easier to find Bellingham who is drifting freely ahead of [Music] him and this disjointed City Press left massive gaps in the Midfield gaps that real threatened to take advantage of constantly Los Blancos repeat L exploited this through a simple but effective mechanism one of the affords would drop deep dragging a city center back out of position and creating room for runners to explode into in behind and when looking at this front three and this back four

Madrid were favorites in a foot race and threatened to take advantage consistently [Music] but it was Madrid's second half tweaks that really turned the screw they began manipulating City's Midfield shape even more deliberately soos would drift into deeper positions on the left forcing Bernardo to follow him this created room for meny to either push High down the Left Flank or tuck inside expanding the gaps between City's lines even further meanwhile bellingham's intelligent movement became increasingly influential rather than staying in a fixed position he drift across the pitch picking up the ball in pockets of space

and driving at city's defense this positioning made him almost impossible to track and created constant confusion in City's defensive assignments and Madrid continually probed but in the end it was City's own errors that undid them allowing the Spaniards to mount another incredible comeback looking at the balance of play Madrid were clinical in taking advantage of their opportunities and it's a reminder that at the highest level even the smallest tactical gambles can have devastating consequences if you enjoyed this analysis and want to take your Tactical knowledge even further check out my newsletter through the link below

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