Domenec Torrent, Guardiola’s assistant for nearly 10 years, explains one potential problem that City are experiencing now, having previously avoided it.
“If you play with very wide full-backs, and wingers inside, you have to control the No 8s, but if the No 8s are very talented but less defensive, then normally you’re going to have some problems,” he tells The Athletic, reflecting the tackling stats of De Bruyne, Silva and Gundogan. “Pep plays 4-3-3 but people don’t realise that Pep always has a full-back inside and always defends with at least four or five players.
“I’m not sure if people realise that it’s 4-3-3 but, above all, when Fabian Delph or Zinchenko played last season, when City had the ball Zinchenko went into a double pivot with Fernandinho, and Walker, John Stones and Laporte were there, so for example three at the back and two in front of them, so five defenders. So they controlled it perfectly. When you have both full-backs going forward, which Pep never does, when you have the two full-backs, the two wingers, the striker is the fifth, and the two No 8s, you have seven men forward and you defend with three, and that’s a problem.”
Read this in The Athletic this morning. Could it be a solution for us?
We could play Shaw, Maguire, Lindelof/Bailly in defence. Matic and AWB as cover at the back. And Fred between Pogba and Fernandes. Martial and Rashford upfront. Fernandes drifting more right. Or you could drop Fred (or Matic) and play three up front. A bit depending on the game.
Fred is not that well-suited for providing balance to the midfield, and is not a great defender. Neither is he a very productive attacker. However, he is a very good transitional player, linking defence to attack. Putting him in between Matic/AWB as a link to Pogba/Fernandes would be interesting. If that dont work because we lack width (or because we marginalise Fernandes pushing him too wide) we could switch him for Mata/Greenwood/James and get in a RW.