Craig Burley takes to the touchscreen to analyse Kevin De Bruyne's dominant performance in Man City's 1-0 win at Chelsea. Stewart Robson and Alejandro Moreno examine the facets of Man City's game that have propelled them to the top of the table. Pep Guardiola heaps praise on Kevin De Bruyne for his all-around effort in Manchester City's win at Chelsea.
When Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce ordered his goalkeeper David James to swap his green jersey for an outfield shirt that already had his name printed on the back, the home crowd held its breath.
In a last gasp effort to win a game against Middlesbrough that was effectively a play-off for the final English UEFA Cup place that season -- 2004-05 -- it either revealed a truly prehistoric tactical plan that the manager had envisaged before kickoff, or a neat piece of slightly off-the-wall innovation from the rookie coach, depending very much on your outlook.
That the blundering of the 6-foot-4 James failed to bring home the bacon was -- in retrospect -- perhaps no great surprise. Despite the lack of subtlety involved in replacing a "proper" forward with the squad's tallest player, the ruse had -- to the general amazement of all gathered -- very nearly paid off. Totally confused by the flailing limbs of City's emergency striker, Middlesbrough had been panicked into giving away an injury time penalty. Had Robbie Fowler not then had his 92nd minute effort saved, City, and not Middlesbrough, would have entered the following season's UEFA Cup and Middlesbrough would not have gone all the way to that season's final.
Pearce would soon be packing his tactics bag and heading out the front door at City, but not before he had left an indelible mark on the home crowd.
Since his arrival at the Etihad, Pep Guardiola has begun to make a few impressions of his own on the City faithful.
When the Catalan walked out into the bright Etihad sunshine for his first game in charge of Manchester City on the opening day of last season, an expectant full house sat back and waited to see what the much-vaunted coach would serve up.
Those in attendance that afternoon were not short-changed. From a manager who had built a reputation for innovative thinking, there were surprises in store for all. The final score that day, however, a somewhat fortunate 2-1 home win over Sunderland, short-changed the visitors somewhat, with City having to rely on an own goal from Paddy McNair in the 87th minute to claim all three points.
Although it had been a real struggle against a side that would ultimately go down at the end of the season, something stood out. Guardiola, using his full-backs in an unorthodox way, had bamboozled opposing manager David Moyes and his players. The trick was not to invert full-backs, as had been widely tried before in the Premier League, but to send them inside towards the centre circle.
Pep Guardiola's tactical approach for Man City can easily be described as unorthodox.
For many, the initial surprise had been the appearance of left-back Aleksander Kolarov as what turned out to be a very effective central defender, but the occupants of the full-back positions that day, Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy, were busy doing something even more eye-catching. By crossing inwards, they pulled the Sunderland wide players in with them, creating new space down the flanks for others to prosper. At one point, both full-backs converged in the middle of the park and the flow of the game actually took them past each other into the attacking positions on the opposite sides of the pitch.
It was a tactic that would be intermittently used until Guardiola realised that none of the four full-backs on offer, nor Fernandinho, who was also tried at right-back later in the season, could really do what he wanted from those positions.
With the summer changes in personnel, suddenly this little maneuver has become possible again. When Kyle Walker made his first touch of the ball at Stamford Bridge at the weekend, he carried the ball straight infield at great speed, cutting in past two Chelsea players before veering across toward the left flank, where he delivered the ball to Leroy Sane, nailed to the touchline. It was an astonishing start and set the tone for what was to come: a complete master class of how to tactically outwit the reigning champions of the Premier League on their own pitch.
The tactical unorthodoxy of this City team, it seems, knows few bounds. With the full-backs pulling opponents inside, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, City's main threats, were free to roam across the middle and right flank areas of the pitch. This eventually caused Chelsea so many headaches that De Bruyne was able to wriggle free and score a scintillating winner.
Tactical development at Manchester City has come a long way since the deployment of the deep lying centre forward Revie Plan in the 1950s and Malcolm Allison's ground-breaking strategies in the early 1970s, both copied from the fabulous Hungarian national side of Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis and Nandor Hidegkuti.
It is, then, highly appropriate that a coach such as Guardiola is now pushing the boundaries even further at a club that has always embraced tactical innovation.
Simon is one of ESPN FC's Manchester City bloggers. Follow him on Twitter @bifana_bifana.
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Source: espn.co.uk