Manchester City attempted 683 passes in the 1-1 draw against Everton, but it was one that Nathan Aké denied and that revealed the tensions gnawing at them.
It came just as another attack from Pep Guardiola’s side was beginning to calm down. A familiar feeling of annoyance was already brewing in the stands – fans reflecting on Iliman Ndiaye’s sensational equalizer, which came from Everton’s first touch in the City box – but after a strong start to the second half, including a rare Erling Haaland penalty miss , there was adrenaline and outrage started to take over.
There were cheers as City regained possession deep in their own half, with fans cheering the team on as Ake strolled forward as Josko Gvardiol raced down the left flank. But when the Dutchman turned to find Bernardo Silva in midfield, Guardiola, amid collective groans from the home fans, rushed to the edge of his technical area and called for calm.
Everton were clawing back their form – Guardiola still pleading with his supporters – when a slower attacking move through the middle eventually spilled out the other end.
It could have been the kind of game-changing move that City have struggled to contain during their mounting winless run – no team has conceded more than 5.3 expected goals (xG) after fast breaks in the Premier League this season – but it only underlined their aversion to exploiting such situations themselves.
Gvardiol had passed Jack Harrison and clearly had the forward momentum to leapfrog 36-year-old Seamus Coleman at full-back, but on this occasion Guardiola’s emphasis on controlled build-ups prevailed over common sense. City had enough men to deal with losses of possession and a counter-attack in the opposite direction, and given their current problems, such situations can also be controlled if they Are in the desired defensive shape they should surely have just seized the opportunity.
Of course, it was just one individual decision in a game of millions. But with City once again looking more threatening as they upped the tempo and were more aggressive in their movement, the question arises as to whether Guardiola’s side should embrace the disorganization of a direct forward run just a little more.
Despite long periods of safe attacking play, City were not entirely risk-averse in their approach. Especially in the opening fifteen minutes, they seemed desperate to get the first goal, as they were aware that their opponents had scored consecutive clean sheets against Arsenal and Chelsea, and were able to turn this into a 90-minute slog .
City usually deploy one of their full-backs into midfield to help build up, but it was noticeable how they pushed both Rico Lewis and Gvardiol high and wide as they came flying out of the blocks, hoping to overload Everton’s back four . stretch them out across the field.
As we can see below, with Lewis taken out from the bottom right, the approach was practically a 3-0-7 as City piled on the pressure in the early stages.
However, after Silva scored the opening goal, Lewis was quickly restored to his more central role to provide greater control in the build-up and make City more compact should they lose the ball.
Here he is close to Mateo Kovacic in midfield three minutes after the goal.
It was a conscious decision by Guardiola to take the sting out of the match and return to a more settled form, and he might have been right had Ndiaye not produced a moment of brilliance on half-time. But with City so prone to blows, it felt like a missed opportunity to see them take their foot off the accelerator so quickly.
One of the side effects of Lewis dropping back into midfield is that his winger – Savinho yesterday – loses support on the flank. The Brazilian made fifteen touches in the fifteen minutes preceding City’s goal, but only sixteen in the rest of the half.
Data from SkillCorner helps paint the picture further: City are the team in Europe’s top five leagues that make the fewest overlapping runs per 30 minutes of possession. They have also tried to find a runner in the back with the fewest strides in relation to their possession, taking about 46 percent of their chances to find those runs when they are made. It will come as no surprise that this is the lowest percentage in the Premier League this season.
There are several factors that influence these figures – the fact that City tend to meet teams who sit deep and deny them the space to get behind one team – but the lack of movement of attackers while the team has a step forward has become increasingly clear in recent weeks. It makes things predictable, much like Aston Villa, and only makes it harder to find players in busy central areas, usually static and with their backs to the goal.
There was an encouraging example of positional rotation in their 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the start of the month, when Jack Grealish dragged a defender into midfield to allow Gvardiol to steam through for a shot on target, but City appear reluctant to do that. to make such disruptive steps forward, as often as they could.
A bleak way of looking at things is that points lost don’t matter much now that City are so far from the top. The damage – from the perspective of the title hunt, or perhaps even Champions League qualification – has already been done.
But starting a run of three winnable games with another setback feels like a missed opportunity for the team to rebuild confidence in front of goal. Had City been more ruthless in their approach and gone for the kind of passes Aké rejected, perhaps their firepower could have offset some of the bad luck.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)