To answer this question, I decided to focus on three of the best teams from the 2020-2021 season: Manchester City, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich. I was originally going to try to fit all of them into one article, but have decided to split them up (it was just too long). For each team, I’ll get into how they normally set up (which clusters do their players come from), why they work so well as a team (as well as some instances where they didn’t) and include some helpful visual aids along the way. Finally, I’ll summarise what I see to be the major trends regarding how the clusters work with each other.
Manchester City
I focused on three of Manchester City’s games vs tougher opponents last season in my analysis. The champions league final vs Chelsea, the second leg vs PSG, and matchday 23 vs Liverpool. Let’s start with the champions league final.
Manchester City vs. Chelsea: UCL Final
Setup:
Ederson: Cluster 4
Stones: Cluster 14
Ruben Dias: Cluster 14
Zinchecnko: Cluster 13
Walker: Cluster 12
Gundogan: Cluster 11
Foden: Cluster 3
Bernardo: Cluster 3
De Bruyne: Cluster 3
Mahrez: Cluster 3
Sterling: Cluster 8
Analysis:
Pep Guardiola’s decision to bench both Rodri and Fernandinho (cluster 12 players) was very well documented on the day of the final. Instead, Pep decided to play Gundogan (a cluster 11 player) in their place. This ended up hurting Man City in a couple of ways. First off, it took Gundogan away from where he could help the team most on the attack, which is as an interior. Foden and Bernardo were picked up by Rudiger and Azpilicueta the whole game and failed to receive the ball in between or in behind Chelsea’s compact block, something Gundogan might’ve been able to help with. Secondly, Gundogan seemed to be out of the position’s defensively that Rodri and Fernandinho would have naturally occupied as they’re more familiar with the position. Let’s look at a couple of visualizations to help illustrate the point.
Alright, so right away we can tell that City really struggled to find any central progressive passes. A lot of credit can be given to Chelsea’s defensive setup as they did a great job of forcing City to play around them. The game was characterized by a lot of side-to-side possession, which can be seen really well in the heatmap. Looking at the pass network, it’s immediately clear that Sterling (a cluster 8 player) was City’s only outlet and there was a starking lack of a central outlet, squeezing City vertically. The left side, with Sterling as an outlet was where almost all of City’s danger even came from. I mean, just look at this expected threat (read more about expected threat here) heatmap:
Defensively, City’s press was broken down far too easily on many occasions by Chelsea. Gundogan lacked the instincts of where to be as the free man in the press, something explained really well here by Albert:
As detailed in the cluster articles, cluster 12 players are usually more adept defensively than cluster 11 players, and I think this could be seen as an example. Already, we see a couple of trends cluster-wise from this game: outlets (cluster 8 players) are needed to release pressure and provide depth/vertical space, and cluster 12 players are needed to provide control offensively, but especially defensively. Next, let’s look at how City was able to beat PSG in the champions league semifinal.
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Manchester City vs. PSG: UCL semifinal second leg
Setup:
Ederson: Cluster 4
Stones: Cluster 14
Ruben Dias: Cluster 14
Zinchecnko: Cluster 13
Walker: Cluster 12
Fernandinho: Cluster 12
Gundogan: Cluster 11
Bernardo: Cluster 3
Mahrez: Cluster 3
De Bruyne: Cluster 3
Foden: Cluster 3
Analysis:
Against PSG, City went with their more traditional lineup, starting Fernandinho in the middle. In possession, we saw Gundogan (cluster 11 player) drop back with Fernandinho (cluster 12 player), creating a double pivot to achieve numerical superiority in buildup (this creative mid-engine partnership is something to keep an eye on for later). Although Pep kept Sterling out of the lineup, City was still able to stretch their opponents vertically as the front line looked to make clever runs in behind.
Compared to the game against Chelsea, De Bruyne, Foden, and Bernardo were pushed much further up the pitch and their fluidity, especially on the counter, consistently put pressure on PSG’s backline. Adding even more space in the middle, City’s fullbacks were pushed wider and the center backs were dropped a little deeper than in the final. Granted, PSG was a lot less disciplined than Chelsea were on defense, but the approach from City definitely seemed more direct and adventurous. In the final, Sterling was the only one making runs in behind the defense whereas, in this game, numerous players looked to get in behind. Take a look at this run from Zinchenko (and beautiful ball by Ederson) that led to the first goal:
Looking at City’s progressive passes, they were definitely more widespread/balanced than against Chelsea.
Against Chelsea, almost all progressive passes were concentrated on the left side of the pitch where Sterling was making those runs and creating chances. This time, you could see them present in both wide areas, resulting in a more threatening side. City’s expected threat heatmap was much more ‘City-like’ with a lot of danger being created from the halfspaces.
With this game, we really see how City like to play and it revealed some interesting cluster trends that we’ll get into later. Finally, let’s watch City play against Liverpool to wrap up our analysis of the Premier League giant.
Manchester City vs. Liverpool: Matchday 23
Setup:
Ederson: Cluster 4
Stones: Cluster 14
Ruben Dias: Cluster 14
Zinchecnko: Cluster 13
Cancelo: Cluster 17
Rodri: Cluster 12
Gundogan: Cluster 11
Bernardo: Cluster 3
Mahrez: Cluster 3
Foden: Cluster 3
Sterling: Cluster 8
Analysis:
With Sterling in the lineup, City once again had a natural outlet. This time, they were able to properly capitalize and did a good job of maintaining space in the midfield. In build-up, City shifted to a 3 back formation with Cancelo sliding in next to Rodri forming a double pivot.
This allowed Bernardo and Gundogan to maintain more advanced and wide positions, which you can see in City’s pass network.
Sterling and Mahrez maintained their depth and Foden would often check-in to receive the ball in the created space. City looked to attack Trent Alexander-Arnold in 1v1 situations with Sterling and he was able to beat him and draw a penalty against Fabinho (which was missed). The first goal summed up City’s tactical setup perfectly. Cancelo received the ball in the midfield, finding an open Gundogan in the halfspace. The ball was laid off to Foden who eventually found an isolated Sterling on the left wing. Sterling beat Alexander-Arnold once again and found Gundogan for the easy tap-in. Textbook City.
Conclusion
Manchester City have a couple of different approaches in setup that help us to understand the way that they like to play. In watching these games, it is very easy to understand that Pep loves to play with as many creators (cluster 3 players) as possible. When he does play a natural outlet, it is often only 1 and results in an extra creator (the false 9) dropping back into midfield. When City’s creators are able to find that balance of when to come to the ball and when to make runs in behind the defense, it results in a goal-scoring machine, eliminating any inherent need for traditional outlets (cluster 8 players) in their lineup. With so many players that love to receive the ball to feet, they can get in trouble when they are unable to make these runs in behind and stretch their opponent vertically. This ‘creation-centric’ approach is clearly a viable approach to the game, but if these creators are unable to act as outlets do when needed, the attacking third becomes extremely congested, something we saw in the game against Chelsea. That wraps up my analysis of Manchester City, come back tomorrow as I take a closer look at how Chelsea conquered Europe last year.
Great analysis!