5 tactical tweaks Pep Guardiola is well-known for

#3 False full-backs

Lahm and Alaba were central to Guardiola's setup at Bayern

Seen sparingly with Barcelona but more commonly with Bayern Munich and Manchester City, the false full-back tactic is used by Pep for two reasons:

• Better ball retention
• "Safe-net" to guard against counter-attacks

At Bayern, Guardiola had Lahm and Alaba; two extremely intelligent and technically adept players who could play in the middle and pick out passes like top-notch playmakers. Consequently, he urged them to make runs into the half-spaces in coherence with Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery or Douglas Costa staying out wide to occupy the opposition full-backs. This lead to an extra passing-lane being created for both full-backs, leading to better ball possession.

The second reason is Guardiola's greatest concern; how to stop the opposition from performing counter-attacks. Especially in the German Bundesliga where most, if not all, teams depend on closing down space at the back and attacking on the break. When both full-backs tuck inside, close to the pivot, the central channels become better occupied and the chances of passes being played there are reduced. This was proved by Bayern's brilliant record of conceding only 58 goals in the Bundesliga in the span of 3 years.

With City this season, Delph is being used as the false-fullback after Benjamin Mendy was injured. Nothing seems out of shape as the Sky Blues have cruised to their 15th straight win against Swansea City on Wednesday.