Manchester City 4-1 Manchester United: Tactical Analysis

City shape

City lined up in what looked like a 4-2-3-1 on paper, with Aguero behind the front man, Negredo. However, in the game, it was more of a narrow 4-1-3-2. Aguero basically pushed on, and ran in behind the defence, with Negredo doing a lot of the leg work.

In midfield, Yaya Toure had the license to push on from deeper areas, and Fernandinho was left deep tasked with negating the threat of Wayne Rooney. The full backs were pushing on as well, with Kolarov especially making a lot of overlapping runs. Vincent Kompany and Matija Nastasic did a good job keeping United out for long periods of the game.

Towards the end, City added Javi Garcia to the mix, and took Aguero off. This was to add yet another body to midfield, and absolutely cut any chance of United making a comeback. It was in response to the domination United had found in midfield after bringing on Cleverley.

Aguero and Nasri positioning.via whoscored.com

Defending deep

United played Young and Valencia on the wings, in order to keep a lot of pace and work rate there. The idea was to try and get in behind City’s overlapping full backs as a form of attack. City are also usually a team that play pretty high up the pitch, and this tactic made sense as a counter attacking one.

However, City did well to stop the counter attacks. Every time United managed to gain possession of the ball, City dropped deep, marked their opposition players well, and stopped United scoring. With neither of Carrick or Fellaini really pushing up, United couldn’t really penetrate, and didn’t have numbers in attack either.

Fernandinho in particular had a fantastic game, making five interceptions, and playing a huge role in stopping the build up of momentum for United. A lot of the interceptions and tackles that City made were quite deep. It was in response to this that Moyes decided to push Fellaini up, and have him charge into the box behind Rooney.

Tempo

City basically controlled the game in the first 60 minutes, and did enough damage in this period to be able to stroll to victory in the last 30. They managed to keep United on the back-foot and dominate the game so comprehensively because they played with the ability to change the tempo.

A lot of the interceptions were made in deep areas.via squawka.com

It was quite noticeable that the speed at which the ball was moved increased considerably when City had managed to get their full backs forward, and flood the opposition half. This speed ultimately proved to be the undoing of the United defence.

Aside from that, City also managed to counter at great speeds after winning the ball at the back. There were a number of occasions when the likes of Negredo and Aguero found themselves in space, and running at the United defence.

From City’s point of view, it was just about the perfect day. They played with a higher tempo, intensity and just looked more up for the game. After a satisfactory win in the Champions League, they’ve capped off a good week with a resounding win against their rivals.

United on the other hand will be smarting after this loss. Handed a tough opening sequence of fixtures, they’d been abreast with City and Chelsea but a loss of this magnitude would’ve hurt them.

It’s early days yet but Moyes’ men have to learn from this and improve quickly. They have a relatively easy run of fixtures coming up and you get the feeling that capitalizing on them is now vital for their title challenge.