Mancini: Three And Out

Mancini has introduced a level of tactical flexibility to City but is it needed? (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

3-2. A scoreline which brought City fans so much joy last season and heartbreak this week. The Bernabeu hosted an exciting, if not technically fantastic game on Tuesday night which provided the type of moments we hope for in sport. The great reflex saves from Joe Hart. The lung-bursting runs of Yaya Toure. The vice-like pressure that a Mourinho side can exert on the opposition when in need of a goal. And of course, The Special One ruining a perfectly good suit on the Madrid turf in the name of football. A perfect storm in sporting terms. So much so that the tactical side of things passed many people by.

In the first half, City set up in an orthodox, if somewhat narrow 4-2-3-1 formation (Hart, Maicon-Kompany-Nastasic-Clichy, Garcia-Barry, Nasri-Toure-Silva, Tevez). Silva and Nasri tucked inside to try and outnumber Real in the centre, squeezing the space on Alonso who was clearly given the playmaker duties in midfield for the Spaniards. This wasn’t very successful as Real spread the play and pushed their full-backs forward. City were also struggling to pose a threat with Toure alone offering penetration from midfield. Tevez chased everything but was too often isolated. That the score was 0-0 at half-time was mainly down to some individual brilliance from Hart.

The second half brought a different game though. City brought on Kolarov for the injured Nasri and Dzeko for Silva and switched to a 3-5-1-1. Nastasic, Clichy and Kompany formed a back three with Maicon and Kolarov as wing backs. Garcia, Barry and Toure formed a midfield trio with Tevez playing off Dzeko. For the first time in the game, City began to hurt Madrid. Dzeko pushed the Real defence deeper allowing Tevez to dovetail off of him as well as freeing up space in front of the Madrid back four for Toure to exploit. Dzeko’s goal showed this change in effect clearly.

However, the change also exposed City defensively. Their right hand side was undermanned and Real created a number of two-on-one situations on this flank. Marcelo and Ronaldo would be a handful for two players on an average day yet Mancini’s only reaction to this was to sub in Zabaleta for Maicon. Zabaleta looked unfamiliar with the wing back role and his positioning was very poor throughout. The City back three defended their box quite well but City played too deep allowing Real to hit a number of shots from the edge of the box. That Benzema finally finished a chance from 18 yards out was of little surprise. Ronaldo took advantage of the weakness on City’s right to fire in the winner too although Kompany and Hart were also involved in the blame game as the Belgian ducked and the goalkeeper reacted slowly to a stoppable shot.

A loss at the Bernabeu is no disaster and City have plenty of positives to take from their opening Champion’s League this campaign but Mancini will need to reflect on his use of this 3-5-1-1 formation. While a level of tactical flexibility is no doubt a useful weapon and can upset the opposition’s rhythm if used correctly, it is difficult to see the advantages of this new system over the 4-2-3-1/4-5-1 used last season. 3-5-1-1 by it’s very nature leaves a team vulnerable to overlapping full backs and teams who stretch the play wide. It is no coincidence that it is most popular in Serie A, a league where there are few naturally gifted wingers. Mancini may be using it to try and bypass using traditional wingers, a breed he does not seem to rate in football terms judging by his treatment of Adam Johnson. He may also believe with versatile players such as Rodwell and Garcia now in his squad and Kolarov and Maicon whose attacking style fits the role of wing back, that this system best suits the players at his disposal. His attitude to these teething problems with the system, evident also against Liverpool and in the Community Shield, may be that it is short term pain for long term gain, where a tactical switch in the title run-in or latter stages of the Champion’s League may make all the difference. However, having demanded further spending from the owners this summer, Mancini won’t be in a situation to complain when they come demanding results in May.