Manchester City beat Newcastle United 2-0 to take the command of their Carabao Cup semi-final.
Goals from Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki did the trick for Man City, though Pep Guardiola was furious to see a third ruled out for a lengthy — and controversial — offside call.
The Magpies had their moments but Pep Guardiola’s men took control of the match after half-time, playing the game at their level before speeding things up in attack.
In this article we’ll cover
Newcastle attacking numerical superiority
Newcastle are a different team entirely at St James Park. It isn’t just the crowd that roar them on. Eddie Howe changes his attacking tactics when Newcastle play at home.
In truth, Newcastle missed big chances as they flooded forward with six players to pin Man City’s defence back. Looking to cause overloads in the middle by getting the ball wide and then committing bodies in the box.
With Jacob Murphy or Anthony Gordon wide, Newcastle pushed up with two central midfielders forcing good saves from James Trafford.
The vigour in attack came mainly through Newcastle overloading Man City’s defence. The trick was to wait for a full-back to commit and then put the cross in and cause chaos.
Yoane Wissa’s header, Bruno Guimares hitting the post and Nick Woltemade hesitating to shoot first-time when he was through on goal will be chances that Newcastle will rue.
Although they had their moments in attack, Newcastle didn’t do it consistently enough. Howe often feels like a manager who drops off, packs the midfield with five players and look to make the most of the opportunities they make.
But whenever Newcastle do attack, there is a bit of a bewilderment as to why they don’t go for it more often. They sat off in a compact five in the second half with Man City dictating the tempo.
Newcastle’s numerical superiority in attack was good in the way they committed men forward. But, playing at home, they still don’t dictate games enough and rely on furious moments of intensity.
Man City’s 3-2 buildup
Pep Guardiola said his side were not connected enough, with Erling Haaland subdued by Malick Thiaw.
Thigns changed in the second half as Man City’s 3-2 took hold, unleashing their wingers.
Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden dropped in midfield, allowing Nico O’Reilly to combine with the defence to form part of their three. Newcastle sat off playing with five midfielders in the middle of the pitch. Because they weren’t putting any pressure on the Bernardo-Foden midfield pivot, Man City could eventually punch the ball wide to Jeremy Doku or Semenyo and fire crosses in.
This is how the first goal came about, with Doku beating his man to cross low for Semenyo. Man City were very good at dictating the tempo.
Guardiola is clearly pivoting and tinkering with his attack. Players like Semenyo, Doku and Cherki are the fast, dazzling dribbler types of players who can conjure up moments and beat men. It’s not commonly how he has setup his attack with him preferring attacking midfielders who create pockets of space.
With Semenyo in the attack, it will be intriguing to see how many times Guardiola opts to play him with Doku as he now has two fast wingers in his arsenal. Although both did the damage and combined for the goals, it’s still Man City’s ability to control games and dictate the tempo with neat build-up play that began the attacks.
A hybrid of the new and old Man City.