Manchester City produced a comprehensive performance to beat Newcastle United 3-1 to reach the Carabao Cup final.
Pep Guardiola’s side exploded in the beginning of the match, taking advantage of Newcastle’s press with Tijjani Reijnders’ buccaneering runs. Omar Marmoush scored twice in the opening 30 minutes, and Reijnders made it three shortly after.
Newcastle weren’t without their chances, and perhaps should have scored more than one. But they were overwhelmed in the opening 30 minutes. Anthony Elanga did score a consolation goal just after the hour-mark.
If it wasn’t for some poor finishing from the Magpies, we may have got an end-to-end fun cup tie.
In this article we’ll cover
Man City’s box midfield
Nico Gonzalez and Nico O’Reilly were positioned extremely deep. They were almost positioned in defence for Man City’s first goal.
It brings an interesting problem for opposing teams. When you press them as Newcastle did, it opens up spaces further up the pitch. Sitting just award of Gonzalez and O’Reilly were Phil Foden and Reijnders — a pocket player and a winger in close proximity.
Man City created a lot of 3v2s, finding the spare man in the middle and playing around Newcastle’s press shockingly easily.
When facing a back five, you can drag the centre-backs out if you drop players and zip the ball into them. We saw it with the first goal. The ball was slipped into Marmoush, who had dragged a centre-back with him. Meanwhile, another centre-back was forced to press Reijnders in the half-space, so you have two centre-backs out of position.
The give-and-go produced the goal, but Man City’s box midfield always gave them a spare man to pass into as Newcastle chased shadows. We saw the antidote in Man City’s recent defeat to Manchester United. The Red Devils spent the majority of the time camped near their own box, forcing Man City to create. Guardiola’s side ended up passing the ball from side-to-side, running out of ideas.
But Newcastle allowed Man City to play through them by pressing high. And they didn’t have Bruno Guimaraes or Joelinton to cover distances. Instead, they tried to press with a two-man midfield in a changed 3-4-3 system.
Newcastle’s bad press and missed chances
Despite Man City virtually finishing the tie off in virtually the first 32 minutes, Newcastle could have been on the scoresheet a few times themselves.
Anthony Gordon and Joe Willock missed gilt-edged chances which sent the tone. Elanga did score after an hour, but should have added a second shortly after.
Newcastle had four shots on target and missed four big chances. On another day, the tie could have been more exciting. When you don’t take your chances against a team like Man City, they can punish you.
Eddie Howe was brave to set up with a high press, but Sandro Tonali had too much ground to cover. And a two-man midfield with himself and Jacob Ramsey couldn’t get hold of Man City’s box midfield.
When Guardiola overloaded the middle of the pitch, Howe should have had his side drop back into a 5-4-1. He didn’t and was punished.
If you press high, your defence has to be extremely aggressive. But none of Sven Botman, Malick Thiaw or Dan Burn are particularly case. So the space created behind them is an issue for Newcastle.
This isn’t a new problem for Newcastle, either. Howe has been criticised for being too pragmatic. But now that he is missing two huge figures in Guimaraes and Joelinton, he chose to risk it.
It may serve him better against teams that don’t have attacks as quick as Man City, or Liverpool. Of course, this is caveated by the fact that Newcastle did great chances. They just didn’t take them.
It was always going to be a tough mountain to climb for Newcastle.