Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City made it three wins in a row without conceding a goal, taking them to 5th in the Champions League table on seven points.
But the way Guardiola set the team up against Villarreal was the interesting talking point in this game, as we’ve seen the Spaniard making tweaks to his tactics this campaign in an attempt to keep up with the changing landscape in the Premier League.
However, in City’s 2-0 win over the Spanish side, Guardiola reverted back to one of his old systems, working to good effect in this Champions League tie.
In this article, we’ll cover
John Stones in midfield
The standout choice from Guardiola tactically in this game was the usage of John Stones, returning to his old role drifting into midfield alongside Nico Gonzalez.
Whenever Stones does this, Guardiola’s side often look extremely assured in the middle of the park, and this game was no different, with the England international completing 73/75 passes, with 36/36 in the opposition half and five out of five long balls.
The intelligence of Stones when receiving between the lines, operating in the deep build up pocket and controlling the tempo with composure is excellent, the only issue is keeping him fit.
All phases of play look more assured with Stones in this role, mopping up second balls to protect City in transition and offering that second anchor in the rest defence.
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Treble winning system
Stones playing in this role was a large part of Guardiola returning to his treble winning tactics, allowing both number eights to play between the lines further forward, with 1v1 specialist wingers on either side.
Both Bernardo Silva and Rico Lewis were key in facilitating this as the number eights, rotating between heights in midfield to open passing lanes before feeding the wingers in favourable positions.
City were able to control the game for large stretches, holding 66% possession and being patient when building attacks, only taking 10 shots in the game.
However, despite only taking 10 shots, City were able to create five big chances and generate 1.50 xG, with both goals coming from the right side of the pitch.
Stones, Lewis and Savinho were forming a wide triangle on the right when sustaining possession in the opposition half, building their attacks through finding Savinho in wide isolations to either let him go 1v1 or attack the right half space with a run in behind.
The first goal for City perfectly demonstrated this move, as Savinho received the ball in a wide position 1v1 with the fullback, before Lewis made a blindside run into the box, perfectly cutting it back across for Erling Haaland to finish.
Erling Haaland can’t stop scoring
Speaking of Haaland, his goal against Villarreal was his 15th of the season so far in just 11 appearances, making it 139 goals in 157 games for Manchester City since arriving.
A lot of this article we have been speaking about systems, Guardiola reverting to the treble winning system for this one, looking to tweak things and be a bit more direct in the Premier League at times, but when you have a striker like Haaland, talking tactics can often come secondary.
The Norwegian should have opened the scoring just three minutes into the game, as Jeremy Doku slipped it to Silva making an underlapping run, before the Portugal international stood it up for Haaland to attack, putting it wide of the post.
Having Haaland up top, Guardiola will rightly look to take advantage of the best way to generate chances for his clinical striker, whether that be underlapping runs from the number eights, 1v1 specialists out wide or even going direct to him from goal kicks.
Something interesting to keep an eye on from now on will be where and when Guardiola decides to utilise this system, as he has shown it isn’t something he has completely abandoned after using it in the Champions League.