The Original Way Guardiola Uses Full-Backs And Central Midfielders At Manchester City

Some Observations About Pep's Use of the 4-3-3 System, the Concepts of "Inverted Full-Backs" and "Underlapping".

POSITIONING AND DUTIES OF INVERTED FULL-BACKS

The "inverted full-backs" system is not something new. Guardiola already did it at Bayern Munich with Lahm and Alaba. Even before that, Johan Cruyff did it at FC Barcelona (where Pep was playing as defensive midfielder).

In this system, the full-backs stay in a conservative position, close to the defensive midfielder. They occupy the half-spaces (rather than staying wide) and their forward runs are limited to specific in-game situations. For example, when the winger is caught in numerical inferiority (1v2) and there's enough space in behind the opponent's defense (which only happens a few times per game).

During the attacking phase, their job is similar to the one done by the defensive midfielder : stay in a position that ensures control & quick counter-pressing.

IMHO, Guardiola’s choice is due to the style of play in the English Premier League. It's a good way that Pep found to deal with long balls and winning the 2nd balls : this is something Manchester City’s strong full-backs can do more easily than their short & technical midfielders (David Silva, Gundogan, Bernardo).

THEN HOW DOES MANCHESTER CITY CREATE DANGER FROM THE WINGS ?

To play this system and still be threatening from the sides, your wingers need to be super skilled in 1v1, able to create danger by themselves. Sterling, Sané and Mahrez all have the individual capacity to win 1v1 even in small spaces.

But another classic pattern in Manchester City's playbook is the central midfielders underlapping when the winger gets the ball wide and is pressed by the opposition.

Description : the center back plays a direct pass to the winger from the same side. That side's full-back stays in position for cover. When the winger gets the ball wide, the central midfielder rushes in the space between the opponent's CB & full-back to underlap.

A play repeated many times since last season, especially with Bernardo (Right) & Silva (Left) playing.

A few examples here

Some benefits of CMs underlapping :

- Getting (usually) slow/physical EPL center backs out of the central areas, force them to defend on the sides vs technical/fast players where they are less comfortable.

- Create chaos, disorganize their defensive line, create space between their center backs and force their midfielders to drop back to compensate those movements.

- Contrary to the traditional play where full-backs overlap (and are usually marked by the opponent's winger), the underlapping is not common. Being sometimes unexpected, it forces the opposition to react and do movements they weren't ready for (a CB having to exit the box, a midfielder having to track back deeper and free the central corridor).

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