Man City under Pep Guardiola always stay away from chaos on the pitch. The Citizens' playing style relies on tight ball control, stretching the opponent with countless passes before finding space to finish. However, the 2-2 draw against Brentford showed a completely different face for the "Green Half" of Manchester, especially in the second half.
Brentford approached the match with a tight strategy. From a 4-3-3 formation, they flexibly switched to a 5-3-2 when needed to defend and perform pressing play on the person to put pressure. The "Bees" discipline made it difficult for Man City to control the ball more.
In the first 45 minutes, Pep Guardiola's team controlled the ball well with 301 passes but only created 8 shots and 1 really clear chance. Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, playing as two deep-lying defensive midfielders, could not help the team create an effective link with the attack.
One of the factors that causes the squad to be unbalanced is the deviation when using many left-footed players. This limits their ability to attack flexibly, especially in the right half of space with Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva often cutting in instead of opening the sidelines.
After the break, Pep Guardiola changed his approach, directing goalkeeper Stefan Ortega to make many long passes towards Erling Haaland. As the spearhead, the Norwegian striker has become a mainstay for his teammates around him, such as De Bruyne and Foden.
Man City's brilliant minutes came from direct balls. After a combination that originated from a long pass from Ortega, Haaland built a wall for Savinho to break through before assisting De Bruyne. The Belgian "conductor" then made a perfect cross for Foden to score the opening goal.
Man City's second goal came from another chaotic move, when Savinho took advantage of a mistake by Brentford's defense and forced the opposing goalkeeper to block, giving Foden a shot.
Despite leading 2-0, The Citizens still could not maintain the advantage. They continued to play long and change the state, allowing Brentford to take advantage of the weakness with 2 late goals. This once again shows problems in their defensive ability when facing sharp counter-attacks.
In the 2-0 score, we needed to keep the ball to control the game, but we didnt have enough players to do that in the penalty area, Pep Guardiola shared.
Man City ended the match with 9 direct attacks, the highest number in a Premier League match since the 2018-2019 season. Notably, since taking a 1-0 lead, they have only had 3 combinations with more than 10 consecutive passes - something rare for Pep Guardiola's team.
This draw continues to point to the problems Man City are facing with their current tactics and squad. Despite the explosive moments, the Etihad team still needs to find the balance between playing direct attack and controlling the game, which has been successful under Pep Guardiola.
