Man City vs Wigan
2013 FA CUP FINAL
Reason for Study: In this study I will attempt to focus towards the characteristics of an excellent ball playing side (city) and how they will relate to the excellent defensive structure of Wigan. I will be focusing on the specific shapes of both teams, the tactical decisions being made such as specifics relating to in game structures and other characteristics, space management between players when moving the ball and how the rhythm of attacking play (vs defensive shape) is established.
City Line Up:
Joe Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy, Silva, Toure, Barry, Nasri, Aguero, Tevez
Wigan Line Up:
Robles, Boyce, Scharner, Alcaraz, Espinoza, McCarthy, McArthur, Gomez, McManaman, Kone, Maloney
‘The recorded version of the match being studied is 30 minutes long’
Straight after kick off Wigan venture into a shape with the GK in his own 6 yard box with a wide line of 3 CB’s ahead of him. Each lateral CB is on the corner tip of his box with the central defender in the D, centred. They face a static line of two opponents: Tevez and Aguero. This front two is backed up with a line of four 10-13 yards behind, consisting of Nasri on the left side, Silva on the right, Barry in the left centre and Toure in the right centre.
Wigans central defender in the line of three faces this block with the support of his own line of four ahead of him. There is a left and right full back hugging the sideline with two centre midfielders ahead. The right sided central midfielder is slightly deeper directly in between City’s forward and midfield line. This is not to say he is positioned centrally, but more so distance wise. If the distance between the two lines is 12 yards, he is 6 yards at the middle point. His counter part on the left centre of midfield, number 14, is much higher between Yaya Toure and Silva on City’s half right side of the block.
Despite all this support, The Wigan central defender plays directly to his right to find the right sided CB.
Why?
First off we must assume the absolute high standard of Cities defensive capabilities. Tevez is a fierce runner, extremely chaotic even and aggressive when closing down the opponent, Aguero is similar to an extent, Toure is extremely tall, very strong and excellent with his feet to steal the ball while upright, has long arms to wedge himself between opponent and the ball, Silva is extremely agile and can shadow the opponent close maintaining a consistent outlet of pressure with Nasri on the other wing to an extent, and Gareth Barry is always intelligently positioned, strong tackler of the ball and quick to mark dangerous potential passes. All of these attributes can be combined with their superb offensive capabilities which also make them a very dangerous side when recovering the ball for a counter attack.
So we can assume that Wigan being a side that are on the opposite end of the table, are going to be very conservative and cautious while playing this side. After the right sided CB receives he is hassled immediately from Tevez who pressures him to the touchline which is responded with a clearance forward towards the Wigan forward line. City, fielding athletic, quick thinking centre backs anticipate the pass and drop a few yards to control the ball and establish a platform for the next attack.
Joe Hart recovers the ball after Kompany lets the long ball run to him, and the first pass of the line is played and we can begin to assess the characteristics of an attacking structure vs a defensive one.
After a few minutes the City team establish a base of play high up the field with Kompany and Nastasic rolling the ball at the halfway line. Here we begin to identify Wigans defensive plan.
Gareth Barry drops a few yards to collect the ball and is immediately hassled before returning it to Kompany. Now after this pattern Toure drops to receive, managing to turn under no pressure.
How does he do this?
To anticipate the pass, he first sees the open space in the centre and moves into it while checking his surroundings for nearby pressure. He looks around twice in a matter of 2-3 seconds and after realising the situation is not desirable to hold the ball in, he first time releases it back to Kompany who is under no threat. Toures marker is now faced with a dilemma, if he follows Toure he leaves the space behind him open to a new angle now that Kompany is on the ball and thus he restrains himself and retreats, which City immediately respond with a quick return pass to Toure, who is now free to turn and face the forward lines. He is granted about a second and a half to identify the next pass, which for a player like Toure in a team with Silva, Nasri, Aguero and Tevez ahead of him is a huge amount of time to launch a nasty attack, which is what follows after Silva moves into a free pocket of space that allows himself to turn to continue it further.
This can tell us, that through the high speed of the passing play that there is multiple angles creating attacking threats at a high rate. This pace of potential manoeuvres is at a higher rate than that of the opponents reactional speed, thus creating space to cut into with passes. This therefore proves that if angles are being created at a high rate, then the movement does not need to be at a similar speed to match the pace. This is the meaning of “letting the ball do the work.” All the attacking threatening angles are coinciding with the pace of the ball being played. City create a strong attack through little physical work (a simple rotation).
WHEN DOES THE WIGAN MIDFIELDER PRESS TOURE? If he presses before the ball is played – the movement is marked and the receiver receives under pressure. But he can still manage to play it back for a one-two if the pressure isn’t efficiently reductive. This means there will now be gaps in behind if the presser goes about his actions this way. If he presses while the ball is being played – the presser is coming into the situation with more momentum to either A) commit a foul or B) cause the attacker to lose control of the ball.
If there is vulnerable gaps in behind after the one-two, then the movement is too large for the situation and it is safer not to press. This means there is an error in the defensive structure – pressing should not be over large distances but more short bursts of movement as to not leave large spaces in behind.
HOW IS THIS DISTANCE MEASURED?
How is distance over pressing measured and valued?
We measure this distance through angles between the attacking individuals. The length of the running does not matter – but instead the space available to attack. If a player has to run 20 yards to close down someone efficiently then that is A+ ok. But he can be even more vulnerable even if he has to close down 5 yards. This is due to angles in behind appearing when closing down the ball and the dangers created from it. When pressing opponents characteristics are taken into account, such as movement, technicalities so we must prepare for this in our movement.
We measure this distance through angles between the attacking individuals. That’s where we get our value from. If a defender must retreat after pressing then the action was incorrect in the first place.
How was it incorrect? Only if it is a passive manoeuvre to prevent opposition runs in behind. For it to be incorrect we realise that the one two created attacking chances for the opponent due to us being drawn out. We can be vulnerable so to circuits of passing drawing out players to create these chances. It is thus up to the coach to create a strong defensive structure that operates to efficiently create pressure at a rate consistently to generate results. Players should not be asking questions amongst their thoughts during games. The flow should be consistent, cohesive and smooth. For this we need to drill our players and eliminate confusion by answering the correct questions.
Creating solutions to come up with: The correct time to hassle, retreat, cover and move.
Silva continues the play through his agile technique of dribbling and his keen eye for a pass, as well as the excellent technique to execute it. His positioning however is what sets up the process. His ability to find pockets of space that directly compliment his skillset is at a very high standard. In this play, he moves off of the right inside slightly, to find an alley of a passing lane through the Wigan midfield line.
Silva moves inside off the right, camping slightly behind the left shoulder of the left sided Wigan central midfielder, who sees him too late and attempts to close him down. This results in the Wigan player chasing Silvas shadow. Despite being so close to the opposition, Silva can still turn freely and run at the Wigan backline. This makes Silva an incredibly dangerous opponent in these situations as he can jumpstart a huge number of attacks, especially with the attackers of City surrounding him. He is very elusive.
“The receiver must be positioned accurately in which they are in a position to control, anticipate the following pressure with correct body angling and then follow it up with the next pass.”
Silva ticks these boxes in this play. The accuracy of the position, while predetermined in this statement is defined by the outcome of the play. So looking at Silva’s movements here, we can conclude that the positioning was in fact accurate. The following result from the defending Wigan side is a broken structure, frantically panicking to react quickly to the now dangerous attack.
“If the cohesion of the opposition press is broken then the defensive rhythm in the movement and collective speed is inconsistent allowing clear gaps to be exploited through penetrative play (attacking runs and clear through balls).”
Through analysis we can identify which exact gaps will be open after specifically directed attacks. For example, if a number ten Silva receives centrally between the defending lines and turns, we can see that there is a staunch number of gaps in behind the defensive line for the players ahead of him to run into.
It is up to us a coach to understand the characteristics of the game in order to prepare our teams for it.
Sean MCBride 