After weeks where it seemed like all it took to disrupt Manchester City was a well-organized press, the simplest of solutions presented itself to Pep Guardiola. His side couldn’t go through Chelsea’s press. They couldn’t go around it. They couldn’t go under it. They’d have to go through it.
When nothing else quite worked, City hit Erling Haaland with the long ball. It worked, turning what looked like petering out into a 1-1 draw into a 3-1 win that has the champions back in fourth, where they need to be to ensure this trying season avoids its worst-case scenario. More significantly than that, it offers City a sense of how they might overcome any pressure that Club Brugge throw their way on Wednesday evening. For too long the game plan to beat the English champions has been obvious: get up in their faces. At least now Guardiola can see something that might work when his backline buckles under the pressure.
Whether it will work from here until the day where Rodri rides back into the XI on a white horse is an open question. If Chelsea had kept up anything like their early intensity, there might not have been time for City to hit it long. The kindest assessment of Abdukodir Khusanov’s debut is that he looks like a project. He might be the newest City defender but he is hardly the first of late to have a rick in him. There are clearly still vulnerabilities for Club Brugge to test on Wednesday night when they only need a draw. For now, however, at least City can approach that tie having beaten half-decent opposition. Given their form throughout this season, that is something of a triumph.
All the more so given how this game began. For the first 10 minutes at the Etihad, Chelsea had City under lock and key. They identified the weak point in their hosts’ lineup and jabbed at it continually. When Robert Sanchez had a goal kick, it went into the right channel somewhere between repurposed right back Matheus Nunes and debutant Khusanov.
The pressure got to the Premier League’s first Uzbek. His was a cavalcade of errors. Having lost his first duel with Nicolas Jackson, Khusanov tried to do the cute, composed thing he has doubtless seen John Stones and Ruben Dias perfect dozens of times, stooping to nonchalantly flick a header back to Ederson. All he managed to do was scrape the ball back into Jackson’s path, the Chelsea striker eschewing a shooting chance to hand Noni Madueke an open goal.
Moments later a miscued pass from Khusanov and his best bet was to foul Cole Palmer and take his booking. Even the moment when the tide seemed to turn from the 20-year-old, formerly of Lille, came about because he had got his positioning all wrong, allowing Palmer to burst through the offside trap. For once the former City man was wanting in the pass, giving Khusanov enough time to scamper back and block Jackson’s cross. It got better for the youngster, whose every success was roared to the Etihad rafters, but from a very low base. It was no great surprise when Guardiola pulled the plug nine minutes into the second half.
Here’s the thing, however. If it hadn’t been Khusanov it might have been Vitor Reis, left on the bench after his arrival from Palmeiras. It might even have been John Stones. What happened to tonight’s debutant has been happening a lot to the champions. Almost in an instant, they have become particularly vulnerable to the press. The aggression with which Nunes and Josko Gvardiol were deployed tonight cannot have helped the center backs, though in mitigation those two pushing high did give City their equaliser.
Ahead of Khusanov and Manuel Akanji, a mass of dark blue shirts. The sky blue ones could not get free. Ilkay Gundogan and Kovacic simply did not have the legs to maneuver their way around midfield in time to give angles for their center backs. Look at the map of the passes received by the latter in the first half and how infrequently the ball progresses through the lines and into midfield.
This is one of the greatest issues that City have wrestled with since losing Rodri. They were never going to find someone as adept under pressure as him, a one-man press breaker. More might have been expected of the veterans who have stepped up but it isn’t coming. Without the dynamism of a Ballon d’Or winner, this team keeps finding itself trapped in its own third. Get out and they can still cause danger, that much was apparent when Gundogan clipped a ball over the top for Nunes to charge onto. The right back making out to in runs got ahead of Marc Cucurella and was among the many beneficiaries of Robert Sanchez’s calamitousness. He had already spilled a shot into the path of an offside Omar Marmoush (outstanding from the outset), the goalkeeper was neither far back enough to react nor close enough to smother, deflecting Nunes’ poke into the path of Josko Gvardiol.
If Chelsea’s press had retained the intensity of the early exchanges, the game might have been out of sight before Guardiola got ahold of his charges again. Instead, he was afforded a chance to fix things. He did so with simplicity. His opponents were still committing bodies high up the field but without the razor-sharp intensity that would rob City of the chance to look up and assess their options. In that case, there was time to hit the big guy up top.
First Gvardiol and the center backs maneuvered the ball back to Ederson, who found Haaland isolated with Trevoh Chalobah. He had the strength to hold and spin his man, driving into the channel. Sanchez felt compelled to rush into no man’s land. Haaland hardly had to catch Sanchez off his line. It was as if the fish had jumped into the net of its own accord.
Twenty minutes later and again the long ball was City’s friend, Kevin De Bruyne flicking on, Haaland holding Levi Colwill at bay and flicking the ball on for Phil Foden to sprint clear and score. Chelsea had gone away from what was working. City had found something in the midst of a game where nothing seemed to be going right.
Will it last? Can the long ball game be carried on into the meeting with Club Brugge? Chalobah and Colwill looked particularly ill at ease with Haaland’s physicality, Wednesday’s opponents look strong in the air and will not afford the same space in behind as Chelsea’s extremely high line. There is a reason why it is so memorable when Guardiola teams unleash orthodox, hit-the-striker long ball play — think Javi Martinez playing up high against Borussia Dortmund. A game of second balls and flick-ons is not one that can easily be controlled.
Then again, the early exchanges at the Etihad proved that possession itself is no guarantee of being able to bend the game in your direction either. City found a way out of their early troubles tonight. They might have to do the same on Wednesday. Plan A is still not working.
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