After the conclusion of Wednesday night’s game, Pep Guardiola was on the field engaging his team in his trademark impassioned speech and bulging eyes while pumping his fists.
We just discovered that he was praising his team after the fact. With Pep, you can never be sure. Whether he is joyful or upset, he always has the same intense wild-eyed expression. He lacks nuance and simply has one setting for emotion.
Guardiola urged his team to remain focused. Why are you looking down? he questioned them. “Stand up! It doesn’t matter if people don’t like it. You participated in the game that was necessary. He then motioned for them to approach the City supporters for a lengthy round of applause.
However, they had observed enough of the second half to know that the well-known City weaknesses were starting to surface, so their heads were down. City is getting close to the stage in the Champions League where flaws that go untested in the Premier League are revealed, much like a lingering muscle problem that can lie dormant for much of the year but rears its ugly head when the intensity of training cranks up.
They were cruising by halftime. According to a widely circulated statistic, City completed 403 of their 426 passes, an accuracy rate of 95.4%, which was only surpassed in this competition by Barcelona in 2012, a team Guardiola helped to build and which was then led by Tito Vilanova, who was set to succeed him as the club’s head coach.
Kyle Walker played the role of the right flank in Guardiola’s decision, while Riyad Mahrez was given the opportunity to drift inside as he pleased. They were able to control the midfield as a result, even though Erling Haaland still appears to be an afterthought when they play, like a pricey superfan—albeit one with 26 Premier League goals—who has won a raffle ticket to play in the team but to whom no one bothered to pass.
City is so adept at doing this that it can do it while ignoring Haaland. His role appeared to be to rush around while Josko Gvardiol was restrained. He made five touches in the first half but none were in the penalty area.
In the second half, Marco Rose, the coach of RB Leipzig, challenged Pep to a game of his own. Benjamin Henrichs returned right away and performed a similar aggressive style to Walker. RB Leipzig was aggressive and kept closing the gap on City.
When you’re in control, playing a back three with Jack Grealish roaming, no left back in sight, and Kyle Walker released from defensive responsibilities appears to be a good idea. Nevertheless, there is so much room behind where those full-backs should be when a team starts to press, win the ball back, and play.
Hence, Marcel Halstenberg was advancing from the left rear and opening up space behind Walker. Dominik Szoboszlai and Andre Silva were also having success in the inside channels as City’s back three suddenly became stretched and the spaces between them and Rodri became erratic. On minute 55, the former played in Henrichs who came running in from space down the right where the left back should have been and skewed his shot wide when clean through.
By this point, Nathan Ake had the terrified expression that you get when the system tells you to cover three men but your head knows you can’t. Grealish and Ilkay Gundogan weren’t defending him.
Then Walker was robbed by Andre Silva, who subsequently cut inside and had a chance to score. Given that Ruben Dias didn’t even appear to bother contesting Gvardiol for the header, the goal, which came from a corner, was as much the product of City’s minds being confused by the prior 20 minutes.
This wasn’t a complete tactical disaster by Guardiola. He typically saves those for the semifinal or championship round of this contest. Yet, it did provide an indication as to how those problems would present themselves in this competition’s later rounds.
Simply said, City are too exposed. They are strong when in your possession because the system is tightly controlled and difficult to hack. But the system doesn’t change when a disruption occurs, putting them at a disadvantage. Excellent teams make use of this.
Napoli, a team that thrives in this type of match, is possibly the side Manchester City should be most afraid of. But, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich will also succeed thanks to their quick, incisive wingers and assertive fullbacks.
There won’t be a Premier League danger this year, which is fantastic news for City. They are not even in the competition, nor are the two teams nearest to them.
Guardiola maintains that we are looking at this from the incorrect side of the telescope. In football, there is a concept that is overlooked when someone asks, “Why were you bad in the second half?” Why are they unable to see Leipzig as a top team? We often discuss how awful things are. Why don’t we discuss how great the other is?
And he is correct. Football’s Champions League is where the finest are put to the test. Despite this, it shouldn’t be too simple to disrupt City.
More prestigious teams in Europe will undoubtedly succeed if RB Leipzig, with a payroll cost that is around one-third that of City, can.