How “smaller” teams can beat Man City: low block, courage and a big piece of luck

Let us shock you – Manchester City don’t lose often.

In fact, Pep Guardiola’s side suffered just 17 Premier League defeats in 152 games en route to an unprecedented four consecutive Premier League titles between 2020-21 and 2023-24. They started the current campaign with six league matches without defeat.

However, there have been slip-ups for Guardiola and company over the last four years. This has happened eight times at the hands of teams outside the Premier League’s established ‘Big Six’ – Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur (and themselves).

Brentford have claimed the scalp twice in 2022-23, with Leicester City, Leeds United, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa also overtaking them, although Villa did so in a season in which they blew apart the Premier League’s top four.

So as City embark on a run of five consecutive league games against teams outside the Big Six (starting with Saturday’s home game against Fulham), what can their upcoming opponents learn from their rare recent defeats?

Here’s our non-Big Six guide to beating Manchester City.

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A low block works best

Few managers are brave or reckless enough to go toe-to-toe with City in an expansive game of football, and most of the success that the ‘lesser’ clubs have achieved has been achieved by Guardiola’s team defending deep and hitting on the break.

When Leeds won 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium in April 2021 in a match played behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were played with 10 men for the entire second half after Liam Cooper was sent off for a heavy tackle on Gabriel Jesus at the end of the first half.

And for much of that second 45 minutes, coach Marcelo Bielsa effectively deployed a back six, composed in various ways, sometimes with midfielders, in particular Kalvin Phillips, becoming supporting centre-backs, but more often with wingers Raphhinha and Helder. Costa operates as full-backs outside of a conventional back four.

When Brentford won 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium in November 2022, manager Thomas Frank adopted a low-block approach, completing just 216 passes in total, 97 of which were completed in the final third, compared to 622 and 300 respectively for the team Guardiola.

A map of Brentford’s average positions compared to City and other statistics tell the story of the game.

“The higher you press with their skill, the more they will exploit the space you have left,” said Brendan Rodgers, who was Leicester manager in September 2020 when the team beat City 5-2, and frustrated midfielder Rodri.

“A team like Leicester comes here and plays with 11 men behind the ball,” Rodri said. “I’m young and I try to learn every match, but matches where the opponent doesn’t do anything are a bit confusing.”

There have been exceptions to the rule, however, such as when Brighton beat 10-man City 3-2 at the Amex Stadium in May 2021 after Joao Cancelo was sent off 10 minutes into the match by the visitors.

Graham Potter’s Brighton attempted around twice as many passes as their opponents (607 to 361) and almost three times as many in the final third (164 to 58) as City had to sit back and play the underdog role.

Crystal Palace took a more aggressive approach, winning 2-0 at the Etihad five months later. Patrick Vieira’s men continued to remain disciplined behind the ball, but used the energy of on-loan midfielder Conor Gallagher and other attacking players to actively apply pressure, as this example shows.

Palace dived high to win the ball (shown here), starting a move that earned them their second goal, scored by Gallagher but engineered by James McArthur and Michael Olise.

Make a plan for the City stars

When Wolves beat City 2-1 at Molineux in September 2023, manager Gary O’Neil abandoned the back four he had employed in his first weeks in charge in favor of a system based loosely on a 5-2-3 or 5-4-1 in low block, but with some individual functions.

Left centre-back Toti was given permission to leave his position and target Phil Foden, while central midfielder Joao Gomes was given the duty to move to the right and help free winger Nelson Semedo to deal with Jeremy Doku and allowed Maximilian Kilman and Craig Dawson will double Erling Haaland’s effectiveness.

Striker Matheus Cunha was tasked with covering Mateo Kovacic, the central midfielder, so that the Wolves midfielders could maintain their defensive shape behind the ball.

During Brentford’s victory in November 2022, they made it their mission to shut down Kevin De Bruyne quickly to cut off Haaland’s main supply line at the source.

Be brave in a calculated way

In November 2022, Brentford were on course to take a perfect away point with the score 1-1 in the final minutes.

However, manager Frank sensed a chance to win the match, so three minutes before the end he replaced midfielder Frank Onyeka with the more attack-minded Josh Dasilva.

“Thomas said, ‘Josh, come on, defend well, go out for the ball, but I want to win this match,’” Dasilva said. Athlete after the match.

“Thomas instilled in us the inner belief before this match that we can come here and not only draw or score a point, but also win.”

In Wolves’ victory, Gomes’ extra work on the right wing and Semedo’s discipline were intended to enable Pedro Neto to stay high and provide constant opportunities to relieve pressure and create counter-attacking potential.

It paid off as Neto gave his defenders some respite and had a huge impact on Ruben Dias’ own goal that opened the scoring.

Go directly

The days of long-ball teams in the Premier League are long gone, but most of the ‘smaller’ clubs that are successful against City do so using a direct approach.

Trying to play under Guardiola’s pressure is a thankless task, so most of the goals scored against them by ‘weaker’ teams come via a minimal amount of passing between gaining possession and taking a shot.

Brentford used the aerial skills of Ben Mee on the assist and Ivan Toney on the finish to score the first goal, and also converted a quick break from a City corner to give Toney the win.

Wolves’ first goal came after Neto won possession high and beat the full-back, while Brighton benefited from Adam Webster’s powerful shot from a cross from the right wing to win 3-2.

And there are few more effective direct forwards in the history of the Premier League than Jamie Vardy.

Vardy, who is the 15th highest goalscorer in Premier League history, has scored three hat-tricks in the competition – two of them against Guardiola’s City.

He first scored for Leicester in a 4-2 home win in December 2016, and his second goal was more recently in a 5-2 win in September 2020.

The pass map from the latter match shows how little Leicester played in midfield, instead focusing on Vardy and powerful winger Harvey Barnes early on.

Make the most of your luck

Whether it’s a small piece of fortune like Wolves playing City without Rodri, or a bigger one like Brighton playing against 10 men for almost the entire match, it’s important to make the most of it.

Brighton were also fortunate to meet a City team that had already won the title this season in a match that saw 8,000 home fans return for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdown.

Brentford’s second win over City of the season came in the final league match of the campaign, with the champions focusing on the upcoming FA Cup and Champions League finals.

According to Guardiola himself, Leicester benefited from their encounter with City earlier in the season when Vardy went berserk.

“We were 5-2 at the start of the season,” Guardiola said at a press conference last month. “Sometimes it can happen early on – you’re back from vacation, and sometimes you’re a little naive.”

In short, to beat City, everything has to work perfectly, and sometimes you also have to rely on a bit of fortune.

But it can be done. Every dog ​​has its day.

Additional reporting by Rob Tanner
Art: Mark Carey