“I am a genius. Tactics, my friend.”
Devoid of context, Pep Guardiola’s reply to a question about the positioning of Jeremy Doku during Manchester City’s 3-1 home win against Bournemouth last Sunday seems arrogant. However, that’s not the case.
It was a sarcastic comment, before City’s manager went on to explain he had given Doku the freedom to go outside onto the wing or move inside on the pitch that day as the mood took him.
“I said, ‘Jeremy, you can go inside when you feel it, go outside when you feel it. When you are outside, Nico (O’Reilly) and Phil (Foden) can play (inside)’,” added Guardiola. “At the end, it’s not about the tactics — it’s having the ball, to keep the ball and try to play.”
The more important point, though, is that Guardiola constantly develops his players and offers them solutions to win matches.
Guardiola gives O’Reilly an encouraging pat on the, um, back (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
This season, City’s passing combinations in midfield have been cutting through opponents’ defensive blocks, helped by both Doku’s improved ability in narrow positions and youngster O’Reilly’s playing profile, which allows them to overload the central space.
In this example from the 3-0 derby defeat of neighbours Manchester United in September, Doku’s in-field movement creates a two-vs-one scenario down the left side because Leny Yoro is marking Foden as City’s passing combinations bamboozle Manuel Ugarte and Bruno Fernandes. Once the ball returns to Rodri, O’Reilly is in position to attack the space, with Noussair Mazraoui and Yoro occupied by Doku and Foden.
As City progress the ball down their left wing, midfielder Tijjani Reijnders is behind his United counterparts…
… and he connects with Doku’s low cross to put a shot on target, despite Fernandes’ recovery run.
At this moment in last weekend’s match against Bournemouth, Rayan Cherki and Doku are wingers on paper only, as they have roamed inside to overload the midfield.
This manipulated the visitors’ defensive block by occupying players to create space for their team-mates or exploiting pockets between the lines.
Here, in the build-up to City’s second goal, Doku and Foden are overloading David Brooks, while Tyler Adams is occupied by Cherki as Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias circulate the ball to Nico Gonzalez.
City’s backwards circulation entices Adams to press O’Reilly, leaving Cherki free to drop between the lines. Meanwhile, Doku and Foden move in opposing directions, forcing Brooks to mark one of them and leave the other unattended.
Bournemouth’s Welsh right-winger opts to go with Doku and signals to his team-mates to mark Foden, but Alex Scott is occupied by O’Reilly while Adams drops to block the passing lane to Cherki.
The movement of City’s two wingers creates a pocket of space for Foden, with the ball into the England midfielder now open.
The pass to him from Nico triggers a press from Bournemouth’s left centre-back Marcos Senesi and draws Adams’ attention for a second, but the speed at which City’s players combine allows them to attack the space created in the visitors’ defensive line.
By the time Senesi is halfway out to him, Foden has played a one-touch pass to Cherki, who immediately chips the ball into the space vacated by the advancing Argentine defender. Simultaneously, striker Erling Haaland adjusts his position in anticipation of the pass.
Haaland then carries the ball into space, before rounding goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic and putting City in the lead to stay.
“They put a lot of players inside — against us especially, they don’t leave the wingers open (wide) — so they attract you a little bit so they can exploit those (wide) spaces after with the full-backs,” Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola said after the game. “But even when you are tight and you don’t allow them a lot of spaces, Cherki, (and) Foden, they can play one-touch. It’s not that we are very far — the coordination (from City) is amazing.”
Iraola mentioned another crucial aspect of City’s passing combinations: the speed at which they are performed.
In this next example, from the 5-1 home win against Burnley in September, Doku roams infield from his left-wing position and finds Nico. Florentino moves up to press the ball, and his central midfield partner Josh Cullen takes a couple of steps to the left to prevent City finding Foden between the lines.
As a result, Nico plays the ball back to Doku, who is now in a narrow role and no longer being tracked by Kyle Walker. The two seconds it takes Cullen to switch his attention to Doku is enough for the Belgium winger to find Foden. He then plays the ball to Matheus Nunes, who is free on the right because Oscar Bobb is pinning Burnley’s left wing-back.
Nunes’ low cross is then deflected into the net by Maxime Esteve to make it 3-1.
In another example, from the 2-0 defeat of visitors Everton last month, Foden is between the lines, with Doku and O’Reilly both playing down City’s left wing.
As Nico carries the ball forward, the left side of City’s attack synchronise their movements to create space around Everton’s block: Doku moves inside to allow O’Reilly to push forward, which pins Jake O’Brien and also drags Iliman Ndiaye deeper, and Foden drops into the gap next to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Once Nico plays the ball to Foden…
… O’Reilly quickly dashes forward and catches Nidaye off-guard. Everton’s right-winger doesn’t even have time to adjust his body orientation before Foden threads the ball to O’Reilly…
… who crosses it into the penalty area for Haaland to head in for the game’s opening goal.
One of Guardiola’s definitions of tactics is “Which type of players we have, which skills they have; and you have to adapt to the quality they have.”
“Tactics are just put on the field to help them to express their talent more often,” City’s manager told reporters in August 2022. “I use tactics to create some patterns so everyone can be more comfortable.”
His comments after the Bournemouth game emphasised the importance of execution, but the development he gives his players and the tools he offers them can’t be separated from it.
Guardiola’s quip about him being a genius was tongue-in-cheek. That doesn’t mean it’s not true.