Bravo (and some other things)

Evening all,

Fantastic performance on Saturday, particularly in the first forty minutes. United contributed to it with their starting lineup and initial tactics, but that shouldn't detract from the tweaks that Guardiola made that weren't anticipated by Mourinho. That and the introduction of Bravo. I know he contributed to United getting back into the game and had a couple of shaky moments in the second half, but that performance to me showed exactly why we have bought him and why we need him for our system to work. As always, apologies for length

In terms of the tweaks that Guardiola made, the three big ones were; keeping the fullbacks wide rather than tucking into the midfield like they did against Sunderland, getting Nolito and Sterling to also stay on the touchlines, which opened up the inside channels for De Bruyne to have a field day in (particularly on the Valencia/Bailly side) and also shifting Silva and De Bruynes position further up the pitch slightly, which Fellaini and Pogba struggled to deal with. The reason he could do that was by the introduction of Bravo, which freed both Stones and Otamendi to alternate being an additional DM.

I'm not sure how many people really watched Peps Bayern and the systems he was working on in his time there. At Barcelona, he concentrated on control of the ball. When he moved to Germany, the style of opposition was very different to in Spain and are more, like Klopp and Mourinho teams at times, about control of space and quick counter attacks. Guardiola wanted to utilise a system that, whilst still having domination of the ball high up the pitch, had insurance for when moves broke down, reducing the risk of conceding a good chance from a breakaway.

Clearly that is normally a trade off in terms of numbers, however Guardiolas objective is always to have a numerical advantage in the area where the ball is right up to the attacking final third, where its then up to the forward players to do their business (and De Bruyne really delivered on Saturday). The way he does it, which fully started with Neuer, is to have the keeper on the same line as most teams have their defence.

If you look back at the first half, Bravo was continously in the game and well outside his 18 yard box. Stones and Otamendi were actually looking to pass the ball back to him first, rather than forward, and the reason for that was it instantly took one of the United front line out of the game. Rooney or Ibrahimovic would make a move towards Bravo, which immediately meant we had an extra man in defence. The pass would then go into that extra man (normally the other of Otamendi or Stones) and they could bring it out, which is what dragged Pogba up the pitch more than he should have been. That then created the space behind which De Bruyne could operate in.

It happened time after time and it meant that right through the lines up to Nolito and Sterling, we always maintained an extra man that could operate between the United players, dragging them out. When it did break down, as we were already up the pitch, we were either winning the ball back quickly or had the defensive shape that there was nothing going through at all. The same was true when Fernando was introduced in the second half to regain the numerical advantage in midfield and why Mourinho went to using the long ball towards the end of the game - we had control of the midfield and defensive midfield space.

Now, in terms of the keeper, it is risky and it will give up chances when Bravo is either too deep to take the pass (which led to the Rooney challenge) or the extra man isn't making the movement to the right place to take the ball, or when Bravo himself makes an error. However, its the reduction of other chances and numerical advantages it gives us that makes it worthwhile. When Bravo gets the ball, we actually want the other team to press him, it is still early days in the system though and as soon as United started pressing the defenders as well, the movement wasn't as good in the second half.

That will come with time though and why in Guardiolas training, the only drill that appears in every single session is rondos, where five players form a circle against two defenders and they have to keep passing the ball without it being intercepted. It is all about moving the ball quickly in tight areas and utilising numerical advantages, and we saw on Saturday already that that is starting to take shape. The keepers take part in that exactly the same as the outfield players

Continued underneath.....