Crystal Palace handed Manchester City another setback in the title race with a 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park on Saturday and afterwards boss Oliver Glasner explained how he spotted weaknesses in the defending champions' play.
The result leaves City eight points behind top spot, while Liverpool have a game in hand, while Arsenal and Chelsea – both a point ahead of the title holders – are eager to get further away with the London derbies live on Sky Sports on Sunday.
As fitness concerns continue to limit Pep Guardiola's options and expand the range of players he has available, City are taking action. At Selhurst Park it became clear how the opposing teams are currently making plans to hurt City.
Bring the intensity
“We knew we could play at a higher intensity [than City]All the data showed this,” Glasner said afterward. “We knew we would fall behind if we got into transitions. If we get them running, they might struggle a little.
“City have so much ball possession in every game but they are the lowest in terms of high intensity and sprint distances and we are fifth or sixth in the league.
“Also the games they lost this season, they lost to very intense teams: Bournemouth, Tottenham and Brighton [and Liverpool].
“We talked about it: it's our strength, our intensity, the runs we can make behind with our full-backs and our forwards, and we thought that could help us win, because beating City with possession is not that easy I don't know many teams that can do this, so you have to find different things.
“These worked pretty well, but it's just a tie!”
The statistics Glasner refers to indeed prove his point. Going into this weekend, Man City were second in the Premier League in terms of sprints this season.
Man City was defeated in the sprint in ten of the fourteen matches entering this round. In four of the six games in which they had been defeated by the largest margins, they had lost.
Seven of their eight victories came when they outpaced their opponents in terms of distance covered, or were within 2km of their opponents.
After the draw, Guardiola emphasized the pressure currently on his team. “The last fifteen minutes we played 10 against 11 [after Rico Lewis’ red card]. We have seven potential starting XI players who are injured, many of them players [lots of] minutes [played]the physicality of Palace is there…”
Finding space around Gundogan
Rodri's absence is regularly and rightly highlighted as a reason why City can be vulnerable to the transitions and fast breaks Glasner mentions. An injury to Mateo Kovacic didn't help either. And at 34, Ilkay Gundogan struggles with possession to put out the fires.
With City playing in a 4-1-4-1 formation, Glasner saw the opportunity for his side, with Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr playing against Jean-Philippe Mateta, with Will Hughes and Jefferson Lerma in central midfield, to create the spaces around a sometimes isolated Gundogan.
Hughes assisted the opener to get into that position.
“There was so much space on the other side next to Gundogan and we didn't come across this space that often,” Glasner said. “We showed the players at half-time. You need one or two touches to be there. If we encounter this more often, we can create more and more chances. [first] goal was the space we want to find. We should do it more.
“If you play with one number 6, 4-1-4-1, the way City play, there is a lot of space to the left and right of the number 6, then it is the way you find this space. It could be by passing – City found this space by passing for their second goal. We found it on the first goal. Sometimes you need the long ball and you go for the second ball.
“When we get our runners up to speed and space, it's not so easy to defend. It was part of the idea to get into these spaces and one thing was long balls and going for long balls.”
Set pieces
Man City had only conceded once from a set-piece before Saturday, but Glasner spotted an opportunity – and Palace capitalized when Maxence Lacroix rose above a rooted Kyle Walker to head in Hughes' corner in the second half.
It's an area of strength for Palace – only three teams have scored more from dead-ball situations this season – but also a potentially untapped weakness for City given the players they are currently missing.
“They miss a lot of good headers,” Glasner said. “Manuel Akanji, Nathan Aké and Rodri – very tall players and good headers in defence. So attacking set plays were a big opportunity for us.”
With City's problems exposed, it is clear that their upcoming opponents will target similar weaknesses. Guardiola and his players will have to adapt – and hope that some of their currently injured players can return quickly to sort out the problems.
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