The FA Cup is Pep Guardiola's only realistic chance to win a trophy this season.
If you had said last summer that in March Manchester City would be from the Champions League, far from the Premier League title race and nowhere close to the Carabao Cup final, you would laugh out of the room.
But that is the reality with which the CityZens is confronted when we approach the run-in.
The outdated team of City has returned to chase them and they have been a shadow of the team that dominated the English football landscape for the best part of a decade.
The FA Cup, and by expansion their quarterfinals against Bournemouth this weekend, represent the last chance of silverware for the serial winners of Guardiola.
In the latest edition of tactics that have been exposed, we answer your questions about Sunday's collision and ask if Guardiola can let his flops shoot against the cherries.
Will City Long Ball go against the Bournemouth press?
A Guardiola Man City team that is accused of going Long Ball is another sentence that you may have been delivered a few months ago.
But again, it's a reality city face because they adapt to their new status as the third or fourth best team in the country.
City has been successful to go for a long time against parties that press high, including Chelsea.
The Bournemouth of Andoni Iraola is completely a different ball game, with the statistics that show that they will print more this season than any other team in the Premier League.
Despite the fact that they are currently five games without a victory if you include their FA Cup -Fine -Shootout -victory on Wolves, Bournemouth has been one of the best teams to watch in the competition this season,
They have won possession more times than anyone else in the middle and the last third, while they are in second place for interceptions and third for possession in their own third party.
Iraola has coached his side to press in a way that the opposition forces to play through an overloaded area or play the ball back.
A way in which City could prevent this high press is to go more directly.
It is a style that did wonders for Newcastle against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, where players are pushed high before the ball becomes long and therefore removes the urgent threat from Bournemouth.
What the city could seem to do is to lure the opposition in a stretched zone in their last third, so that an overload is widely created after too many players connect to the press before the ball is quickly played.
Another option is to play more centrally in Erling Haaland, who can then bring the ball down to play in Omar Marmoush and Phil Foden.
The three-versus-two overload is a risky, risky system, but it worked wonders when it was used against Chelsea.
Semenyo or Marmoush?
If I have the money from Man City, I should be able to have both Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo, right?
Unfortunately that is not the case, so what does these two huge talented attackers split?
Semenyo has had an impressive year, but if he was a little more clinical for the goal, the cherries might be even higher at the table.
The 25-year-old is brilliant in timing his press.
When teammate Evanilson blocks the passing job of a keeper, Semenyo is smart enough to float in the shadow of the opposite direction before he jumps into life when the ball is played there.
He is helped by another player who has an excellent season, Milos Kerkez, who is above that with the best in the competition.
It is not unusual to see Semenyo and Kerkez insist together in the last third part of the opposition and a great factor in this is that the working speed of Semenyo covers for Kerkez if he loses the ball.
Despite all Semenyo -Lof, Marmoush is still aiming for the debate.
His pace, his ability to flee the ball and his intelligence to read the third-man Run without being offside, pays him a deadly threat to every opponent.
This is of course not to mention the pure wing players of City, probably Jeremy Doku and Savinho, who collaborate with the interior players such as Foden and Marmoush.
How do I get Foden to fly again?
This is probably the biggest question in the Premier League at the moment.
Foden, 24, has had an overwhelming season, given his previously elevated standards.
He was just as bad to start against Albania for England, but his cameo from the bank against Latvia could keep the answer how he could get him at his best.
In that game, Foden was played more centrally and would often come deeper to collect the ball.
Foden is an expert in turning his marker before he stops the ball to a winger.
Guardiola could find some consistent success to play him as one of the two attacking No10s, given how Foden's versatility meant that he has never really found rhythm in his career.
He is still a world -class talent, but the question is how you get enough out of him to show that talent and influence the game.
The change of tactics into a more direct system influences him, but the talent of Foden means the platform that he must be able to return to his best if he gets a run in one position.
Comments