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Alright so yesterday I was rewatching that Manchester City versus Liverpool game because honestly some of Pep’s choices had me scratching my head. Started by pulling up the starting lineups on my phone while eating cereal – like why’d he bench Grealish again? Felt random.
First Step: Breaking Down the Setup
Grabbed my notebook and drew a 4-1-4-1 shape – City’s base formation on paper. The back four was Walker-Stones-Dias-Aké, pretty standard. But then I noticed Rodri sitting deep alone as DM while KDB and Bernardo Silva played higher. Immediately thought: “Damn, that’s asking Rodri to cover SO much ground against Liverpool’s press.”
Watching the Defensive Shape
Hit play on the replay and focused purely on defensive moments. Saw City doing this weird hybrid press: Haaland and Alvarez would chase Liverpool’s center-backs but the wingers stayed deep. Created a compact shape that looked like:
- Haaland/Alvarez cutting passing lanes centrally
- Midfield trio collapsing toward Rodri
- Fullbacks glued to Salah and Diaz instead of pushing up
Realized Pep was terrified of Liverpool’s counters – like remember last season when Mo roasted us? Yeah.
The Midfield Puzzle
This part got interesting. Every time KDB dropped to help Rodri, Bernardo Silva would drift WIDE right into half-spaces. Caught Liverpool’s left-back Robertson hesitating constantly. Jotted down three patterns:
Pattern 1: Bernardo pulls wide → Walker overlaps → draws Liverpool’s winger back
Pattern 2: KDB drops deep → Rodri pushes up → bypasses Liverpool’s first press
Pattern 3: Alvarez floating BETWEEN lines → occupies Van Dijk → creates Haaland 1v1s
Literally paused the game five times just to sketch these movements. My cat started judging me.
Final Takeaways
After rewatching key moments three times? Pep’s gameplan was actually simple: sacrifice attacking width for control through midfield chaos. No crazy inverted fullbacks this time – just disciplined positioning and waiting for Liverpool to overcommit. Worked because Rodri had a monster game intercepting everything. Still think playing Akanji over Aké would’ve been better though.