It’s a big week for Manchester City, and a huge one for their quadruple hopes, as they take on Tottenham in the Champions League quarter-final. Tuesday’s match at Spurs' newly-opened stadium will be another big step in their quest to secure an unprecedented four-trophy haul. Pep Guardiola's side have been in blistering form since the turn of the year, winning 21 of their 22 matches across all competitions. Yet in Spurs they face a familiar and dangerous opponent. It’s bound to be an intriguing period in the season as City face Tottenham three times in 11 days. Mauricio Pochettino’s side ended a poor run of just one win in six matches against Crystal Palace last week, and will fancy their chances in front of their home fans in their new surroundings. However, City have already travelled to the capital and secured victory against Spurs this season, so what tactical aspects could we expect to see City try and replicate on Wednesday night? In the meeting between the sides back in October, Tottenham struggled to play through City’s aggressive press. As identified by Guardolia, a big factor to Tottenham’s overall success this season has been their desire to dominant the ball against their opponents. Like most top six sides, due to their commanding nature, most ‘lesser’ sides they face often prefer to relinquish possession and deploy ultra-defensive approach. Through Pochettino’s different variations of 4-4-2, they rank in the top four sides in the league in terms of ball possession with an average of 58.7%. This was no issue for City as statistically they are the best in the Premier League in terms of Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA), which measures how often a team presses the ball by calculating how many passes an opposition team is allowed. When the two sides met in November, a front three of Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Riyad Mahrez were deployed as City’s first phase of defence and would close Tottenham’s centre-backs in possession of the ball. This immediately unsettled the rhythm of their play. Through the middle, Aguero pressed the ball whilst simultaneously cutting off the passing lanes to the midfield and, as a result, Spurs were forced to try and build around their press utilising Ben Davies and Kieran Trippier. However both Mahrez and in particular Sterling did a great job of closing both full-backs down and forcing the Tottenham centre-backs to often go long and hand possession of the ball back to City. Notably, Tottenham’s tally of 370 completed passes was significantly reduced in comparison to their season league average of 458.67 per 90 minutes. Sterling, in particular, caused Spurs huge problems and Guardiola will no doubt look for the attacker to do the same again on Wednesday. In terms of pressing, Sterling restricted Davinson Sanchez and Trippier to just 16 link-up passes. For comparison, on Tottenham's right side of defence, Toby Alderweirdreld and Ben Davies linked up on 29 occasions. Tr
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It’s a big week for Manchester City, and a huge one for their quadruple hopes, as they take on Tottenham in the Champions League quarter-final. Tuesday’s match at Spurs' newly-opened stadium will be another big step in their quest to secure an unprecedented four-trophy haul. Pep Guardiola's side have been in blistering form since the turn of the year, winning 21 of their 22 matches across all competitions. Yet in Spurs they face a familiar and dangerous opponent. It’s bound to be an intriguing period in the season as City face Tottenham three times in 11 days. Mauricio Pochettino’s side ended a poor run of just one win in six matches against Crystal Palace last week, and will fancy their chances in front of their home fans in their new surroundings. However, City have already travelled to the capital and secured victory against Spurs this season, so what tactical aspects could we expect to see City try and replicate on Wednesday night? In the meeting between the sides back in October, Tottenham struggled to play through City’s aggressive press. As identified by Guardolia, a big factor to Tottenham’s overall success this season has been their desire to dominant the ball against their opponents. Like most top six sides, due to their commanding nature, most ‘lesser’ sides they face often prefer to relinquish possession and deploy ultra-defensive approach. Through Pochettino’s different variations of 4-4-2, they rank in the top four sides in the league in terms of ball possession with an average of 58.7%. This was no issue for City as statistically they are the best in the Premier League in terms of Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA), which measures how often a team presses the ball by calculating how many passes an opposition team is allowed. When the two sides met in November, a front three of Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Riyad Mahrez were deployed as City’s first phase of defence and would close Tottenham’s centre-backs in possession of the ball. This immediately unsettled the rhythm of their play. Through the middle, Aguero pressed the ball whilst simultaneously cutting off the passing lanes to the midfield and, as a result, Spurs were forced to try and build around their press utilising Ben Davies and Kieran Trippier. However both Mahrez and in particular Sterling did a great job of closing both full-backs down and forcing the Tottenham centre-backs to often go long and hand possession of the ball back to City. Notably, Tottenham’s tally of 370 completed passes was significantly reduced in comparison to their season league average of 458.67 per 90 minutes. Sterling, in particular, caused Spurs huge problems and Guardiola will no doubt look for the attacker to do the same again on Wednesday. In terms of pressing, Sterling restricted Davinson Sanchez and Trippier to just 16 link-up passes. For comparison, on Tottenham's right side of defence, Toby Alderweirdreld and Ben Davies linked up on 29 occasions. Tr
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