Manchester City tactics
Manuel Pellegrini had the privilege of picking a natural centre forward from the off this time but Stevan Jovetic’s constant movement and pattern of runs is similar to James Milner’s. That meant that City did not really have a target man up top but rather a mobile centre forward who could create space for himself and team-mates.
When in possession, City’s full-backs Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy had to push into the offensive half to supply with in attacks as usual. Zabaleta linked up with Jesus Navas down the right flank while Clichy had the left flank to himself because Samir Nasri joined David Silva in roaming in between the lines.
Fernandinho was the anchor-man sitting in front of the centre-halves, which allowed Yaya Toure to dictate play through the middle as the ball player. Jovetic led the attack by working the left channel in Sunderland’s defence and dropping into pockets of space where he could effectively use his right foot when he received the ball.
When out of possession, the Citizens had to defend in a 4-4-2 formation with David Silva joining Jovetic in leading the pressing while Nasri and Navas pressed from the sides of Fernandinho and Toure in midfield. The full-backs, Clichy and Zabaleta, dropped to the defensive line to complete the defensive shape.
Sunderland tactics
Gus Poyet knew that City’s main threat come from their full-backs and attacking midfielders so the Black Cats manager tried to contain that by having Adam Johnson and Will Buckley stay goal-side of City’s full-backs to stop them from crossing, while virtually all of the other outfield players needed to crowd their defensive-third to deny City’s attacking midfielders the space to work their magic.
That meant that when out of possession, Connor Wickham had to lead the pressing from the halfway line in a 4-5-1 defensive formation. Johnson and Buckley had to track back with City’s full-backs to deal with the threat from the flanks.
In central midfield, Jordi Gomes and Sebastian Larsson had to hurry City’s central midfielders while Jack Rodwell policed the space in between the lines from the base of that central midfield triangle.
When in possession, the Black Cats had to attack in a 4-1-4-1 formation with Rodwell sitting in front of the defensive line. Sunderland’s full-backs, Billy Jones and Santiago Vergini, cautiously pushed into the middle-third and back to the defensive line to keep safe numbers behind the ball.
Left-footed Johnson and right-footed Buckley operated as natural wingers down the left and right flanks respectively where they had to get in behind City’s full-backs and supply crosses to Wickham and the advanced central midfielders.
Key tactical changes
City enjoyed a lot of possession but they created very little for almost an hour because Sunderland defended their goal in what was effectively a 6-3-1 defensive formation with Johnson and Buckley dropping to the defensive line just to stay goal side of City’s full-backs.
It worked well until Toure’s thunderous shot opened the scoring and, ultimately, the game. Poyet immediately made a double substitution with Gomez and Buckley making way for Emanuele Giaccherini and Ricardo Alvarez, respectively.
They may have been direct substitutions but Giaccherini had the freedom to make runs beyond Wickham from central midfield. Sunderland generally started pressing higher and committing more bodies forward.
Their increased ambition stretched the game as City kept attacking in numbers at the other end as well. That prompted five goals in just 15 minutes so Pellegrini had to close the game out when City led 3-2.
The City boss achieved that by bringing on Aleksandar Kolarov as a left attacking midfielder. The Serbian defender had an important defensive job as he needed to double-up with Clichy down the left flank to stop Alvarez, whose trickery was causing City problems.
With that problem dealt with, the Black Cats lost their attacking oomph and City comfortably concluded the game.
