Three Takeaways from the Victory Over Southampton
By David Crook
Ball Recovery
In many ways the Kevin De Bruyne-David Silva-Ilkay Gundogan axis may be our best midfield combination at the present time. But even when this combination is deployed together they have different roles, positions and tasks in different games. Sometimes De Bruyne is deep, sometimes playing as 10, sometimes on the right. The way City play under Guardiola is based around this midfield intelligence and the roles and tasks and positional responsibility switches during phases of the games.
Such fluidity serves to confound the opposition and keeps our ideas fresh. When it works.
Against Southampton, City’s midfield struggled at times to exert control on the game. There was an alarming amount of time the ball seemed to bounce around, unclaimed. Southampton’s clearances were often hit without looking and always seemed to fall between our lines.
In the past we have relied upon Fernandinho to tidy these up and win the second ball, hence recovering possession and switching play, but on Saturday too many of these situations went unresolved.
This served to leave our defence exposed and our midfield isolated. Gundogan would scamper back and plug the gap but by then the ball had moved and we were on the back foot.
Next. City Beat Southampton. dark
Our midfield is more suited to a more open game where ricochets and bobbling high balls are not bouncing around. Liverpool may be more open for us to play against than Southampton.