Manchester City – Manchester United (1-2): Diallo’s Derby

Manchester City perhaps shaded the first half of this match, with Guardiola’s improvised possession setup giving them a degree of stability, and Joško Gvardiol’s header putting them in front. However, Manchester United showed their developing tactical cohesion under Ruben Amorim, and were able to take advantage of decisive moments late on with Amad Diallo playing a key role two late goals.

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

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When Ruben Amorin’s Sporting CP side stunned Manchester City with a 4-1 win in the Champions League last month, it seemed difficult to imagine that City would still be in the same slump almost a month-and-a-half later. City were held to a point at Crystal Palace last time out in the Premier League, before losing to Juventus in midweek.

Amorim’s start at Manchester United has been mixed in terms of results, but growing pains are to be expected when implementing a new, more structured game model with a squad used to working in a different way. Their last two Premier League games prior to this had seen them lose to Nottingham Forest and Arsenal, but this match seemed like a good opportunity for Amorim’s side, due to City’s current vulnerable state.

Due to injuries, Pep Guardiola was forced to make compromises in defense, with Matheus Nunes deployed at left back in a backline which also included Kyle Walker, Rúben Dias, and Joško Gvardiol. İlkay Gündoğan, Kevin De Bruyne, and Phil Foden were the midfielders in a nominal 4-3-3 system, while Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland, and Jérémy Doku completed the frontline.

United lined up in Amorim’s favoured 3-4-3 shape, with Matthijs de Ligt, Harry Maguire, and Lisandro Martínez in the back three. Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot were the wing-backs, while Bruno Fernandes started in central midfield alongside Manuel Ugarte. Amad Diallo and Mason Mount then supported Rasmus Højlund up front.

A stable start

During the first half, the game was relatively equal and stable, although City were slightly on top. Neither side created many chances though. City were able to take the lead before half-time, thanks to a Gvardiol header.

Guardiola has attempted some interesting attacking schemes in recent weeks in order to try and kickstart his City team’s form. In this game, he was forced to improvise with Nunes as left back, who predictably pushed forward and moved slightly infield when City had the ball, while Doku occupied the width on the left.

The surprise this week from Guardiola was the placement of Gvardiol. He started as the left center-back, but often moved up into the number six area when City had the ball, adding a presence alongside Gündoğan. This left Walker and Dias to shift leftwards and essentially operate as a back two in many of City’s possession phases. De Bruyne was an advanced presence in the right halfspace, while Foden played as a number ten, and Bernardo Silva played wide on the right.

United’s defensive shape often resembled a 5-3-1-1 after Diallo followed Gvardiol into the center.

United were defending against this nominally in a 5-4-1 shape. When Mount left the pitch after around ten minutes due to injury, Fernandes stepped up to take the left side attacking role, and Kobbie Mainoo was introduced to central midfield alongside Ugarte.

United’s shape often transformed into a 5-3-1-1 shape when they were defending in a lower block. When Gvardiol stepped up into midfield, Diallo would usually follow him into City’s number six area. This may have been a sign that Amorim was expecting Gvardiol to have been playing on the left of a back three when City had the ball, in which case he would have been Diallo’s direct opponent, and Diallo was probably instructed to stay close to him.  

With Diallo moving into a more central area, Mainoo as the right sided central midfielder would have to shift slightly wider in order to provide cover on the right side, where Nunes liked to pick up pockets of space in Diallo’s absence. This caused a chain reaction for Ugarte and Fernandes when the ball was towards United’s right side, as they also shifted across.

This adaptation to City’s shape, whether premeditated or not, was relatively successful, and United were generally quite solid with their defending and pressing. Elsewhere, Martínez was able to do a decent job of restricting De Bruyne, as the Argentinian would track De Bruyne closely when he dropped deep, preventing him from finding space.

Diallo makes the difference

United did not play too badly in the first half but failed to create much in front of goal. In the second half, they sought to play more on the front foot and try to recover the one-goal deficit they faced.

Amorim’s arrival has seen United attempt a complete transformation of their style of attacking play. Under Ten Hag, the emphasis was on quick transition play wherever possible. When they had longer spells of possession, the structure could be quite fluid but lacking in clear intentions or patterns of how to move the ball forward, and they often needed some creative magic from someone like Fernandes.

In the new system, the basic positional structure is more sound, with the 3-4-3 shape lending itself to good occupation of key zones in the center of the pitch and in the halfspaces. This makes for cleaner ball circulation, and more natural patterns of play. Switching the play is also a clear emphasis to bring the wing-backs into the game.

United’s 3-2-4-1 shape in attack, with Mainoo often slighly higher than Ugarte. Fernandes could also drop deeper as the left-sided number ten. 

Despite the theoretical benefits of the new approach, there is a long way to go before Amorim’s vision is fully realized, and that was shown during the game. Although United were able to circulate the ball to a decent standard, there was still a lack of cutting edge at times when it came to trying to penetrate City’s shape.

City actually often defended in something of a 4-3-2-1 shape in this game. Doku would indent into the left halfspace, with De Bruyne in the right halfspace, while Foden would drop deeper for form a midfield three with Bernardo Silva and Gündoğan.

This shape did a decent job of blocking the center in many cases. However, there were still occasional lapses, one of which led to United’s eventual winner, in which case a lack of pressure on the ball gave Martínez time to pick his pass over the relatively high City defensive line to find Diallo, who finished from a tight angle.

That goal came just minutes after Diallo had earned United a penalty after a mistake from Nunes, which Fernandes converted to equalize. In a relatively even game, two late lapses had handed United the win, and meant that City’s terrible run continues.

Takeaways

City are clearly in a fragile state, but managed to hold things together for a large part of this game. They were unremarkable in possession overall, with United able to repel most attacks without too much drama. Without the ball, they were a bit more solid with better occupation of the central areas, but faltered in the decisive moments late on.

For United, the win is symbolic of Diallo’s growing role as a potential star for this team, as he put in another impressive performance. Amorim is still in the process of forming this team in his image, but promising signs are there. There will doubtless be plenty of ups and downs to come, especially as the future of players like Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were brought into question after being left out of the squad for this game. But overall, there are reasons to be optimistic about Amorim’s game model based on the evidence seen so far.

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