Villarreal – Manchester City: Guardiola Revives the Treble Blueprint (0–2)

Pep Guardiola brought back the set-up that defined Manchester City’s treble-winning era, and the result was a dominant away win. Against a Villarreal side that sat deep and sought to counter, City’s positional play, double pivot, and wide triangles created an overwhelming first-half performance that decided the game long before the final whistle.

Tactical analysis and match report by Sebastián Parreño

There was something nostalgic yet refreshed about Manchester City’s setup as they stepped into La Cerámica. Guardiola’s side this season has been offering a new phase of their constant evolution, led by the reshuffling of their coaching staff with the additions of Pep Lijnders and Kolo Touré. But this time, they chose to revisit the same tactical framework that conquered Europe in 2022–23. 

City’s 3-2-5 in possession was instantly recognizable. Matheus Nunes, Rúben Dias, and Joško Gvardiol composed the back line. Ahead of them, John Stones stepped out from defence to join Nico González in a double pivot that anchored the team’s rhythm. Higher up, Bernardo Silva and Rico Lewis completed the box midfield, linking the pivots to the attack, while Jérémy Doku and Savinho hugged the touchlines. Erling Haaland, as ever, led the line.

Villarreal, meanwhile, stuck to their classic 4-4-2 shape out of possession. Pedraza, Veiga, Foyth, and Mouriño formed the defensive line, with Buchanan and Comesaña on the wings and Gueye–Partey controlling the middle. Up front, Georges Mikautadze and Nicolas Pépé offered the counter-attacking outlets. The Spanish side were disciplined and compact, but largely reactive, defending deep and only pressing high after the half-hour mark, mainly during City’s goal kicks.

City’s 3-2-5 formation with Stones inverting to midfield against Villarreal’s compact 4-4-2

 

Stones’ return to the hybrid role

The reintroduction of John Stones as an inverted midfielder, coming from his original position of centre-back, symbolized City’s return to their treble-winning philosophy. As in their most dominant season, the double pivot of Stones and, for this game, Nico González, established the duo that allowed City to dictate the tempo and progress the ball safely under little pressure from Villarreal. 

Each build-up phase began with Nunes and Gvardiol tucking in to form a narrow back three next to Dias, just like Aké and Walker did back in 2023. Stones’ calmness on the ball and his ability to switch play quickly were vital. He constantly drew Villarreal’s strikers toward him before releasing diagonal passes to free the wingers or midfielders in the half-spaces.

This approach allowed City to dominate from the opening minutes. The visitors recycled possession with patience, circulating from side to side until the right angle appeared to break Villarreal’s compact shape. Their positional rotations and distances allowed them to always be close enough to combine, yet stretched enough to pull opponents apart.

The box midfield and the wide triangle

The presence of Bernardo Silva and Rico Lewis as attacking midfielders created the signature box midfield, a structure that overloaded Villarreal’s 4-4-2 lines. It was Doku, Bernardo, Haaland, Lewis, and Savinho against the 4 Villarreal defenders.  On the right flank, a particularly destructive triangle emerged. Stones, Lewis, and Savinho also created a wide overload. Villarreal could never solve this issue that City created. Whenever Savinho received the ball on the wing, Lewis would make a blindside run into the box, while Stones positioned himself to recycle possession or cover the transition. This triangle not only maintained City’s attacking balance but became the primary weapon for chance creation.

It was through this mechanism that City scored their opening goal. In the 17th minute, Savinho isolated Pedraza one-on-one on the right flank. A burst of acceleration beat his marker, and Lewis, recognizing the opening, darted behind Villarreal’s line. Lewis’ low cutback found Haaland, who calmly finished from close range after he anticipated Juan Foyth and left him chasing him from behind. 

City’s first goal happened after Rico Lewis attacked the half-space, and Haaland anticipating Foyth in the area

The second goal, arriving shortly before halftime, was another example of wide overloads. Doku carried the ball from the left, switched play to the right, and Savinho once again created the space for a delivery. This time, Bernardo Silva ghosted into the box unmarked, meeting the cross with a precise header to double the lead. This happened because Haaland pinned Foyth, leaving Bernardo alone and with space to attack. 

The differences with the treble side

What differentiated this City from the treble version was the nature of the wingers. Instead of the possession-oriented Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva, Guardiola fielded Doku and Savinho, two pure dribblers who thrive in direct duels. The result was a more vertical, less conservative interpretation of wide play.

Doku, stationed on the left, constantly drove at Mouriño, while Savinho tormented Pedraza on the opposite side. Their willingness to attack their markers created chaos in Villarreal’s defensive shape. Even when City did not score from these sequences, they gained territory and drew fouls that destabilized the Spanish side’s rhythm. By halftime, both Villarreal full-backs were booked, and Pedraza, having lost all six of his duels, was substituted.

This more aggressive approach on the flanks did not betray Guardiola’s ideals of control, it actually added unpredictability. City still managed the tempo through Stones and Nico, but once they reached the final third, the wingers’ explosiveness made them far less predictable than in previous iterations. It was controlled volatility, orchestrated chaos within order.

Villarreal’s reactive block

Villarreal’s 4-4-2 defensive structure was designed to compress central areas and deny City’s pivots time on the ball. Marcelino’s side waited rather than hunted. Their shape remained compact, but the distances between lines widened every time they tried to step out. Once City moved the ball from left to right, Villarreal’s midfield shifted slowly, allowing Lewis or Bernardo to receive between the lines. However, the lack of aggression in their pressing meant that City always had an outlet to reset and rebuild.

The team’s attempts to launch counterattacks were equally ineffective. The long balls toward Mikautadze or Pépé rarely found their targets, as Dias and Stones swept up with ease. Defensively, Villarreal’s biggest problem came from the flanks. Pedraza and Mouriño were repeatedly isolated against Doku and Savinho without enough cover from their wingers. Each duel tilted the balance further toward City, who methodically exploited those spaces.

Second-half control and pressing problems

The second half saw City shift gears into management mode. Guardiola’s side no longer sought to overwhelm but to suffocate. Possession remained around 65%, but with a lower tempo and fewer risks. Stones and Nico anchored transitions, while the back three maintained a high line to recycle every loose ball. Villarreal improved slightly in their pressing intensity but lacked precision or energy to mount a serious comeback.

The one thing that Villarreal managed to exploit to a certain extent was City’s pressing structure. Guardiola’s side went man-to-man across the first line: Savinho moved inside to press Villarreal’s left centre-back, while Nunes stepped forward to engage Pedraza. This coordination wasn’t there, as the distance for Nunes to press the opposing left back was too long for him to cover on time. This is a similar problem that we’ve seen on Hansi Flick’s Barcelona, where teams have started to expose it with long balls. In this case Villarreal also found that Ruben Dias didn’t mark tightly to his man, leaving Villarreal with outlets to play from the back.  

Regardless of those flaws, Manchester City did not need further goals. The team managed distances, controlled tempo, and protected their advantage, the hallmark of mature dominance. The contrast between City’s composure and Villarreal’s disorganization was stark.

Takeaways

Manchester City’s 2–0 victory at La Cerámica was a valuable victory on the road against a team that sits third in La Liga. But it will be remembered more of the night Guardiola returned to his trusted blueprint that led him to the treble in 2022/23. The double pivot of Stones and Nico gave City the base; the dribbling flair of Doku and Savinho supplied the edge.

Villarreal’s discipline kept the score respectable, but they were never truly in the match. The question for this Manchester City side is if this throwback tactics is here to stay, or if it was a one off performance. Still Pep Guardiola can be proud, as his team always looked in control, showing a lot of precision, and patience. This was an ideal throwback performance.

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