Man City 1-3 Bayern: Muller hassles Yaya as Guardiola attains the next level of tiki-taka

All the pre-match talk was about how Pep Guardiola could possibly improve this treble winning star-studded Bayern Munich team. His reply, far from being subtle, was an absolutely stunning display of the German version of tiki-taka. In fact rarely in the past five years has such a high ranking English team been tactically demolished on home soil. Apart from all the accolades that Pep’s Bayern are due, equally critical one needs to be piled upon Pellegrini’s shape in this game.

The South American coach has started to favor a permanent front 2 at the Eastlands club, and yet again it was Aguero and Dzeko who lined up against the Champions of Europe. Another one of Pellegrini’s favorites Nasri started on the left, though his major role this season has been to drift into a central position to complete the triangle alongside Toure and Fernandinho.

Surprise inclusions in the team were the fullbacks Richards and Clichy, though the Frenchman’s addition seemed justified over the defensively culpable Kolorov. City’s shape though on paper looked to be a 4-2-3-1 with Aguero at No.10, though put it down to the Argentine’s injury niggles or Pellegrini’s stubbornness, rarely was the South American seen anywhere other than next to Boateng in Bayern’s defence.

Pep on the other hand had to shift in Philip Lahm into the Defencive midfield position due to Martinez’s injuries. Another tweak saw Muller as the furthest forward instead of Mandzukic, resulting in a 4-2-3-1 with Rafinha as Right back and Schweinsteiger being advanced into a No.10 role.

Robben engages Nasri and Dante dominates Dzeko: City lose midfiled battle

The unbalanced midfield battle was evident right from the early period of the game, as Kun Aguero started the match trying to run off Boateng. But the towering German defender showed a good presence in the back and checked Aguero’s runs time and again. In fact it was City’s other striker Edin Dzeko whose tactics were more interesting, as Pellegrini had to keep switching his roles due to Dante’s superb show at the back.

All of City’s balls from the back were directed towards Dzeko, and his flick ons are often suited for Aguero and Navas’s styles. But it was Dante here who was winning every aerial battle against Dzeko. In fact the Brazilian had to often step out of position from CB into a wide right or central position to check the striker’s run, and Lahm’s deep role became crucial here as the German captain deftly fell back into defence in such circumstances.

Dzeko’s secondary role on the night was to be positioned on the wings and to compete against Alaba for long balls from the back. Dzeko usually is more used to a role involving making runs in the channels, and his wide positions here were rarely advantageous for City despite him winning a few balls.

With Aguero sitting next to Boateng and Dzeko and Navas being shuttled by Dante and Alaba, Lahm was often left free in the centre. The German though only settling into this new role often had the simple task of playing in Kroos next to him. And with only Toure and Fernandinho in City’s midfield, Lahm and Kroos had extraordinary amount of space in the centre.

Stats of 92% and 97% pass completion rate respectively are quite indicative of Bayern’s dominance in the centre. But equally responsible for Bayern’s dominance was the presence of Robben and Ribery on the wings. As Gary Neville pointed out, rarely has Robben been seen in a role that involves winning the ball in such deep positions. That left Samir Nasri always in the backfoot against the Dutchman, and more importantly rarely allowed him to do a job in the centre.

Ribery on the opposite side was at his frightening best and so was the highly underrated combination of Ribery and Alaba. Alaba is easily one of the most attacking fullbacks around and now his chemistry with Ribery has grown a level. What burdened City much more was that Jesus Navas on a right was surprisingly shabby in his backtracking with the Austrian Left back.

So, it was just a simple task of Ribery taking on Richards and feeding in Alaba on the overlap. Richards’ physique was quite a threat for Ribery initially, but the space and time that was available for Lahm and Rafinha to pick out crosses meant that Bayern started to find Ribery either hugging the lines or else in a deeper and central position away from Richards.