De Bruyne ends City’s nightmare on Waterloo Road

In light of their European encounters during the month of August, Manchester City’s opener against Aston Villa was postponed to allow City a further week of rest. Wolves away was now their first game.

City feared a Nightmare on Waterloo Road with Freddy Krueger impersonated in Adama Traore, who last season guided Wolves to a double victory over Manchester City. This bogey team term isn’t only framed by the media and fans as Kevin De Bruyne confirmed this is how they see Wolves as well.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s surprise in their first game of the season against Sheffield United was playing Pedro Neto in a midfield three. Theoretically, it made sense to match Sheffield United’s midfield trio and be prepared for the switch of play that Sheffield United are characterized by.

Not only that, this also allowed Neto to combine with Daniel Podence on the left side as Wolves clinched the three points at Bramall Lane. Nuno continued with this 5–3–2 shape on Monday against Manchester City, but there were some issues.

Pep Guardiola’s team read a 4–2–3–1 on paper, but on the field it was more dynamic with movements from De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden. De Bruyne operated regularly in the left channel — arguably more than he did centrally. While Foden’s inside movement and Sterling’s movement inside the box made it at times look like a 4–2–2–2.

De Bruyne tried to exploit the space on the right side of Wolves’ midfield trio by positioning in the left channel. Whether it was Joao Moutinho or at sometimes Ruben Neves, De Bruyne was on their outside or behind them.

When the right sided midfielder — Neves here — was attracted to the ball, De Bruyne kept his position and waited for the pass. The quick mind might think that Adama will go up and press De Bruyne.

But here’s how City formulated their movements to free De Bruyne in the left channel. Benjamin Mendy’s run prevents Traore from moving up and facing De Bruyne, fearing a pass into Mendy behind him. While Sterling provides the passing option for De Bruyne. In this attack, the Belgian’s pass was a bit heavy for Sterling to catch.

De Bruyne moved at times to a left back position, but the plan was the same. Mendy pushing high to pin Adama and Sterling making a run to provide a passing option. The time and space De Bruyne had enabled him to play the ball into Sterling. It wasn’t the most perfect pass, but it showed a pattern.

Adama was continuously isolated due to the decision of moving Neto from the wing area and putting him in midfield, and City exploited that. Mendy’s positioning here makes it difficult for Adama to move up and face De Bruyne, leaving the Belgian free when the Wolves’ midfielders are attracted to the ball.

This gave De Bruyne time to pick his pass. The Belgian chose to play the ball into Gabriel Jesus before the attack ended in a Sterling shot at goal. The noticeable point here is how Sterling is adjusting his body shape, anticipating a pass from De Bruyne if the Belgian chose to play him.

De Bruyne kept popping up in the same space, and he was regularly found by the Manchester City players.

Again, Traore can’t move up because of Mendy’s run out of the screen here. The consequence is that Willy Boly moves out, leaving a gap in Wolves’ defensive line. De Bruyne found Sterling, but the English forward should have chosen the option of passing it into Jesus rather than Mendy.

This positioning from De Bruyne also proved a great outlet during offensive transitions. De Bruyne could be directly found in the left channel if the ball was intercepted near Mendy, allowing a direct pass into De Bruyne.

Where in this instance his pass to Jesus should have made it 3–0 had the Brazilian forward not shot straight at Rui Patricio.

City’s second goal shows the importance of De Bruyne’s positioning. Here, he is on the outside of Neves and also behind him….

..and when Foden receives the ball centrally, Neves is attracted to the ball leaving De Bruyne completely free.

Such that he can combine with Jesus and Sterling to play the pre-assist to Foden’s goal.

In the beginning of the second half, Nuno switch to his regular 3–4–3 by moving Neto to the right wing to double up with Adama. This created a seven minutes spell where Wolves had four scoring opportunities, failing to turn any of them into goals.

However, this meant that when Neto and Podence failed to retreat either side of the Moutinho-Neves duo, De Bruyne had space in the left channel. Foden again moved inside to link and pass the ball into the free De Bruyne, whilst at the bottom of the snippet Mendy is galloping forward to make Adama think twice before going out towards De Bruyne.

This attack could have ended in a similar goal to the second one, if not for Romain Saiss’ defensive positioning to deny Foden from a shot at goal.

City’s perfect first half display was empowered by De Bruyne’s movement to the left channel. Yet it wasn’t only De Bruyne. For this to work he needed the rest of the cogs to work. Foden moving inside to link him up, Mendy making a run to pin Adama Troare and Sterling providing the passing option by adjusting his body orientation to be ready for the pass.

It was only three points and 111 to go as Guardiola said after the game.

This was only Freddy, Jason is yet to come.