Pep Guardiola gets the best out of Manchester City’s own Batman & Robin

Batman & Robin. Well, Batman & Ruben. Saving Gotham. Saving Manchester City once again.

The colossal duo has been the cornerstone to Manchester City’s rise this season. Even before Pep Guardiola made his adjustments, it was that duo’s defensive performances that steadied the ship.

One step away from Manchester City’s first Champions League final, John Stones and Ruben Dias stepped up again. Celebrating Oleksandr Zinchenko’s block on Neymar’s shot as if they had just scored the winner. In essence, it was equivalent.

For all of Paris Saint Germain’s penetration in the first half, it was the presence of Stones and Dias that minimized the French’s side threat on target.

But how did Paris Saint Germain bypass Manchester City’s press to face the masked superheroes protecting Gotham?

In their 4–3–3, Neymar and Angel Di Maria moved inside to drop behind Fernandinho and Ilkay Gundogan to offer progressive passing options in-between Manchester City’s midfield and defensive lines.

One of Neymar and Di Maria would drop to provide a penetrative passing option behind Manchester City’s double pivot…..

….then the other would do the same, always keeping a player behind Fernandinho and Gudogan even when the double pivot re-adjusted their positioning.

The positioning of Neymar and Di Maria in the center area of the field caused constant problems for Manchester City’s pressing scheme and allowed Paris Saint Germain’s midfield to progress the ball easily. Here, Neymar’s positioning allows Marco Verratti to penetrate Manchester City’s midfield with the easiest of passes.

Putting Paris Saint Germain in a position where they can threaten Manchester City. Had Neymar found Mauro Icardi’s run, there’s a chance it could have been 1–1. However, the Brazilian kept the ball and was then fouled by the Manchester City players nearby. Fast Forward the free-kick, the commencing corner kick, and you’ll get to Marquinhos’ header which struck the bar. All originating from the positioning of Neymar and Di Maria

Di Maria and Neymar were positionally aware that not both of them drop in the same space, so when one drops and provides a progressive passing option….

….the other does the same for him. All behind Manchester City’s double pivot.

This attack continued with Neymar finding Alessandro Florenzi out wide….

….before the right back found Di Maria, again in between the lines. Weirdly, Di Maria dummied the ball instead of striking it, wasting a perfect attack that summarized Paris Saint Germain’s approach in the first half.

The inside runs by Di Maria and Neymar also enabled ball progression through the other Paris Saint Germain midfielders. In this example, Di Maria is starting his run inside behind City’s midfield line….

…..then once he’s behind Gundogan, the German couldn’t move to block the passing lane into Ander Herrera because of the threat of Di Maria….

…..meaning that once again Paris Saint Germain cut through Manchester City’s midfield, while having threatening options in attack in the form of their front three.

After the game, Guardiola explained this perfectly. “We struggled a lot in the first half. A lot, because we could press, we want to press, but we weren’t able to do it. They put a lot of players in the middle with Verratti, (Leandro) Paredes and Herrera….Di Maria and Neymar as well. So, when you jump (press) they find (spaces) behind you.”

Despite all that, Paris Saint Germain couldn’t find a solution in the next phase of play which is chance creation. Partly due to their lack of solutions and mainly due to the impressive defensive performance from Stones and Dias.

There was clearly a problem for City and once again Guardiola’s tweak at half time minimized the threat of Paris Saint Germain. Instead of using the midfielders to nullify the threat of Di Maria and Neymar drifting in between the lines, Guardiola used his defensive line — mainly Stones and Dias — to strictly man-mark Di Maria and Neymar once they dropped to support Paris Saint Germain’s build up. The below snippet shows how high Stones is to mark Di Maria, who is moving into the space behind Fernandinho

It wasn’t only limited to Stones and Dias, Kyle Walker and Zinchenko also had their fair share. The idea was mainly to move inside with the Paris Saint Germain forwards and limit their threat behind Fernandinho and Gundogan.

An example here shows a similar situation to that that happened throughout the first half, Neymar dropping behind Fernandinho and Gundogan to provide a progressive passing option…..

…..but this time Walker was there….

….and when Neymar managed to dribble his way out of this position, his next outlet in Di Maria was man marked by Stones who moved all the way beyond the center line. Neymar with no passing options available, lost the ball.

How Guardiola utilized his defenders in the second half didn’t only neutralize the threat of Neymar and Di Maria who drifted inside behind Manchester City’s midfield, it also gave Fernandinho license to focus on what’s in-front of him in terms of pressing without worrying about the space behind him which was now covered by the center backs.

Fernandinho could move forward and aid with City’s bread and butter 4–4–2 pressing because behind him Stones and Dias were taking care of the roaming Neymar and Di Maria.

An example early in the second half shows Fernandinho’s willingness to press forward even though the pass between him and Gundogan is on. Before Marquinhos played the pass into Verratti, Fernandinho was already adjusting his body position to move forward. As a result, he managed to intercept the ball….

….but his ball towards Gundogan behind Paris Saint Germain’s defence wasn’t as good.

Another situation late on in the game sees Fernandinho driving through Verratti to nick the ball off the Italian midfielder….

….yet uncharacteristically City couldn’t translate this situation into a more dangerous chance.

“In the second half we adjusted in the half time, we jump (press) much better, we regain the ball quicker.” Pep told BT Sport after the game. “We adjust a little bit to be in support from John (Stones) and Ruben (Dias).” he further elaborated in his post match press conference.

In both games of the tie, Manchester City’s ethereal individual quality got them ahead, but it was Guardiola’s adjustments that made sure they kept their lead.

It’s not only Batman & Robin. Alfred is there as well.