Manchester City’s Defensive Issues and How to Fix Them: Tactical Analysis

For all their goalscoring prowess and attacking creativity, Manchester City is grappling with a critical problem: defensive vulnerability. Recent defeats to Newcastle United and Bayer Leverkusen were followed by narrow, uneasy wins against Leeds United and Fulham, four matches in which Guardiola’s side conceded an alarming ten goals.

Their midweek win at Craven Cottage was a case in point. Fulham, 15th in the Premier League table, came mere inches away from a dramatic comeback. 5-1 up in 54 minutes, City looked set for a comfortable win, but this seemingly sure-shot victory dissolved into a nervy, nailbiting finish. The match ended 5-4, a score more common to baseball than to the beautiful game.

To put their defensive woes into perspective, City have let in more than double the number of goals that league leaders Arsenal have conceded in the league so far this season. Here’s an analysis of what went wrong for City defensively against Fulham and what they can do to fix it.

The Micro Level: Dissecting the Goals

Fulham’s first strike came in stoppage time at the end of the first half, when a looping Emile Smith Rowe header reduced their deficit to two goals.

The defensive issue that precipitated this goal was City’s uncontrolled reactionary response to Fulham’s advancement. As soon as the through ball was played to Harry Wilson on the right flank, five players who were taking up spots in City’s backline retreated in anticipation of a cross into the six-yard box. This was an instinctive response that failed to take into account Donnarumma’s positioning, as the Italian goalkeeper would unequivocally have intercepted such a cross.

Meanwhile, five Fulham players were making late runs into the box. Emile Smith Rowe was one of them. City evidently need to improve at box defending, which is something that can only be fixed with greater spatial awareness and knowledge of the positioning of teammates as well as opponents. Yielding to such an instinctive reactionary response makes it relatively easy for opponents to be proactive and tactically outwit you.

In fact, this reactionary retreat into their box was a common thread throughout all four of Fulham’s goals. The second goal was preceded by a myriad of positional errors from City defenders.

To start off the attack, Fulham striker Raúl Jiménez dropped into the right half-space, drawing out City LCB Gvardiol. This opened up an avenue for attacking midfielder Emile Smith Rowe to run into. As seen, Nico González is poorly positioned in this instance, as marking Smith Rowe should have been his priority. In fact, I believe that the reason Pep substituted Nico González off around the hour mark was his lack of discipline in City’s off-ball structure, as he continuously jumped to press Fulham’s attacking line without the coordination of his teammates, leaving Smith Rowe unmarked between the lines.

As a result of Nico’s positioning and Rúben Dias’s understandable reluctance to follow Smith Rowe to City’s left flank, Gvardiol covered as a makeshift left back. In lieu of this, Nico González did an impressive job tracking back to cover for Gvardiol.

However, the positional problem persisted, this time with Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva. With their reactionary retreat, City outnumbered Fulham’s players six to two in the box, but there emerged a vast expanse of highlighted red space at the edge of it. This was where the cross eventually landed, and a brilliant finish from Alex Iwobi made the scoreline 5-2.

Fulham’s third goal came from a near-identical situation. Gvardiol was once again drawn out wide, and Stones, who had supplanted Nico and was playing CDM, had retreated to cover for him. In fact, Fulham’s Harry Wilson had cleverly made a run into an advanced area to ensure that Stones was dragged out of the defensive midfield region, freeing up space at the edge of the box.

Once again, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden failed to read the situation, retreating into the box and leaving Nigerian duo Alex Iwobi and Samuel Chukwueze free at the edge of it. This time, it was Chukwueze who converted with an impressive first-time volley into the bottom left corner. The fourth goal was a similar story, with Chukwueze converting from the edge of the box, where he was unmarked following a Fulham corner. At the end of the day, City were lucky to come away with a narrow one-goal win.

The Macro Level: What Went Wrong?

Beyond the four goals, City repeatedly fell prey to one particular Fulham tactic in the second half. On paper, Emile Smith Rowe was their attacking midfielder, but in reality, the Cottagers had virtually deployed three interior attacking players to cause chaos behind the striker: Smith Rowe, Chukwueze, and Iwobi (who inverted substantially from his position at LW while LB Sessegnon overlapped to occupy City RB Matheus Nunes).

Of these three, Smith Rowe would regularly drift out wide to occupy Gvardiol, and right winger Harry Wilson would run into the vacated space in the attacking line, dragging the City defensive midfielder (Nico or Stones) with him. This meant that two of Fulham’s attacking midfielders (Chukwueze and Iwobi) were free to occupy dangerous areas at the edge of the box.

The question arises of how City let Fulham back into the game in the first place. A 5-1 lead seems certain enough to see through with comfort and ease. The second half collapse was, however, down to Pep Guardiola’s in-game management. Five years ago, Guardiola’s side would have seen out a four goal lead by either keeping possession and frustrating the opposition or by continuing to attack and rack up goal difference. Against Fulham, however, the dichotomy was evident. City were content sitting back and letting their opponents have the ball, resulting in Fulham having 66% of possession in the second half.

In principle, this is worrying, especially for a manager who has historically made it a point to dominate the ball throughout the game. Perhaps sitting back was a warranted tactic against teams like Arsenal and Manchester United earlier in the season, when City were undergoing a considerable tactical transition and Pep had embraced adaptability. However, this was widely expected to be temporary and only used in certain situations. Tuesday at Craven Cottage was neither the time nor the place for such a strategy.

Moreover, the strategy was poorly executed, as City struggled with a palpable dearth of aggression off the ball. In any setup, a balance is needed between defenders who suffocate attackers and force them into action with tackles, and defenders who maintain a distance and prefer to intercept or react shrewdly. Of late, City’s starting lineup has been dominated by the latter.

For this issue, one solution that immediately comes to mind is Abdukodir Khusanov. Prior to his injury, the Uzbek right back was enjoying a period of stellar form for City. However, I believe that Pep needs to phase him back into the starting eleven now, especially given Matheus Nunes’s recent errors in possession and lapses of concentration. Khusanov provides the perfect balance to City’s backline with his aggressive, risk-taking defensive style. Further, him tucking in to form a back three in possession while the LB inverts into attacking midfield would provide them with a more solid defensive structure in case they lose the ball during buildup.

City’s defensive woes should be put into perspective. While Fulham scored 4 goals, they generated an xG of merely 0.91, which indicates a remarkable overperformance. However, this statistic should not be used to justify City’s defensive issues as pure bad luck. Fulham’s low xG tally indicates that the majority of their 12 shots were from low-scoring positions, and this was their exact strategy on the night: exploit City’s reactionary retreat with late runners at the edge of the box and thus shots from range. To fix this issue, City must improve their box defending and discipline off the ball in training sessions.

Offensively, City is formidable. Defensively, however, their fragility is evident. If they want to stay in the title race, Pep Guardiola must work on these defensive issues before they threaten to unravel City’s season.

Click here to check out Dhruv's Corner for more articles covering tactical, statistical, economic and political aspects of world football!