Haaland Slots In At Manchester City As Guardiola Reverts To Inverted Fullbacks

David Moyes said his West Ham United side weren’t prepared for the way Manchester City set up tactically against them on the opening weekend of the 2022/23 Premier League. In some ways it was a new look Man City, but despite Moyes’s surprise, many aspects of Pep Guardiola’s team remain the same, or at least similar to things they’ve done before.

The unexpected twist, according to Moyes, was Guardiola returning to a formation in which his full-backs drift into midfield rather than overlapping down the wings.

The two more advanced midfielders, in this case Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan, can then join the forward line with the wingers staying wide, creating a shape that looks like 2-3-5 in attack. It’s a system Guardiola has used in the past, but it was especially evident on Sunday.

An even more noticeable change for City in this 2-0 win was the powerful Norwegian striker leading the line, making his first appearance in the English leagues.

Erling Haaland was the club’s big summer signing, arriving from Borussia Dortmund for $63 million, and the only new player in their starting XI for the trip to the London Stadium.

There were questions about how a more traditional centre-forward would fit Guardiola’s setup, but Haaland answered them all pretty quickly.

The Catalan manager has previously favoured less orthodox central players in the middle of his front line, but his new signing is the archetypal centre-forward for the modern age.

Haaland is strong and quick with formidable finishing ability courtesy of a powerful, accurate shot. His height and athleticism mean any extra physicality that exists in the Premier League compared to the Bundesliga will not be a problem for the brawny 22-year-old.

Questions were raised about whether he could contribute enough during build-up play to settle immediately in a Guardiola possession-based team, but if the West Ham game was anything to go by, this will be another of his strengths rather than a possible teething problem.

Bar De Bruyne, every City player who started against West Ham completed more than 90% of their passes. This suggests De Bruyne is tasked with playing the more risky, lower percentage passes that create breakthroughs in attacking areas. His assist for Haaland’s second goal was one of the easier, but no less impressive examples of this in action.

It also suggests Haaland was neat and tidy with his link-up play. His pass success of 91% is impressive for a forward player—players who are often operating in the heavy traffic provided by an opposition defence.

As expected, Haaland was lethal in and around the box, winning a penalty after charging beyond the West Ham defensive line onto a pass from Gundogan, before converting the spot-kick himself with aplomb.

His run for the second goal was similarly swift and well-timed, and the finish on the end of it felt inevitable.

Haaland’s work in deeper areas is shown by his touch map below. Eight of his 23 passes were made in his own half.

Haaland’s presence was one of the reasons put forward for the return to inside full-backs, but in truth it’s something Guardiola has used regularly in the past, and was more likely a used primarily to stifle West Ham’s threat on the counter-attack.

And it worked. This was the first time in five Premier League games City have kept a clean sheet against the side from East London.

Moyes was caught off guard. “It was really different, they played really well,” he said of City’s setup.

“They changed from last year when we played them a few months ago, we gave them a better game.

“Tactically they changed. [Kyle] Walker and [Joao] Cancelo either side of Rodri, they played with no full-backs. We found it hard to cope with them in the middle of the pitch and found it difficult to cope when they got it wide.

“Today, tactically they were much better. We hadn’t prepared for that because we hadn’t really seen it but was really difficult tactically to deal with it.”

With once familiar faces Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Raheem Sterling sold in the summer, combined with the arrival of Haaland and his deputy, Julian Alvarez, City will have a different look about them this season.

Jack Grealish is likely to get more game time and Phil Foden could play more from midfield or from the right as was the case against West Ham.

But beneath the surface, City are pretty much doing what they’ve always done.

Guardiola will hone existing ideas somewhat to suit his new personnel but, in the main, the personnel will fit the system and were signed because they are able to do so. If the opening game is anything to go by, they will do so to great effect.