By half-time, it was looking like Manchester City were going to finally end their losing streak.
A positive display from Pep Guardiola’s side in the first half on Saturday, playing through Brighton & Hove Albion and limiting the hosts’ chances, gave the impression the City manager was far away from a fourth straight defeat.
However, a one-goal lead through Erling Haaland wasn’t enough when City’s intensity dropped in the second half.
Initially, their pressing and effective offside trap limited Brighton. Fabian Hurzeler’s 4-2-2-2 in possession focused on finding Danny Welbeck and Georginio Rutter between the lines or runners behind the defence, but City’s pressing and compactness of their shape nullified that.
However, Hurzeler tweaked Brighton’s formation at half-time by bringing Carlos Baleba off the bench and moving Jack Hinshelwood (before Matt O’Riley replaced him on 57 minutes) higher up the pitch to attack in a 4-3-3 when they had the ball.
Brighton’s altered shape allowed them an extra player between the lines, which City struggled to deal with, especially given their lack of aggression. Hurzeler’s side could comfortably find runners behind the champions’ defence with the additional player in midfield providing support.
In this example, the time Baleba has on the ball allows him to easily find Kaoru Mitoma’s run in-behind. Meanwhile, the advanced positions of O’Riley and Rutter…
… mean Brighton have more players to attack the cross. After Mitoma finds Pervis Estupinan’s overlapping run, the left-back sends a ball into the City penalty area and Rutter attacks it…
…but his header is off-target.
In our next example, the high positioning of both O’Riley and Joao Pedro puts Kyle Walker in a one-versus-two situation against the latter and Mitoma.
City’s lack of pressure against the ball means Jan Paul van Hecke can directly exploit that advantage. He finds Joao Pedro’s run behind the defence…
…but the Brazil forward fails to trouble Ederson with his shot.
City playing a high defensive line without an effective press to limit Brighton’s passing options was a recipe for disaster, and eventually led to the equaliser.
Here, Haaland isn’t in a position to harry Van Hecke, so the centre-back can pick his pass as Brighton overload City’s back four.
The presence of O’Riley and Joao Pedro up the pitch makes it a five-versus-four in the last line, and the latter’s run drags Walker inside as Van Hecke plays the ball to Mitoma out wide.
Mitoma then tries to find Joao Pedro’s run into the penalty area. The initial cross is cleared but the left-winger collects the loose ball, before finding Welbeck near the penalty spot. As City try to clear the ball again, Joao Pedro wins it back and scores.
Brighton’s change in shape and City’s confused out-of-possession approach also created different spaces, which Hurzeler’s side attacked effectively. The lack of pressing, coupled with City’s two holding midfielders trying to block the passing lanes into Brighton’s central midfielders, allowed Van Hecke to play line-splitting passes.
In this example, Haaland is late to press Van Hecke and, with Bernardo Silva focusing on blocking the passing lane to O’Riley, there’s a direct pass from the centre-back to Welbeck, who resets the ball to an unmarked Baleba.
On the other side of the pitch, Joao Pedro and Mitoma are overloading Walker again…
… and with the ball at Baleba’s feet, Brighton can exploit that advantage.
Joao Pedro’s movement forces Walker to defend the space between him and his centre-back, which allows Baleba to switch the play towards Mitoma down the left wing.
In this example from earlier in the game, Ilkay Gundogan is neither pressing Van Hecke nor blocking the passing lane to Rutter, which makes it a simple ball for the Brighton centre-back.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Hinshelwood is making a run behind the defence that attracts Walker and frees Mitoma.
As a result, Rutter can find his left-winger between the lines, with Esutpinan providing an additional threat down that side.
Hinshelwood’s earlier movement forces Walker to drop deeper and move infield, which distances him from Estupinan when Mitoma plays the ball out to his left-back.
Estupinan has time to aim a cross towards the far post, where Hinshelwood attacks the arriving ball, but Ederson denies him.
Brighton kept combining through the same spaces, and the movement of Joao Pedro and O’Riley proved to be too much for City’s unorganised shape.
Here, Kevin De Bruyne is trying to block the passing lane to Joao Pedro while Mateo Kovacic is moving towards the same player. A defensive mistake opens a route to Welbeck, who squares the ball to Joao Pedro behind City’s midfield.
Again, Brighton are trying to overload City’s full-back as they combine through the centre. This time, it’s Brajan Gruda and O’Riley overloading Rico Lewis…
…and Joao Pedro finds the run of O’Riley, who scores the winner.
“In possession, we were more patient (in the second half),” said Hurzeler after the win. “In the first half, we played too many vertical balls (and) we had too many easy giveaways. When you are more patient, the gaps were opening more. Then we had the right timings to create these passes where we get in the spaces.”
City’s peculiar performance without the ball helped Brighton attack those spaces, but the passing combinations and switches of play wouldn’t have been possible without Hurzeler’s tweak and his players’ execution of the plan.
(Photo: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
