after pep guardiola's 12 Manchester Derby Victory we thought we would look at how his tactical Evolutions at Manchester City have seen his team win five of the past seven Premier League titles first is arguably the best Premier League team of all time the centurions pep managed to form his perfect 433 and this was the first season where we began to see the 325 attacking shape the countless teams duplicate across Europe here the left-sided fullback drifts INF field to play as the second deepest midfielder with the right back tuen into more of a right center half
position and for Manchester City that campaign it was David Sila and Kevin De BR that were pushed on into the half spaces to f a wide fromont five a massive injury blow to Summer sign in Mendy called upon Fabian Del traditionally a midfielder to slot in at left back and in hindsight it made a lot of sense Del was an old school English midfielder who could go box to boox was good on the ball and was capable of winning a lot of jewels therefore pep give him this role as an inverted fullback and it would
lead to D having one of the best seasons in his entire career he averaged the most completed passes and the second most tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes for Manchester City in their first title winning season under Pep Guardiola not to mention that Manchester City won 18 out of the 21 games Fabi and Del started in the Premier League he would later elaborate on just how good of a coach Pep Guardiola was and how he dramatically changed his entire view on football and making him understand the principles of positional play this was also the first
season we started to see the two fre8 ahead of one defense midfielder for guardiola's idea of positional play having five bodies across the front line is crucial as he wants to split the pitch into five vertical Lanes his logic is that if an opposition team is defended with a back four his team will always have a oneman Advantage therefore are able to create gaps between each Defender for the eights and Wingers to attack through pepper now found a way to get both Silva and de Brina into his team bringing both fullbacks inside to give Manchester
City a 3-2 shape meaning that the two Advanced midfielders weren't leaving a huge amount out of space when they wanted to get forward at this time this hyper possession style was almost revolutionary to the Premier League Manchester City finished this season averaging 71.9% of the ball in the league the most of any League winner before this current season since up to began recording the data wola had now laid the foundations for his positional play style but halfway into the 2020 21 season they struggled to field a genuine Center forward so turn to the use of
the false nine a player who would occupy a starting position between the Wingers but would often drift away from their Zone pulling markers out of the defensive line becoming more of a passing option creating disorganization between the lines and opening up space in behind the opposition's back line for their teammates to arrive into this season would also spack a new use of the inverted fullback that was given to Xiao canilla instead of him inverting just in buildup to help City play out from the back he became a genuine Creator and facilitator in the final third
in the Premier League he would record the second most carries into the box passes into the box short passes and ball recoveries alongside the third most key passes overall passes carries into the final third and Progressive passes but it would be ilai gundan who got the plaudits the German had this brilliant understanding for making late runs into the penalty area and it was his partnership that he formed with the false nine that proved vital in this season he would score the most goals for Manchester City in the Premier League with no player in the entire
Squad scoring more game winners than the German with four of his 13 getting the blues all three points on the ball City would quite often set up with both fullbacks narrowing and setting either side of Roger with the same look of the front five the two more advanced midfielders pushed on into the final third however unlike past Seasons seeing a six and 2 eights this season was much more of a 68 and 10 with gundan becoming more of a forward running beyond the number nine and regularly scoring goals whilst this season was a brilliant success
for the Sky Blues it would be the least number of wins possession goals points and shots they would record in any single Premier League winning season underu Guardiola this brings us to the current day and probably the most drastic tactical shift we've seen from Pep Guardiola when inverting the fullbacks into Midfield you need a certain caliber of player to be able to deal with them situations when you'll be impressed with your back to goal and for the most part this wasn't a problem for canel or Alexander zenchenko but they weren't defensively strong and this has
made Pep Guardiola use traditional Center halfes at fullback giving his team's more defensive stability which could also cause a problem of losing Elite level technicians needing to Inver Pep Guardiola had a secret weapon in the name of Jon Stones the England Defender is one of the most technical center backs in Europe and he has the perfect blend of everything a player needs to invert into Midfield with Nathan Aki Manuel aangi and Kyle Walker all being better wide Defenders than Jon Stones so they can naturally play in these fullback positions whilst being comfortable on and off
the ball because of this Pep Guardiola has now begun to use John stones in a way that allows him to Step Beyond his defensive Partners meaning the wide center backs can come narrow alongside Ruben Diaz and all of a sudden you have the exact same structure in possession as previous Seasons with the key this time being that all the profiles are perfectly comfortable within their roles meaning that Manchester City can sustain an ultimate amount of pressure but the use of Jon Stones has gone Way Beyond just using him as a deeper midfielder in possession against
deep blocks he is often becoming the third man in attack breaking lines with not only his passes but he runs into the final third and when this is partnered with Manchester City's ability to squeeze high up the pitch you get a nearly unsto able Force so do you think Pep Guardiola is the best coach the premier league has ever seen or do you believe that he has simply reaping the rewards of having one of the most expensive squads in [Music] Europe
