Check out the defensive problem that Pep Guardiola is asked to fix that could cause Man City further set-backs
Pep Guardiola has identified the issue he must fix following the 1-1 Premier League draw with Aston Villa
To anyone who hadn’t watched the game, Pep Guardiola might have appeared surprisingly upbeat following Manchester City’s 1-1 draw with strugglers Aston Villa.
City went into Saturday’s contest at Villa Park off the back of consecutive Premier League wins, in each of which summer signing Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick. The 22-year-old scored again on Saturday, but City spurned their chances and ultimately paid the price.
As is often the case, Pep was keen to highlight the positives of his side’s performance, but he also identified a defensive issue that he must address this season. The city has enjoyed a better start to the season than they did in each of the last two seasons, but defensively they have failed to convince in their opening six Premier League matches.
While the Blues have kept three clean sheets so far, defensive mistakes and miscalculations have contributed to them conceding three goals against Newcastle, two against Crystal Palace, and one against Aston Villa.
Following a 6-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest in midweek, City had a frustrating afternoon at Villa Park on Saturday. For much of the game, they were solid defensively and dangerous offensively, but a poor decision by John Stones, who was otherwise excellent, allowed Villa to score after City had missed a number of chances to seal the game.
In recent years City’s Achilles’ heel has been defending against counter-attacks, but since a disappointing 2019/20 campaign Guardiola has taken actions to minimize that particular weakness. Sometimes – as Newcastle showed – City can be got at on the counter, but only really when the opponent has incredibly fast attackers. Villa didn’t really attack City in that way but rather used another approach that Guardiola admitted his side struggled to deal with.
“[Villa] defended well, they are well organized and physical,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “The way they defended, we created enough chances to score goals, we defended well apart from one action. We didn’t play badly. We didn’t concede a shot on target in 90 minutes but for the goal, we struggled with long balls up to [Ollie] Watkins like we did last season.”
Given that Ruben Dias and Stones were in the starting XI – two center-backs who are no slouches when it comes to contesting aerial duels – City’s struggles are perhaps a little worrying. In fairness, they were without Nathan Ake, who despite his relatively short stature of 5′ 10″ is arguably City’s best header of a ball.
City struggled to cope with Watkins’ physicality and the long balls up to him on the final day of last season too and found themselves two goals down with 30 minutes remaining. Ultimately City scored three in five minutes to win the title in dramatic fashion, but the match – as Guardiola is right to say – highlighted City’s struggles against long balls.
It could be a tactic that other teams attempt to replicate when facing City, but Guardiola and his team will no doubt be hard at work to find a solution. If not, then City’s defense could remain unconvincing.
