ACHRAF

Firstly, Man City aimed to progress by offering Matheus Nunes the space needed to push the Man United block backward. To do so, Gvardiol joined Gündoğan in the pivot forcing Amad Diallo to follow and M. Nunes dropped deep in the left to receive and carry the ball forward.

In addition, Gündoğan occupying Fernandes in midfield supplied Nunes with time to carry the ball as Fernandes needed time to travel. That time was what Nunes had in hand to progress and feed Doku on the left in 1v1 against Mazraoui Or recycle again in the Man Utd Half.

Man Utd insisted on revealing Man City's defensive lapses in transition. In this example, Man City lost the ball and looked to rearrange their lines preparing to press. So, Man City players jumped onto all the possible options near De Light & around him...

Man Utd exploited the transitional moment that took Man City to rearrange between two states: In possession and off-ball. As a result, Man City lost compactness while transitioning between the 2 modes and left passing lanes available for De Light to pick out options (Mount BTL).

Credit to De Light for his thoughts of playing a line-breaking passe taking 6 players out of the equation. That helped Mount find Dalot who had been preparing for the counter by operating in a higher position that put him after in a 1v1 vs Walker. Dalot crosses lacked accuracy.

Man Utd Press prevented Man City from progressing through and forced them into playing long balls to Nunes or De Bruyne who came deep down the wide channels. By doing that, Mazraoui, Dalot (or Lisandro Martinez) jumped over closing the angles toward the inside of the pitch.

In deep buildup, Man City's front players stayed close to Ugarte & Maguire when he stepped up. So, the bounce pass to switch to the free CB or WB wasn't an option in the beginning. However, Amorin used one of the WBs to switch the play to the free options on the opp side.

Also, Man City shape OOP allowed Man Utd to generate the free man on the opposite side of the play as Doku had to mark Maguire, and De Light so Mazraoui was the free option on the right. By the time Man City shifted across, Diallo already combined with Mazraoui & took Nunes on.

Man Utd kept generating the spare through numerical superiority in wide channels by making one of the DPs shift across, overload one side of the pitch & isolate the WB on the other side to be in 1v1 against the FB, or combine with the attacking midfielder next to him.

Man Utd combinations (well-drilled) on one of the pitch sides were eased also by Man City's laziness in the press. Here, Mainoo drags Doku to the right wide channel allowing Ugarte to shift across and provide Mazaroui as a passing option (Also De Bruyne doesn't stick with Ugarte)

Mazraoui to Ugarte then to Mainoo behind Doku's back to set Diallo behind the backline but he was offside. KDB letting Ugarte move toward the ball side and Mainoo behind Doku who has no awareness of the position of his man makes Utd's combination look smooth for progression.

Man Utd sitting in a 5-3-2/5-2-3 mid-block means the numerical superiority is on Man City's side. And when Gündoğan advanced BTL, the central combination possibility was unlocked. Here, Foden's movement catches Ugarte's attention a bit, so he distances himself from Gündoğan.

So, Walker feeds Gündoğan to access De Bryune who drops short without being tracked. A domino effect occurs: Ugarte shifts toward Gündoğan->L. Martinez jumps onto De Bryune->Foden travels behind Martinez->Maguire has to cover behind as a result Haaland is free to assist Foden.

Man City press was unable to stop Man Utd's wide combinations. Here, Haaland keeps an eye on Maguire in case De Light feeds him. Therefore, Man Utd setup generates a 3v2 on the right flank with Gündoğan covering nothing behind. De Light has Mainoo as a spare man to pick out.

Another wide combination with numerical superiority (4v3) down the right put Diallo in a situation where he could move inside and switch the play to L. Martinez. Man Utd progressed by finding the spare man, switching the play & combining (Dalot, Fernandes then to Diallo (header))

When Man Utd was in a numerical match Hojlund's (spare man between the lines) deeper movements were a key component in progression as he came short (below) to receive and release A. Diallo in 1v1 (vs Nunes) which led him to play the ball toward the back post for D. Dalot.

Before the game, it looked like Man City would have the numerical adv due to Man Utd's setup OOP unless one of the back 3 stuck to Man City players BTL to prevent him from being a target. When De Bruyne went out, Gündoğan took his place up front while Kovačić was in the pivot.

Here, Martinez is late in the following. So, Ederson finds Gündoğan as the free man. Then, Haaland comes to the middle of the park to link between Foden & Gündoğan who runs behind. Gündoğan dropping deep created +1 in mid and a free man behind who could exploit the space behind.

Playing over and behind Man City block was the cherry on the cake and a reward for A. Diallo's superb performance. L. Martinez spotted Diallo's in-depth run with J. Zirkzee pinning Ruben Dias enabling Diallo to find space in the center to crash and put the game to bed.

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