Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City may be known for their movement, patience and technical quality, but they’re also the Premier League’s most precise and calculated foulers. It’s an approach Norwich would do well to learn from.
There were plenty of predictable statistics to illustrate quite how dominant Manchester City were over Norwich on Saturday afternoon. Possession was high for the Citizens, as were shots on target and, most importantly, goals.
A pattern that wasn’t expected from a dominant thrashing, however, was how many more fouls the winners made than their submissive opposition. The home side produced 13 fouls to the Canaries’ 7, meaning that they made a foul every 2.4 minutes Norwich spent in possession. Farke’s side only fouled City’s players once for every 9 minutes they spent on the ball.
Not only did this expose the visitors’ subservience, their willingness to allow the man in possession as much space and time as he required, but it also highlighted a lack of the tactical cynicism common and essential in the Premier League.
While the time-wasting and persistent disruption of a team like Burnley may well serve to justify Farke’s methods, helping portray his City as ‘the good guys’, a team that most want to support, Guardiola’s men showed that they can play the world’s most attractive football and still incorporate persistent fouls that cut off counter-attacks and stem the flow of chances created by the opposition.
This is illustrated by a map of where the fouls were committed. Here are Manchester City’s 13, mapped out (attacking the right-hand goal).
And here is a map of Norwich’s 7 fouls (attacking the left-hand goal).
Manchester City’s fouls were largely committed high up the pitch, 77 percent of them coming in the Norwich half.
This has two functions: to stop counter-attacks at source, ensuring that any free-kicks conceded are in safe areas; and avoiding yellow cards because the attack isn’t yet dangerous enough to justify a booking. The spreading out of fouls between the team also serves this purpose (eight different players made fouls but none more than twice).
The Canaries may be open to an attack-haltering foul but are not well prepared enough to spot the danger and commit this foul before the counter develops. Grant Hanley’s yellow card in the 66th minute of this game, when he cynically chopped the opposition down, did stop the counter but resulted in a booking for the skipper given Manchester City were bearing down on goal with one more pass.
It’s the ruthless edge shown clinically by the Sky Blues and clearly missing in City’s game on Saturday that currently separates the Canaries and the rest of the Premier League.
Like it or not, Norwich adding fuel to the ‘too nice’ fire repeatedly stoked by their critics, and this is a problem that looked like it had gone away after a season of epitomising the cliché in 2019/20.
Although ideally the Canaries would head into next Saturday’s crucial clash with Leicester confident in their ability to play the same football with which they walked to the Championship title in April and May, what they need most is the football with which they ground out ugly wins at Rotherham and Huddersfield early last season.
The same mitigations applied to those results as the matches City have already played in 2021/22. It was a new season, a new team, without Emi Buendia for that trip to the John Smith’s Stadium. Pre-season had been less than ideal in that late summer of 2020 as it has been this year.
Admittedly, the quality of the opposition has improved since that run of hard-earned points but the desire present then appeared to be lacking at the Etihad on Saturday.
The Foxes will of course be the favourites when they head to Carrow Road for the Canaries’ third league game, as will Arsenal the week after that and even Watford the week after that, but if City can find their rough edge and recruit the required players in the short time left to do so they will stand a significant chance.
There is time for the beautiful football to flow, but first Norwich must rediscover their ruthless side, perhaps drawing inspiration from their unbelievably ruthless opponents.
I noticed in the game against Liverpool, that they were willing to stop any developing attack with a little foul, usually on the half-way line, or before we got to that far. We are far too nice, and I know it’s against the spirit of the game, but we do need to learn that particular “skill”. A case in point would be Rupp chasing half the length of the pitch against Derby, only to commit a foul just outside our box, with the resulting free kick giving Rooney the chance to score a late winner. 50 yards earlier, and the free kick would have been insignificant.
I’ve said it before, we need Trevor Hockey reincarnated!
Excellent article. Well researched and thought out. I did not realise City players foul a max 2 each. Interesting where they fouled and how often.
One hard man making tackles isn’t going to transform this team, not without McLean joining in, not without Aiden Flint flattening someone with a set piece header, not without Sarjent ‘leaving one’ on a defender. That aggression can’t just come from one player. John Fleck disrupted us single handedly for a fair few games and he could outrun Gilmour. In a promoted side, I think Fleck is an appropriate signing, whilst Gilmour is an outstanding signing you want…. On the bench to change a game.
This team is inferior to the team expecting promotion 4-5 months ago. With Skipp, with Buendia, flying to the title…. That is when I personally expected DF and SW to have their transfer targets nailed on, contact with agents made, pre contract agreements touted. But those 2 players put their foot into tackles NCFC have chosen, recruited, players that don’t do the same.
But as of where we are? You tell me?! Leitner and Tettey….. Gilmour and Lees-Melou. Spot the difference? We binned one combination 2 years ago because it was lightweight and after doing so, with Tettey and McLean, (after a brief period of solidity), we never scored, shot or won a game for months and months and months because neither of those 2 were good enough on the ball…. which is why I’m remiss to commit to a dedicated CDM.
I’m not forgetting that McLean and Pukki are not fully fit and that Andy O hasn’t been available for a back 3. But that doesn’t account for Pukki being 50 yards away from any player on the ball or that Cantwell and Rashica have been nowhere near Pukki, yet also nowhere near their fullbacks to give them support either. We have a defence without pace that are therefore paranoid about stepping up the pitch and compressing play with our own midfielders, instead leaving spaces between all 3 ranks. We have space inside our fullbacks because a 3 man midfield still can’t contain the angles, and we are susceptible to overloads on the flanks because Cantwell and Rashica are trying to be closer to Pukki and can’t recover their defensive positions in time. Without changing the template, This is going to repeat itself whether we are playing Man City or Brentford, Liverpool or Watford.
SW and DF have had 4-5 months to get their targets, now we’ve got 8 days. We are 50% as good as when we were promoted because we’ve lost continuity in HOW we play. We are starting from scratch in almost every regard without Buendia and Skipp . Starting from scratch should be a bonus because DF can name is preferred strategy. He can have 3 at the back, 3 in midfield, both, whatever he wants. I don’t know what he wants yet and that’s making life harder for SW.
As for a DEDICATED CDM…. I think that might encourage teams on to us if we plump for someone similar to Tettey, who lacked mobility. Therefore I think we need more from the position, compounded by who else we’ve already signed…. neither Gilmour or Lees-Melou are going to replace Buendia’s goals and assists so if you have a CDM, where will midfield goals come from? We also need a midfield combination that can extract the best from the wingers we’ve bought. It’s all well and good saying “We will protect Gilmour with other players so that he can pick passes for the attackers” but sorry, it’s still only 11 aside. We can’t have wingers, Sarjent and or Pukki, and Todd, and 3 centre backs, and wingbacks….. No, let’s keep this simple. DF needs to make the plan before SW can go out and unearth his gems.
We need to be bloody careful and not repeat the Lukas Rupp/Andre Duda scenario in the next 8 days, because players like Alex Mowatt or Aiden Flint, these guys know they were not wanted by us this summer. It’s going to be a hard sell and any player we look at now, other teams will have bypassed for a reason. I don’t know why transfers were not dealt with early and that is what alarms me more than 2 thumping defeats or any lack of tenacious tackling.
City need some very strong, athletic round pegs sitting very flush and tight in some very gaping round holes…. and please, just take a moment to remember how Paul Lambert went about surviving after a promotion. It wasn’t based on youth or potential, it was based around pragmatism and known commodities.
It is not so much a fouling plan as having a group of players who commit fouls as a result of their enthusiasm and hard graft to prevent the superstars getting into their stride.
Too many are brushed aside like feathers in the wind.
For me the buck stops with DF – pretty football alone will not see survival in this league.
The way James Milner cut down Pukki for a yellow card after about 25 mins against Liverpool. Halfway line, no pressure. No need to foul. Just to rough us up. Pukki didn’t go in for a tackle after that.
You can’t manufacture that kind of mentality. Players have it or they don’t and Hanley is about the only player in the entire team that will give someone the good news. McLean, Gibson, even those guys show too much respect.