Fulham 1-4 Manchester City: Mancini gets the better of Hughes as City run riot
The starting line-ups
City’s superb first half display effectively won the game before half-time.
Mark Hughes chose a 4-4-1-1 / 4-4-2 formation, with Clint Dempsey just behind Andy Johnson. Carlos Salcido returned so Damien Duff moved back into midfield, whilst Chris Baird replaced Stephen Kelly at right-back.
Roberto Mancini moved David Silva to the right, with Jo in for Adam Johnson. Pablo Zabaleta replaced Jerome Boateng, as City continued with their 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 system.
City more positive
City did seem more attack-minded in than in the recent 0-0 draws against Manchester United and Birmingham. The shape was the same as in recent weeks, but it had more of a positive slant to it.
Their first half dominance was all about passing around Fulham. 257 passes to Fulham’s 141 tells the story, and the extra man in midfield was a key feature. Add Tevez and Silva moving into the midfield, and City simply found it much easier to keep the ball – they were compact, passing options were always on, whereas Fulham found it difficult to get the ball from midfield to attack swiftly.
Early goal
The early goal was key to City’s comfortable performance. It was one simple ball from Barry that found Tevez, Carlos Salcido made a mistake, and Tevez finished well. It was the first goal City had scored in the opening ten minutes of a game this season, and was crucial in the pattern of play, because it meant Fulham had to make the running, and City could sit back.
That is where they are best, and they counter-attack very well. Aleksandr Kolarov should have scored the second in a similar move to Tevez’s goal against Chelsea – a break straight down the centre of the pitch, whilst the second and third goals arrived through Zabaleta and Yaya Toure’s good finishes.
Jo crucial
The use of Jo on the left, rather than the more obvious option of Johnson or James Milner, worked well for two reasons. First, because he provided an aerial threat for City. Not in the sense that he got into the penalty box and tried to get on the end of crosses, but because it meant Joe Hart had an option when he had the ball at his feet, and Fulham pressed City’s defenders so he was unable to play the ball to him. The Chalkboard below shows that well – in comparison with last week’s game against Birmingham, where none of Hart’s long balls were successful.
It also meant that when Tevez dropped deep, as he always does, Jo was comfortable at becoming the highest player up the pitch, something City lack when Tevez drifts around and Milner, Johnson or Silva are forced to play that role. In turn, to provide left-sided width, Gareth Barry shuttled out towards that flank, something he did well at the start of the season – but in recent weeks, he seemed to have become more reserved. City were much more fluid.
Fulham poor out of possession
Fulham were not good at pressing when they had the ball. The Hodgson reign has left them with a tendency to sit deep with two banks of four and try and soak up pressure. That’s fine at 0-0, but once you go a goal down (especially as the home side) there’s an onus to try and win the ball back more quickly. City were more than content to simply knock the ball around in midfield and kill the game off, which eventually forced Dickson Etuhu and Danny Murphy higher up the pitch to try and win the ball, but it wasn’t particularly successful.
As we saw in Australia’s heavy defeat to Germany at the World Cup, it’s hard to press a 4-2-3-1 with a 4-4-2, especially if the opposition defence and midfield are comfortable in possession – they’ll simply pass around you. Like in that World Cup game, the midfield got caught too high up the pitch, there was space between the lines for City to work in, and the attacking midfielder, Yaya Toure, was always free. The third goal came when Tevez drifted into the hole and had so much time, then waited, waited, waited for Toure to run forward unmarked, then slipped him in and Toure smashed the ball home.
Second half
City had won the game by half-time. Fulham tried to be more attacking, bringing on Zoltan Gera and then switching to a system of three forwards with the introduction of Diomansy Kamara for Etuhu, but City were always in control.
Conclusion
Maybe Mancini will learn from this – he kept broadly the same system, but City were more attack-minded and more fluid, a striker was fielded in one of the wide positions which helped City move up the pitch, Barry drifted to the flank rather than remaining in the centre, whilst Toure played a very direct role. They ended up scoring four goals, which wasn’t an unfair reflection of their dominance.
Fulham were extremely poor. Hughes played a system that didn’t lend itself to the occasion – they were passed around far too easily. This was the oldest starting XI the Premier League has seen so far this season, and Fulham didn’t look like they had the legs to disrupt City’s game.
Fulham 1-4 Manchester City: Mancini gets the better of Hughes as City run riot
great article thx
Mancini doesn’t need to learn – he bought Balotelli to play in precisely that position. His injury and suspension has meant that we have had to make do with AJ and Adebayor – fine players that they are, they can’t really play that role so it means moving Tevez out wide to do so and you lose a lot.
Seems like Jo did a fine job – any idea why he was not in the frame before?
Interestingly he had an excellent pre season. I think he scored around 5 goals. It looked like Mancini had managed to get something out of him. But then when it came to the real stuff he was ridiculously poor when given a chance in the Europa League, and hasn’t had a look in ever since.. at least until yesterday.
The key aspect about his selection is that it means Tevez and Silva are spared of the donkey work. The same applies when Balo is in, but Balo also has incredible talent in his locker…adding another dimension to what we saw yesterday.
He is absolutely crucial to Mancini’s much derided 433. A system which up until now has kept us in the top 4. Has seen us unbeaten in all of our Big 6 encounters this year (save the 90 minutes with 10 men vs Arsenal). A system that has provided 4 away wins already, with under a goal a game conceded. Together with his zonal marketing (zero corners conceded during his tenure), and the ability to close out a game (we have only surrendered points after taking the lead in one game under Mancini), the final pieces of the puzzle were always Balo and attack minded fullbacks to stretch the opposition and make us less reliant on NDJ/Barry/Yaya for creativity. In short, a real attacking edge. Now he has these pieces available to him, it will be interesting to see how we fare going into this crucial period of the season. Wouldn’t surprise me to see us right in the mix come February.
Im sure other managers will be looking into this ‘Zonal Marketing’ tactic if it means not conceding from corners…. It may help with the shirt sales also.
Haha. iPhone autocorrect ftl
Great read again. Superb analysis of Jo’s role. Keep up the excellent work as it’s essential reading and a true inspiration.
Can’t wait to see Balotelli-Tevez-Silva next week. This should finally give City the fluid 3 frontmen they seem to be heading towards. I can see Balotelli causing a lot of problems on the left, drifting in as Tevez drops deep.
Fulham seem to have inherited from Hughes City’s awful shape without the ball from last season. From Salcido alone with Tevez for the first goal, to the horrible gap that Tevez raced through for the one-on-one with Schwarzer directly before the fourth goal, to the all-at-sea positioning for the counterattack that led to Kolarov’s shot, Fulham never seemed to be close together enough at the back to repel City.
With the 2nd best goals against record currently, Mancini has turned City around from the side that could draw 3-3 at home to Burnley under Hughes last season. With Silva-Tevez-Balotelli, he has the cattle to do a lot more in front of goal than last season. Should be an interesting couple of months.
…and 3 points behind leaders. with chelsea and MU current form, surprising things might happen
Very good performance from City. Some of the one touch, two touch passing, quick movement and link up play really was very pleasing on the eye.
I have been very critical of the De Jong/Barry/YaYa trio, but yesterday it worked very well, albeit up against a very poor Fulham side who look a shadow of what they were under Roy. I have watched alot of City this season, and one thing that I have to say, De Jong is quite a decent ball player. He’s got the reputation of a no nonsence, destroying hard man, but yesterday he was getting involved with the passing football, always providing an option, and getting involved with some of the very nice football City were producing. Even Barry was getting involved, although I don’t really see the role he plays for the City team. De Jong sits and holds, and can play a bit as well, Barry sits and holds, can’t really play and lacks many attributes to play DM, and he’s by no means a Huddlestone/Carrick like deep lying playmaker…
A front three of Balotelli/Tevez/Silva is going to cause problems, and we certainly can’t write City out of a title challenge.
If Dani Alves arrives on the blue side of Manchester, look out. This is the first time they have gone into a higher gear and just crushed a team, but they’ve been defensively strong all year. I’ll skip Balotelli for Jo, because everybody else has already mentioned it. With Fulham’s system, the central midfield just needs to hold on, and enough quick balls need to be hit to the wide midfielder in space for him to make an impact. Its a lot like Juve’s system, but Juve play higher and Krasic is twice the player of Duff, and the Melo/Aquilani pairing can hold a lot better than Fulham’s duo.
If you go back and look at the passing charts for the goalies of Fulham’s opponents, they almost all favor attacking Fulham’s right side. This can’t be a coincidence.