Manchester City crave control but there was none of that in the second half against Brentford

Manchester City and Pep Guardiola do not want chaos. In fact, they actively avoid it. Their style is to inflict death by a thousand passes, defending through retaining possession, moving the ball to move their opponents until, eventually, a gap opens. Then comes the through ball, the cutback and the tap-in.

Except, in the second half at Brentford last night, there was none of that.

Were it not for their sky-blue shirts, it would have been difficult to identify this visiting team as Guardiola’s City. The 2-2 draw threw up plenty of their repeat problems from the past three months: a vulnerable high line, weaknesses defending crosses and issues conceding goals in flurries.

Thomas Frank and his Brentford squad have a well-refined game plan against City. An initial 3-5-2 becomes a compact, counter-attacking 5-3-2 when they are in their own half, and they shift into a man-for-man pressing scheme. Often they have scored first, and early, in matches with City, which has facilitated them subsequently sitting back.

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That did not happen this time at the Gtech on Tuesday.

The game was goalless after an hour and 2-2 at full-time. Brentford snatched a point with two goals in the final 10 minutes following a 12-minute Phil Foden brace that looked to have sealed three points for City.

Brentford’s shape was different (a 4-3-3) but their principles remained. They were aggressive in their man-marking upfield, mixed their build-up (some short passes to go with plenty of long ones) and defended excellently in trios. Their full-backs stepped out wide onto City’s wingers, with the central midfielders and wingers responsible for tracking runs inside, providing central cover and preventing overloads.

City did very little with a lot of first-half possession: 301 passes produced only eight shots and a single big chance.

They tried to build up through midfield, passing into one of two No 6s and then bouncing wide to right centre-back Manuel Akanji, who could pass or dribble forward. At times, both of those No 6s, Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, were deep in the build-up and City resembled a 4-2-4 with a disconnected quartet up top.

In the final third, the champions were laboured and never generated anything close to a cutback. Savinho and Matheus Nunes did offer proper width and crossing options, as left- and right-footers playing on their natural sides. Aside from Erling Haaland, though, City lacked height and aerial threats.

Six of their 10 starting outfield players were left-footers, which made them a little imbalanced, particularly with Foden and Bernardo in the right half-space, from where both wanted to come inside. City’s underwhelming first-half display was summed up on the stroke of half-time when Kevin De Bruyne, who had drifted out to the left, skied an attempted inswinging cross so high it hit the stand roof.

City found success with a switch to a direct approach in September’s reverse fixture, which they won 2-1, and a similar half-time tweak last night improved their attack.

Goalkeeper Stefan Ortega started going long to Haaland, who became a target man, with City’s midfielders running beyond him. Bernardo and Kovacic began making crossover runs in build-up, to manipulate Brentford’s man-marking.

Seven of the eight passes Ortega made to Haaland came after half-time, and there have been only two matches across all competitions since the latter joined City in summer 2022 where their goalkeeper has played long to the Norwegian striker more.

Brentford’s pressing game isolated their centre-back Sepp van den Berg against Haaland. He refused to defend touch-tight, clearly mindful of being spun and wary of balls being played in behind. This allowed Haaland to play off multiple touches and gave De Bruyne and Foden time to make runs.

City needed a few attempts to perfect it. From the first attempt, Haaland won the flick-on against Van den Berg and Foden raced through, only to panic with two defenders recovering and pass left to Savinho. The winger tried to find Foden with a hung-up cross but it got headed clear.

“Long balls we won and we could run, and in that moment we didn’t take the right decisions,” Guardiola said later. “Matheus in the first half, Savinho once or twice, Erling once or twice. Phil, with a bit more composure, would attack more the goalkeeper.”

Then, from Ortega’s fourth long pass of the second half, everything clicked and the entire front four were involved. Haaland held the ball up and set it for Savinho, with City’s wingers coming narrow from wide starting positions.

After a short dribble inside, Savinho hit an outside-of-the-foot pass to De Bruyne on the wing. The Belgium international took it on his back foot and sent in an early cross for Foden, who attacked between two Brentford defenders to glance home a far-post finish.

City’s second came from a long ball too, though this was much more of a clearance from Nunes after a throw-in downfield. Brentford’s right-back Mads Roerslev mistimed the bounce and Savinho won the ball. He dribbled straight towards goal and fired off an angled shot which ‘keeper Mark Flekken could only parry, allowing Foden to roll in the loose ball.

The game was transitional, with both teams finishing attacks poorly and referee Anthony Taylor notably lenient — he only gave eight fouls in the entire match, and none by Brentford in the first half. Savinho’s direct dribbling, particularly on counter-attacks, was an effective if rather un-Guardiola way of creating chances.

The problem was City continued to play long and in transition after both their goals.

There was a moment at 1-0 where, after receiving Ortega’s long pass and turning, Haaland tried to thread Foden through, and the move broke down. Within two passes, Brentford had a tap-in opportunity at the other end. A through ball went inside City left-back Josko Gvardiol and Bryan Mbeumo raced onto it, dribbling around Ortega as he tried to sweep up. It took a goal line block from Nathan Ake to prevent Yoane Wissa equalising from Mbeumo’s pass.

“Of course, at 0-2 we have to close it, but to close it we don’t have specific players to defend a result in the box for a long amount of time,” said Guardiola. “We have to do it with the ball and have the ball and create and control there in the final third.”

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City finished with nine direct attacks (seven of them in the second half), their most in a Premier League game since the 2018-19 season. Opta defines these as possessions starting in a team’s own half, with at least 50 per cent forward movement and ending with a shot/touch in the opposition box. From the moment they went 1-0 up, there were only three City moves featuring 10 or more passes.

Frank has beaten Guardiola twice before (home and away in City’s 2022-23 treble-winning season), and he hinted post-match last night that this draw might have completed his hat-trick if Brentford had scored first.

It was a sign of genuine praise — not the empty version of it Guardiola offers to ambitious, attacking coaches whose teams his beat comfortably — that City ended up playing a game so stylistically different to their norm.

(Top photo: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)