Villarreal were Erling Haaland’s latest victims, a ninth consecutive Manchester City game clocked up with the Norwegian scoring. This time it was the first on the way to a largely comfortable 2-0 win in Spain that suggests that a team is emerging once again, with Bernardo Silva scoring the second in a first half of notable superiority before a second in which there were moments to suffer but not too many of them. When Haaland was withdrawn with five minutes to go, there were whistles and relief; he, and they, could do no more damage. He had already done enough, right from the start of what was a long night for the home side.
City were not hanging about, Haaland, Savinho and Jérémy Doku combining to force Luíz Júnior into making his first save after just 26 seconds and the Norwegian heading just wide a little over two minutes later. It was not easy to define the formation Pep Guardiola applied; at times it looked something like 3-2‑4-1, with John Stones stepping in to defence when Villarreal had the ball and out of it when City did. Which is to say that most of the time he was out of it, the shape shifting with him and with others as well. City had 69% of possession in the first half, and the surprise was that it was as low as that: the naked eye suggested even greater dominance.
Continue reading…Villarreal were Erling Haaland’s latest victims, a ninth consecutive Manchester City game clocked up with the Norwegian scoring. This time it was the first on the way to a largely comfortable 2-0 win in Spain that suggests that a team is emerging once again, with Bernardo Silva scoring the second in a first half of notable superiority before a second in which there were moments to suffer but not too many of them. When Haaland was withdrawn with five minutes to go, there were whistles and relief; he, and they, could do no more damage. He had already done enough, right from the start of what was a long night for the home side.City were not hanging about, Haaland, Savinho and Jérémy Doku combining to force Luíz Júnior into making his first save after just 26 seconds and the Norwegian heading just wide a little over two minutes later. It was not easy to define the formation Pep Guardiola applied; at times it looked something like 3-2‑4-1, with John Stones stepping in to defence when Villarreal had the ball and out of it when City did. Which is to say that most of the time he was out of it, the shape shifting with him and with others as well. City had 69% of possession in the first half, and the surprise was that it was as low as that: the naked eye suggested even greater dominance. Continue reading…