Match Focus: Pellegrini Gets Tactics Wrong as Barcelona Triumph in Manchester

It was a scene that defied both Manuel Pellegrini’s words, and the final score.

After Manchester City had somehow escaped with just getting beaten 2-1 by an evidently superior Barcelona, who exploited so many conspicuously excessive gaps in the home side’s midfield, the Chilean was asked whether he regretted his odd 4-4-2 formation choice. “No, I am very happy,” he claimed.

About half an hour later, Pellegrini was seen being driven away from the Etihad in his car, looking the opposite of “very happy”. He had his head in his hands, and appeared so thoroughly depressed.

A few stats show why that was the case far more accurately than the narrow scoreline. On a night when Barcelona enjoyed 62% possession, played 686 passes, and had 861 touches of the ball, City’s three main defensive players - Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichelis and Fernando - offered one tackle between them.

That alone illustrates just how difficult it was for the English champions to even get close to Barça, as well as the total failure of Pellegrini’s tactical approach and the under-performance of so many leaders. The only surprise about the night beyond the City manager’s staggering tactical naivety was that it only ended 2-1.

That perhaps explains why Leo Messi and Gerard Pique looked as miserable as Pellegrini did when they walked through the mixed zone without saying anything. They knew they should have beaten City out of sight.

David Silva, meanwhile, knew that City had actually got out of jail. He admitted they had not been sharp enough in putting pressure on the Catalans. “One thing is that it could have been worse,” he stated. “We knew we weren’t good. I think we didn’t press well. We were late to balls. Barca’s touch is so fast and after that they have the advantage. They were much more cohesive than us on the pitch, picking up all the loose balls.”

In that regard, Pellegrini’s decision to only play Fernando and not Fernandino seems so poor given that it just opened up the entirety of the midfield for a Barca side that love to play there, and City didn’t exactly see much benefit from sticking Edin Dzeko up front for his aerial presence. Gerard Piqué won four aerial duels - more than double his league average for the season of 1.9.

There are a number of other figures outside the fantasy of some of the football, however, that indicate Barca were more prepared than usual to press home that advantage. They were, to use common football parlance, “on it”. Supremely focused, at least for the first half.

Barça tackled more than usual (25 compared to an average of 20.4), dribbled more than usual (25 compared to 13.4) and still had a super pass completion percentage at 89% over 88.1%. Messi was meanwhile allowed to dribble twice as much as his usual, at 10 times against City compared to an average of 4.5, but was still fouled and tackled much less frequently.

Luis Suarez thereafter got into more shooting positions, hitting five and obviously scoring the two that won the game. The single area where Barça were lacking was in the rest of their finishing, as illustrated by Messi’s late penalty miss.

At the same time, it’s still difficult not to think Barca have finished this tie as a contest. City look to have too much ground to make up, and not just in terms of the score. Pellegrini is also presented with a crux that he has already failed to work.

Consider this: his naively attacking approach directly ceded the key areas to Barca from the off, and gifted the Catalans such a handsome lead. Pellegrini was eventually forced to bring in Fernandinho to stem the flow, but that in itself only ensured City had more control and more resistance rather than attacking thrust, and that at a point when they badly needed to score.

The fact he had to go backwards just when City needed to go forward indicated how wrong Pellegrini got it, and the wonder is how he will deal with this now that his side desperately need to score two at Camp Nou. It doesn’t bode well.

Barca were brilliant, and Luis Suarez was sensational in finally getting it all so right in this team, but the key to this match was how wrong Pellegrini got it.

Do you think Pellegrini got his tactics wrong on Tuesday night? Let us know in the comments below