Pep Guardiola Man City Tactics 22/23 | NEW 3-2-4-1 Formation Recreated in Football Manager 2023

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City Tactics 2020-23

When I should replicate Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City tactics in Football Manager I have decided to offer simply a few of the Manchester City tactics under Pep Guardiola. rather than mimic all the different variations.

The tactics I’ve decided to share is his 4-3-3 system with an inverted wingback and his brand new 3-2-4-1 system that we have covered above. I feel these two systems are his main ones, despite he has also used 4-2-3-1 and 3-4-2-1 at times but basically these are just a question of moving a player up and down with a minor change in player roles and duties.

Our tactical analysis of Pep Guardiolas Manchester City tactics and the insight to Pep’s new 3-2-4-1 formation provides a great foundation before looking at how we recreate Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 2022/23 tactics in Football Manager 2023.

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Team Instructions – In Possession

Passing Directness & Final Third Entries

The playing style of Pep Guardiola revolves around short intricate passing combinations where the players look to work the ball forward by playing out of defence. His short passing football is aimed at using the ball to create spaces and thereby move the opposition to come to goalscoring opportunities.

In Football Manager 2023, we can mimic Pep Guardiola’s brand of football by utilizing the Tiki-Taka tactical style template and then make small tweaks to it.

To replicate how Manchester City behaves with the ball in possession we have two options when it comes to the passing directness to get the result we want. Since Man City has a track record of 64.7% average possession per game you could either go with a Much shorter passing directness to ensure the team retains possession without taking any necessary risk to create goalscoring opportunities.

The other option, which I’ve gone by, is to use Shorter Passing Directness to make sure the team still retains possession but attacks a bit more vertically when giving a potential chance to enter the final third. As I see it, it’s a matter of progressing the ball forward sooner rather than later, especially when the opposition teams are likely to park the bus and play with an extremely low block against Man City.

At least, when we have such an attacking threat as Erling Haaland on top, who can both use his quickness to move behind the defensive line, or drop deep, hold up the ball and play in the inverted wingers in a more direct attacking approach.

I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It’s so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition’s goal. 

It’s not about passing for the sake of it. Pep Guardiola

If we look at the real-life possession stats, Man City 2022/23 is topping the overall possession statistics in European football according to Whoscored.com with 65.2% possession. According to FBref.com they makes the most progressive passes in the entire Premier League with 2073 passes or 54.6 passes per game that is either completed into the penalty area or travels at least 10 yards from its furthest point in the last six passes.

Their average length is far from shortest in Premier League 22/23 by ending at 27.5 yards, and at the same time they are less likely to launch passes over 40 yards by attempting the third lowest long passes per game (7.55 with a success rate of 44.6%).

Manchester City is also the only team in Premier League with more than 11000 completed short passes at a success rate of 90.9%. These are passes between 5 to 15 yards which could tell a story of a much shorter to shorter passing directness, but at the same time they makes nearly 10000 total passes this season that are between 15 to 30 yards – or 13 to 26 meters which makes me interpret their passing game how I have done it.

NB! Much shorter passing directness is a great option if you like to control the match without taking too much risk. Perhaps you’d like to close off the match by retaining possession and instruct your players to keep hold of the ball as often as possible.

PS. By using shorter passing directness, I’m able to instruct specific players (or positions) to prioritize retaining the ball by asking them to make much shorter passes, as I’ve done for the Stones role.

By activating the Dribble Less instruction we can ensure the team adopts a pass-first mentality. Despite it’s not uncommon from the inverted wingers to cut inside and carry the ball when coming in a one-on-one situation, I’ve decided to reduce the number of dribbles by instructing the team to pass the ball rather than run with it into attacking situations.

By selecting ‘Dribble Less’ you’ll increase the number of one touch passes, or ensure the team makes more one-two’s to pass their way through the lines at an higher speed. The players will zig-zag the ball through the opposition lines through intricate passing combinations.

I want intricate passing as they move forward, not too fast initially, so that none of our men ends up in the wrong place. A highly-organised advance until they reach the centre and then boom!Pep Guardiola, Pep Confidential: The inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s first season at Bayern Münich

Width

Despite of slightly increasing the passing directness from Much shorter to shorter in the Tiki-Taka tactical style, the biggest alteration I’ve done is to the Attacking width setting.

Rather than focusing the play through the middle, Man City have a tendency to play with a much wider width. Whether it is to focus play down one of the flanks to open up space on the opposite or to stretch the opposition to increase the space between the channels to overload and work the ball through the half space channels by movements and through balls with the intention to set up the wingers in a situation where he isolates the opposing fullback.

With a positive mentality already contributing to the team’s width, I’ve interpreted Man City’s attacking width in Football Manager 2023 as the default Fairly Wide. Here you can always increase the width to force the team to combine more often down the flanks.

What I’ve done to ensure we got the appropriate width to create chances through the half space channels is to instruct the inverted wingers to stay wider and hold position. This will instruct them to stay on the outside of the opposing fullbacks position regardless of how wide or narrow they play. This ensures the formation transit from a 3-2-4-1 into a 3-2-5 formation when play enters the final third.

This is especially the case when the team is building out from the back, as the below illustration of the classic Pep Guardiola 3-2-4-1 tactic shows.

With a Fairly Wide width, the aim is to create space in the middle of the pitch for the two central midfielders to receive the ball. Since our shape is rather narrow, compared to a traditional back four system with overlapping fullbacks, we need to balance the width more appropriately.

Approach Play

At Barcelona, Pep Guardiola was associated with the Tiki-Taka style of play where “possession was 9/10” of the law. After moving to Bayern Münich Pep himself tried to distance himself from the pass-heavy brand of football where the team retained the ball for possession sake, like passing the ball without any clear intent.

However, Pep Guardiola’s intention was to play a short simple passing game with lots of combination to attract the opposition to one side before attack on the opposite flank where new found space has been created.

You overload on one side and draw them in so that they leave the other side weak. And when we‘ve done all that, we attack and score from the other side.

That’s why you have to pass the ball, but only if you’re doing it with a clear intention. It’s only to overload the opponent, to draw them in and then to hit them with the sucker punch. That’s what our game needs to be.Pep Guardiola, Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich

This is something we have seen at Manchester City all through the season regardless of whether Pep Guardiola opts to use a 3-2-4-1 tactic, 4-3-3 formation or a 4-2-3-1 system.

If we take a closer look at Man City’s 4-0 trashing against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi final, they only prioritized working the ball down the right or left flank at 34% and 35%. Against Bayern Münich (3-0) it was 37% left side and 39% right side with only 25% of play coming through the middle.

This reveals that Pep Guardiola is no stranger at focusing play down a specific side. It all depends on taking advantage of opposition weakness. This means that you’re more than welcome to instruct your team to focus play down a specific side according to any opposition match analysis you’ve done, but I haven’t enabled that for any of the tactics.

Instead, I want the team to combine through the middle with penetrating runs coming from deep on each side of the striker.

By instructing the players to look for underlaps any wide players will hold up the ball and look for any passing options between the lines. It may be third man runs and other movements in the channels, or passes to a player, like Kevin de Bruyne, who finds pocket of spaces to flick the ball towards the striker.

A positive mentality, Dribble Less and Look for underlaps, provides a magnificent foundation to play some amazing attacking pass and move football. Couple it with work the ball into the box and you’ll get some really entertaining football.

When entering the final third, Manchester City looks to work the ball into the box by passes rather than shoot on sight. In total, they have made 1770 passes into the final third, which is definitely the highest in PL 2022/23 as well as making the third most highest passes into the 18 yard area with 445 versus Arsenal’s 459.

On top of that, Manchester City completes 2.47 through balls per game (third highest) – something that paints the picture of the team’s passing directness and intent when entering the final third.

The combination of work the ball into the box and look for underlaps will somehow reduce the tempo of the game. While the midfielders will hold onto the ball in settled attacks and play a supporting pass if there are not any available passing options up front, the wingers and wide players will initiate more diagonal passes towards the center of the pitch at the first opportunity in attempt to come to a goalscoring opportunity.

This increases the likeliness of turnovers and could result in deadly counter-attacks. This is especially the case if the opposition uses a double pivot in front of the center backs. To solve that, I would suggest removing Look for Underlaps when facing a 4-2-3-1DM or a 5-2-1-2DM AM and instead try to focus play down the flanks in order to stretch them apart as there may be difficult to bypass the defensive midfielders without trying to isolate them.

In Transition

When the team is in defensive transition we want to instruct our players to immediately press the opposing player as soon as the ball is lost. By enabling the counter-press instruction, the closest players around the ball carrier will step out of their position to try to reduce the time the opposing player has to pick out a pass.

Counter-pressing is the fundamental tool any possession team has to affect the moment of chaos – those situations between being in possession of the ball and without it. In some situations, counter-pressing can be a tool to delay the opposition’s counter-attacking initiatives.

Depending on the pressing level and specific player instructions, the number of players who looks to close down can vary. The risk with counter-pressing enabled is that player’s step out of their position meaning it is easier for the opposition team to bypass press and counter-attack if they are composed and got great ball control (first touch, dribbling and technique).

But counter-pressing can be wonderful tool to win back the ball high up the pitch and dominate the opposition on their own half. It only requires a bit of attention on the training ground working on ‘Technical – Trigger Press’, ‘Defending – Defending from the front’ and ‘Defending – Engaged’ to improve players decision-making, aggression, positioning and tackling.

Out of Possession

When out of possession, I want the the team to stay compact. In my tactics, I’ve gone for a high defensive line with a high line of engagement to reduce the meters between the lines. To avoid the opposition to play through your lines, it’s beneficial to limit the space between the midfield and attacking line – especially since I want to press the opposition high up the field by closing down the defenders.

At Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has varied the press by using anything from a high block to a mid high block. By reducing the line of engagement to a mid block you’ll be able to provide more space for the attacker to make counter-attacking runs behind the defensive line.

One of the main weaknesses with Pep Guardiola’s tactic over the years has been the vulnerable area behind the defensive line. His tendencies to play with an extremely high line has changed upon the years. With so many good teams in England and in Europe to counter-attack against Man City, Pep has been forced to lower his defensive line.

In some matches he would use a mid block that prioritize the team to stay deeper and remain control of the opposition by denying space behind the defensive line. Against Bayern Münich for instance, Man City had only 44% possession and completed only 373 passes at 80% accuracy – despite winning 3-0.

This tells us that Pep has become more cautious after recent Champions League failures by trying to win games with a gung-ho attacking approach.

If you experience a lot of over-the-top passes, I recommend you to alter the defensive line from the default Higher to Standard. or change the line of engagement to Mid block to make the team even more compact.

With an higher risk of getting countered on, specially when there are more players looking to press the ball as quickly as possible after losing it, I have found it necessary to ask the defensive line to drop off as soon as possible if there’s no chance of regaining possession immediately.

To ensure the most effective pressing, Pep Guardiola has established a four to six second rule. In order to regain possession, or engage the opposition in a manner that they aren’t able to swiftly and uninterruptedly go from defensive transition to attacking transition, Pep asks his team to immediately press the ball carrier. By triggering press more often, two to three players will engage the opponent on the ball to try to win back the ball as high up the pitch as possible.

If the team is unable to recover the ball within that time period, the team will need to move back into a defensive shape to protect the goal.

To succeed with Peps pressing philosophy it’s a fine balance between how much the players should close down and the compactness they need to press as an organized unit.

Close down too much and too often and the players will be drawn out of position – something that gives loopholes in the system which the opposition can take advantage of.

What I’ve done is to ask the team to trigger press more often to try to win back the ball quickly when there’s a false touch, if the player has their back towards goal or has not fully control of the ball, with Drop Off More and Trap Inside.

With Drop Off More enabled, the team will defend closer to its own goal when in defensive phase and encourage the defenders to track back into their defending shape if counter-pressing doesn’t work. In some ways it helps to avoid some of those long balls over the top as the defenders are more concerned at holding position or track back and deal with attacking threats quicker.

Drop off more is probably a bit counter-intuitive to the style of pressing we incorporate, but looks to ensure the player’s aren’t conceding even more space behind the defensive line which the opposition can take advantage of.

Instead, they will slightly drop off and keep control of any forward movements and be prepared for any attacking initiatives such as long balls from the opposition.

To better remain control of the center, I see it beneficial to trap the opposition inside. This will instruct the wingers to pres towards the center of the pitch and thereby helps to create a compact unit that’s hard to penetrate on. At the same time, it will provide better circumstances to regain possession in the second and third situation as players are closer together and better able to create 3vs2 situations out of possession.

Selecting the trap inside instruction is highly useful due to the box midfield where I have four players in the center. Basically, this instruction is perfect for narrow systems like the 3-2-4-1 with more players in the middle of the pitch than on the flanks.

To ensure the team defends narrower and protects the center of the pitch, I’ve instructed my team to Invite Crosses. This will see your defenders stay narrower than usual and conceive space down the flanks, but essentially gives the opposition team the chance to play the ball as far as way from goal as possible – where it’s less dangerous for them to have possession.

Trap inside, Invite Crosses and Drop Off More are instructions that needs to be considered depending on the opposition’s strengths and could easily be turned off depending on any opposition match analysis you’ve done. For instance, you may want to un-tick Invite Crosses against a team who got excellent Crossers and Headers and are playing with a system who looks to overlap down the wings as they might cause real headaches for you.

At the same time, Drop off more might be the wrong approach if you’re facing a great possession-oriented team who might not favor long balls over the top but requires less space and time for the midfielders and defenders to pick out a pass.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 22/23 3-2-4-1 Tactics

The Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 22/23 3-2-4-1 tactics comes in three different variations – all depending on the opposition’s shape and their use of width.

The team instructions for those three 3-2-4-1 tactics is basically similar. All I’ve done is make brief alterations to the player roles, their positioning and instructions. The minor differences in tactical setup gives you further options to select the system that fits your team and your attacking intent and willingness to take risk in possession to score more goals.

There are many similarities between the different 3-2-4-1 tactics I’ve created.

Both the Classic 3-2-4-1 tactic and the 3-2-2-3 Box Midfield, that you will learn more about below, aims to penetrate the opposition through the five channels with lots of movements and overloads that leads to more chances and shots on target.

Both system defends with 3 and a half player, or a second pivot in front of the back three. Both systems looks to take advantage of players moving between the channels or between space, regardless of the player is classified as a central midfielder or an attacking midfielder.

At the same time, both system creates a 3-2-5 shape in possession, or will profit from five forwards when play enters the final third.

The major difference is how it affects the opposition team and the risk you take in possession to score more goals, or come to goal-scoring chances.

But without any further ado, let’s take a closer look at the three different Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City tactics available to download below.

READ MORE | Download Football Manager 2023 Pep Guardiola Barcelona Tiki-Taka Tactics

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The Classic Man City 3-2-4-1 Tactic

First up, is what I would call a classic 3-2-4-1 tactic. In this system, I’ve considered Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City tactics to use two attacking midfielders. In some ways, you could look at this system as an attacking tactic – great to use against weaker teams or when you are in need of goals.

The aim with this system is to overload the opposition on their own defensive third by having five forwards in close proximity to each other to make it harder for the opposition team to play out from the back.

With a 3-2-5 shape in possession it creates a wonderful foundation for attacking football where the attacking midfielders provide great support to the striker and difficulty for the opposition team to defend against all the attacking threats.

With two attacking midfielders it requires the opposition to use a double pivot to defend that area in order to avoid giving the Gündogan or Kevin de Bruyne role too much space to thread passes towards the striker.

Player roles of Pep’s Classic 3-2-4-1 Tactic

GK: Sweeper Keeper – Support

Player Instructions: Pass it Shorter & Tackle Harder

Ive selected a sweeper-keeper on support to try to copy Ederson’s style of play. Since he’s a goalkeeper who solely doesn’t pass the ball short but may look for counter-attacking initiatives when the opposition press high, or the goalkeeper sees an opportunity to advance play higher up more quicker.

The SK will also occasionally stray outside the penalty box and participate in the build-up play by helping the team to switch play from one side of the pitch to the other.

DC: Ball Playing Defender – Defend

Player Instructions: Dribble Less, Hold Position & Pass it Shorter

The role of the Ball-playing defender is simple. Hold position in the center channel. Not divert too much out of position but remain at the back to control the opposing striker. In possession I want the player to simply retain possession and not to gift the ball away by too risky passes.

DCR / DCL: Wide Centre-Back – Support

On each of the sides of the central defender, I’ve gone with two wide centre-backs on support. Like the central defender they will protect from counter-attacks by holding position and not advance too far forward.

Their positioning will also see them stay close to the central defender – meaning they are protecting the half space channels from movements and threaded passes. To ensure they aren’t caught out of position, I’ve asked them to press less often and dribble less.

Their role and player instructions sees the player’s less likely to make overlaps down the flanks which results in the wingers needing to deal with the opposing fullbacks on their own. Instead the WCB will cover the area behind available for supporting passes and provides the team an opportunity to retain possession by turning play to opposite flank or play diagonal passes towards the center.

It’s only occasionally they will move forward and overlap the midfielders but when there are rather risk-free situations like this, it could be a chance to enter final third with a cross from wide.

DMCR: Half-Back – Defend

The biggest question is perhaps how I’ve interpreted the Stones role in the 3-2-4-1 tactic. When watching some of Man City’s matches I’ve noticed how high Stones tends to play in possession but how disciplined he is out of possession. Against Real Madrid (4-0), his average positioning was as high as Rodri or Gündogan – creating a 3-3-4 shape.

At the same time, he didn’t venture as far forward as Rodri but held position at the edge of the half space channel slightly to the inside of the wide centre back right. I feel the half back is the best role to replicate the Stones role in FM23.

Able to recycle possession and don’t take unnecessary risk with the ball. Able to hold a rather deep position almost creating a back four in possession or deal with opposing attacking threats by being tactical disciplined and aware, he’s often one step ahead both in and out of possession.

If it was possible to select the Libero role on support in a back four, I would but since this isn’t possible I have instead asked the Half back to man-mark the opposition striker to ensure he defends more or less in a back four out of possession.

This sees the team defending more or less in a 4-1-4-1 shape, just like the average positioning Man City had against Bayern Münich in the first event.

Who the half back should man-mark depends on the oppositions formation. In a single forward system you can change the man marking from the ST to the AMC (if they are playing a 4-2-3-1 system). Against the 4-3-3 you can ask the player to man mark the opposing midfielder (#8) as he will often move forward just like an attacking midfielder.

DMCL: Regista – Support

On the left side I’ve interpreted Rodri’s role as a Regista. He tended to push out of his position and harass the opposition to try to close them down now and then. His heat map shows he covered large areas of the pitch – always making himself available for a pass and using his echnique and creativity to dictate play from deep.

Rodri was also the one getting the most touches on the ball throughout the season by making 82.7 passes per game at 91.3% pass accuracy. At the same time, he made the most long balls of the outfielders with 4.8 long balls per game.

In FM23, the Regista swiftly vary between a more cautious approach where he retains possession with devastating through balls that enables the team to come to a goalscoring opportunity by feeding the forward a penetrating ball. His direct passes and eagerness to advance play into final third could let you experience some brilliant moves.

P.S There was also a question of selecting the Defensive Midfielder-Support role too, due to its Aggression, Tackling and capabilities out of possession but I favored the Regista’s in possession capabilities instead.

AMR/L: Inverted Winger – Support

On both wings, I’ve selected the Inverted Wingers on support duty. Their role and instructions are mostly similar with the only difference of the AMR who will close down more often and man mark the opposite fullback (DL).

Both of them will stay wider and hold position in the build-up but may cut inside to overload the half space channel. With the ball, they can either make diagonal passes towards the striker, or carry the ball into a more dangerous position by moving inside.

When carrying the ball, they attract the attention onto themselves – giving space for the two attacking midfielders to get the ball in between the channels. Time and time again, we’ll see goals scored from those through balls from the inverted wingers towards zone 14.

Preferred foot
– Right Side: Left
– Left Side: Left

AMCL: Advanced Playmaker – Support

Player Instructions: Moves into channels & Roam From Position

For Ilkay Gündogan’s role in the 3-2-4-1 tactic I’ve gone for the advanced playmaker support role. This enables him to move between the lines and find pocket of spaces to take advantage of. Even though he tends to stabilize the midfield by holding position deeper than Kevin de Bruyne, his off the ball movements makes him a dangerous player in the attacking transition.

With move into channels turned on, the player will offer those necessary third man runs and the player will look towards him when play is on the left side.

It’s not uncommon to experience the player getting between 60 and 90 passes per game with 3 to 6 key passes per game.

AMCR: Attacking Midfielder – Attack

When it comes to replicating Kevin de Bruyne’s role at Manchester City we have a number of options. We could have selected the Shadow Striker if we consider Kevin de Bruyne’s high pressing and tendency to push ahead of the forward by aggressively pushing into space, which was the case against Arsenal where he looked like a second striker.

Even how he carries the ball into more dangerous positions before making a killer pass could resemble the SS-A.

Even the Trquartista role could be an option due to how the player will drop into pocket of spaces and drift around the field to make himself available for a pass. But the Trequartista will do far less defensively than what KdB does.

Instead, I’ve interpreted Kevin de Bruyne’s role as an Attacking Midfielder on Attack duty in this system. It enables the player to take full advantage of his vision, flair and decision-making by making those penetrating runs and passes that unlocks the opposition team.

Since his role is so advanced we need to enable a number of player instructions to get the player behaving like I want. In possession, I want the player to run wide with the ball in order to get in the appropriate position for a cross towards the far post.

When he got the ball, I want him to make more progressive passes by taking more risks and increasing the length of his passes to be a bit more direct than everyone else. On top of that, the AM-A will also come to goalscoring chances and try to fashion out chances for himself by taking long shots or carrying the ball into a more dangerous position from which he can shoot or try a through ball towards the striker.

It’s not uncommon to see the player score the second most goals in your team.

ST: Pressing Forward – Support/Attack

Player Instructions: Shoot More Often, Pass it Shorter (& Moves Into Channels*)

*Support Duty

The first things that pops to my head when hearing the name Erling Haaland is goals, shots, brilliant movements and runs. Have the world ever seen a more determined and goal-hungry player? A player that’s at the right place at the right time and position himself inside the penalty box like a striker in his thirties…? Or, how he uses his acceleration and physic to gain advantage of his opposing marker by moving like a ballet dancer or a gymnastics.

Over the course of the last three months, I feel there are more to Erling Haalands game than solely being labelled as a Poacher or Advanced Forward. It would perhaps be allright to select the role in FM23 if you only want the player to score goals, but I want the striker to do much more than simply tapping the ball into the net.

Like Pep Guardiola have asked for, Erling Haaland has tried to get more involved in the game by dropping deeper and holding up the ball. He even makes flick-ons and through balls which makes me feel his role now adays is more similar to the Pressing Forward role than AF-A.

Out of possession, Haaland tends to put extra pressure on the goalkeeper by chasing loose balls or close down the opposing defender to force him to a specific side contrbuting to the teams pressing scheme by denying passing options and better the circumstance for the players behind to win back possession high up the pitch.

With a support duty, the player will ehave more similar to a deep-lying playmaker – holding up play and combining with the two advanced midfielders on either side of him who moves into channels. He will be les likely to make runs in behind the defensive line, or carry the ball over longer distances which makes the PF-Attack duty more suitable if you prefer a more direct player. It all depends how you see him.

The 3-2-2-3 Box Midfield

The 3-2-2-3 box midfield tactic behaves slightly similar to the classic 3-2-4-1 system. It operates as a 3-2-5 shape in final third but protects the middle better due to being more balanced. The 3-2-2-3 box midfield is essentially better against teams who operates with three or more players in midfield as the central midfielders defends deeper and doesn’t conceive as much space.

In many ways, it’s more defensive stable with more movements coming from deep rather than players “waiting for the ball”.

One of the weaknesses within the Classic 3-2-4-1 system is the potential to be overrun in the midfield with a larger gap between the defensive midfielders and the attacking midfielders.

This enables a basic 4-3-3 to have control in the center of the park if they play rather narrow. To combat this I’ve created an altnerative version; the 3-2-2-3 box midfield. This tactic uses most of the same roles as the Classic 3-2-4-1 tactic apart from two exceptions – the roles of Ilkay Gündogan and Kevin de Bruyne.

Rather than an Advanced Playmaker (Support) and Attacking Midfielder (Attack) I’ve gone for two Mezzala’s with different duties.

By using a Mezzala on either side I take into account the playmaking abilities of Ilkay Gündogan and Kevin de Bruyne as well as their preferance to play in the half space channel. It looks to empasize the rules of positional play with a player holding position in each of the channel with the double pivot defending the area between the center channel and the half space channel.

At the back, the two wide centre backs will do a similar job of protecting against counter-attacks by defending the space between the half space channel and the wide channel.

The two Mezzala’s will split zone 14 into two different areas of responsibilites.

Ilkay Gündogan: Mezzala – Support

On the left side we have the role of Ilkay Gündogan. A player who will occassionally drop deep to offer passing options when building up play from the back. He’ll drop back and help out in the defensive transition phase by tracking back or close down the opposing player quickly and easily.

Despite he’ll roam around the pitch looking for areas he can take advantage of – making him look like an advanced playmaker in AMCL position at times, he will link up and stay rather close connected to the Regista – making it harder for the opposition team to attack down the left flank.

When the team is building up play, he will occassionally make penetrating runs like Ilkay Gündogan in real life. His positioning and movements will help to create space for the left inverte winger to get one on one against his opposing marker.

At the same time, he does an important job out of possession by quickly closing down the opposing player with the ball if the team looses the ball high up the pitch and helps to win back the ball high up the pitch so the attack can restart.

PS! I’ve also consider the role of Ilkay Gündogan as a Central Midfielder-support or a roaming playmaker but enjoys the high pressing from the Mezzala and his tendency to move into channel.

Kevin de Bruyne: Mezzala – Attack

The heat map of Kevin de Bruyne reveals how often he seeks to the flanks to get more time and space to pick out a pass. So many assists have come from crosses into the box towards Erling Haalands head, or low crosses, cut backs or diagonal passes that finds the feet of Haaland who have moved towards the back post.

To remain control in the center as well as being that press-resistant playmaker who can also win back the ball high up the pitch, I felt the Mezzala would be the correct interpretation of Kevin de Bruyne.

With an attack duty, he will defend higher up the pitch as well as using his acceleration, flair and dribbling to beat his marker in one on one situations. He’s also able to make long shots from the edge of the penalty area and will form an attacking partnership with the forward which will make your team extremely dangerous in the final third – whether it be killer passes, through balls or lovely flick ons that is directed towards the inverted winger, the striker or the opposite Mezzala.

The attacking Mezzala will often come to more chances and take more shots and it’s not uncommon to see the player score more than 10 goals per season.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 4-3-3 Tactic

The 4-3-3 system has been a favorite of Pep Guardiola since the early days as manager of Barcelona. Pep Guardiola normally played as a single pivot in a 4-3-3 system under Johan Cruyff and has continued the Dutch tradition with the emphasize of positional play.

As we all know, the 4-3-3 system creates the ideal shape in possession to maintain control and play that passing game Pep Guardiola is so famous for, as it creates a vast number of passing triangles and rhombus shape ideal for retaining possession.

Before moving to the new 3-2-4-1 tactic, Pep Guardiola favoured to use a 4-3-3 system that turned into a 2-3-5 or 2-3-2-3 in possession. With this shape Pep Guardiola aimed to create quantitative overloads in central areas as well as having numerical superiority at the back to defend against counter-attacks.

Similar to Pep’s new 3-2-4-1 tactic, the role of Kevin de Bruyne was to pull out wide to get more space and time to pick out passes. By moving from the half space channel to the wide channel he got better and more dangerous passing angles which he could combine with the inverted winger or the forward as they moved between the channels.

Rather than a back three, the fullbacks would invert and form that 2-3-2-3 shape in the build-up – something that provides the best passing angles and opportunities to progress play into the final third.

Often it was the task of Joao Cancelo to invert – playing in that inverted fulback role we’ve seen Zinchencko blossoming in the 22/23 Arsenal side. On the other side I’ve selected the wingback role for Kyle Walker, but feel free to use two inverted wingbacks.

The positioning of Cancelo or Walker as inverted wingbacks, aimed at opening up passing lanes to the wingers to progress quicker. If the opposite wingers should man mark the inverted wingbacks, they were forced to tuck inside creating space for the centre-backs to get the ball. This shape creates the ultimate triangles to build inside to progress play as the ball can be played out – in – out.

At the same time, the positioning of the inverted wingbacks in possession free’s up the responsibilities of the two central midfielders. They can advance further forward in the build-up or drop between the lines to receive the ball.

In my interpretation of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 4-3-3 tactic, I’ve gone for a box to box midfieler who moves into channels and make those late surges into the penalty area like Ilkay Gündogan is so brilliant at.

However, it’s smart to make small teaks to your tactics in-game, for instance in the last 20 minutes of the match to try to overrun the opposition by also overloading the left flank with more runs from deep. Here you can consider the ‘Central Midfielder – Attack’ or CM-S if you don’t want to take as much risk.

In 2021-22, the center forward was occupied by Gabriel Jesus. With a slightly different striker than Haaland, Pep Guardiola instructed the forward to drop deeper and be more involved in the build-up helping to hold up the ball and make flick-ons to forward moving wingers and central midfielders.

While many would interpret the role as a False 9, I have decided to select the Complete Forward role on Support instead.

You could have selected a Deep-Lying Forward (Support) also, but the Complete Forward will roam around to find space and attract focus before attacking the space in behind either via quick short passes, one-two’s or carry the ball forward by creating chances for himself.

I like it for how it makes progressive runs between the oppsite fullback and centre back always being a constant threat whether he’s in possession or making movements off the ball.

With a ‘Complete Forward – Support’ you will have both a player who can score goals either inside the penalty box, or from longer ranges, or who can make those through balls and assists that sets up a team mate for a goalscoring opportunity.

Essentially, what role you select to use will depend on the type of striker you got. Whether you got a strong target-man type of striker who would be the ideal DLF as he’s able to hold up the ball, an attacking midfielder who stands out for his creativity, ball control and vision to use the False 9 role, or a mix between the two to use the Complete Forward role.

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