AS Monaco 2-2 Manchester City Review

Champions League LP2

Frustrating end to what was an encouraging performance away from home, as a team, and with a few individuals standing out. Excellent goals from Erling Haaland, moving him above Henry in the all-time CL scorers. Nico O’Reilly continues to show why he could be the starting left-back come May. Phil Foden keeps knitting it all together between the lines. The team is far from the finished article, but they’re moving in the right direction.

MOTM: ERLING HAALAND

Other standout performances include: Nico O’Reilly

Notable Stats:

• The last time John Stones started at right-back was against Everton (H) in the Premier League, 10th of February 2024. In the Champions League, the last start at right-back was Dortmund (A) on the 25th of October 2022.

• Erling Haaland has outscored nine teams for goals in their first 50 UEFA Champions League games - Haaland has 52 goals, more than Dinamo Zagreb, Anderlecht, Lille, Club Brugge, Besiktas, Celtic, Galatasaray, CSKA Moscow, and Panathinaikos managed in their first 50.

• Erling Haaland has scored in every single game for club and country since the start of September.

Game Stats:

AS Monaco 2-2 Manchester City

• xG: 1.45 - 1.54

• Possession: 29.0% - 71.0%

• Field Tilt: 24.0% - 76.0%

• Penalty Box Shots: 6 - 13

• Shots on Target: 3 - 6

• Hit Woodwork: 0 - 2

• Penalty Area Entries: 12 - 24

• Keeper Saves Made: 5 - 1

T10 for Percentage of Minutes Played - All Comps 25/26 

• 1. Tijjani Reijnders (88.4%)

• 2. Erling Haaland (83.5%)

• 3. Ruben Dias (78.4%)

• 4. Nico O'Reilly (68.6%)

• 5. Bernardo Silva (65.3%)

• 6. Phil Foden (64.2%)

• 7. Jeremy Doku (62.2%)

• 8. Donnarumma (55.6%)

• 9. Nico Gonzalez (52.5%)

• 10. Josko Gvardiol (51.9%)

Phil Foden has now started six consecutive matches. He has not started 7+ matches since November 2024, which he can achieve with a start against Brentford on Sunday.

Nico O'Reilly has also made six consecutive starts, his second-best run in the first-team, behind seven starts at the end of last season.

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Strong team selection from Guardiola, which is mostly to be expected, and using a back three in possession. Something we’ve seen a lot in recent years is how to best manage the threat of the opposition in transition. Nico O’Reilly, in his usual role coming inside from left-back, Monaco wanted to maintain a 2v1 against Jeremy Doku as Akliouche supported Vanderson. That meant the spaces to attack were inside, with Bernardo on the opposite side in a functional role, holding the width as the team attempted to find Foden between the lines.

Erling Haaland 15' 0-1  

For both goals, the movement by Haaland is excellent, and something he's done well this season is finding the right space around the central defenders. In their blind spots, drifting between them and the midfielders, so none of the opposition players are certain who is marking him. Gvardiol spots Haaland making the run and picks him out with the ball over the top. Let the ball bounce before lifting over the keeper. Similar to the goal against Napoli, which was with his head, only a gentle touch was needed to score.

Monaco managed to equalize soon afterward with an excellent finish by Teze (18’) from outside the box, curled into the top left corner. Some criticism for Foden not getting out quick enough to close down the shot is fair; otherwise, it’s tough to complain too much with that one placed into he corner.

Erling Haaland 44' 1-2  

O'Reilly holding the width as Doku drives inside, picking out the run of Foden into the box, who turns, delays, and plays it back to O'Reilly for the cross. Lovely cross from NOR. Haaland is initially at the back-post, then moves around to the middle of the box to head the ball into the bottom left corner.

Outside of the two goals, Foden hit the bar (33’), O’Reilly had a good shot saved (37’), Reijnders shot inside the box saved (42’), and Haaland missed at the back-post a great chance (42’), but couldn’t get his foot around the ball to turn it in. There wasn’t a shortage of chances to make the lead three or four heading into half-time.

Nico Gonzalez (Rodri) and Savinho (Doku) come on in the 61’, which felt as much about those players’ fitness lagging in the game as it did a nod towards those two playing against Brentford on Sunday. You saw with Savinho, Manchester City looked to make use of his runs behind, especially moving from out-to-in that Gvardiol tried to find. Nothing impressive, but it was a step in the right direction from the Brazilian, making those runs, creating a chance, and looking sharper off the ball.

Along with the shot by Akliouche (59’) that Donnarumma got down to save, Monaco had a couple of shots from corners between the 54th to 60th minutes of the game. The introduction of Nico Gonzalez helped to regain control of the game for the remainder of the second half.

There weren’t as many chances for City in the second half. Retained the ball, managed the period that Monaco had some success, and waited for their opportunities. There were still good chances. Reijnders hit the bar (73’) and Haaland's shot just inside the box is saved (74’).

The penalty for Monaco in the 90’ is a painful one to take. Coming off a soft free-kick, to have Nico win the ball, and then VAR pull it back. It’s tough not to feel hard done by that. The team handled the brief period to start the second half, where Monaco had a couple of chances off corners. Managed the game and the transition threat from Monaco well. Nico performs, coming off the bench to wrestle back control.

I could understand the argument for not taking our chances if we’d not had not hit the bar twice, on top of creating numerous other chances, and not limited Monaco, from open play, to only 0.15xG. Best to take the positives out of the performance and from individuals, as if this is the level across all remaining league phase games, they’ll progress through.

Another 90' for Nico O'Reilly against Monaco, who I thought was fantastic this evening. Provided an assist for Erling Haaland. Made the most tackles in the game (6). 7/11 ground duels won. Driving the ball forward on the left side. Frequently making runs into the box. He looks much more settled within the first team, playing at left-back, and I'm sure an England call-up will come if he continues at this level.

He’s done incredibly well dealing with dribblers. Leading the team for most dribblers tackled (12). On the flip side, there are still plenty of ways for him to improve. Aerial duels, for example, only winning 8/18 (44.4%) this season, are not good enough for someone of his stature. That’s what is so encouraging about watching Nico O’Reilly this season. You see the promise as well as how much better he can get.

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Moving Forward

It’s certainly frustrating not to win the game, but looking at the schedule in front of us, it is the home games that are vital to making the top eight in the league format. Going off last season, you want to get 16 points minimum to make the top eight, which is five wins and a draw. Not that it will be easy, by any stretch, but you’ve got a great opportunity to win the next three games before playing Real Madrid (A). Points there will be a bonus, and then two games in 2026 to chase a top-eight spot to avoid the additional round.

The performance level against Monaco gives me a lot of confidence heading into those games, along with knowing the quality of players yet to return from injury, and others still to hit their best form.

Below are the leaders for shot involvements this season, across all competitions, for Manchester City. Shot, shot assist, and buildup to a shot are the three types. Essentially, the number of times each player is involved in a sequence that ends in a shot on goal. The role of Bernardo is quite functional to hold width and his rotations with Foden OOP. As well as the intangibles and work rate he brings to the team. But you would expect over the course of the season, another player will force themselves into that spot.

I mention this to highlight how involved Tijjani Reijnders is without playing at his very best. It’s not all clicked or seamless for him in a City shirt right now, but you can look back on every game and find plenty of opportunities for him to score or provide an assist. You can also find chances in nearly every game where he should have passed to a teammate free inside the box. The all-around game will take time, but those are promising signs, on top of being a player with an excellent fitness record.

Rayan Cherki was seen back in training for the open Champions League session ahead of Monaco (A), and in the press conference, Guardiola stated that his return will be managed carefully. Stressing the impact on his quads if he rushes into intense games too soon, and that we can expect to see minutes from Cherki after the next international break.

Along with the likes of Marmoush, Khusanov, and Ait-Nouri, who are expected to return after the International break, they bring a huge boost of quality to the City bench. Below is the substitutes against Monaco, adding those four back from injury completely changes the perception of depth the team has.

Next up for Manchester City is Brentford (A) on Sunday, the 5th of October at 16:30 (UK). The last game before the International break. Whilst Brentford have been in the Premier League, Manchester City have beaten Brentford twice at the Gtech Community Stadium, drawing last season (2-2), and losing 1-0 during the 22/23 season.

The 1-3 win away from home during the 23/24 season was led by Phil Foden, who scored a hat-trick. He also scored a hat-trick that season against Aston Villa (H). The scorer for both goals when Manchester City drew against Brentford away from home last season was again Phil Foden.

How about one more? During the 2021/22 season, the team won 1-0 against Brentford, away from home. The game winner was scored by Phil Foden. This is a fixture he’s got to start.

Before finishing up the newsletter, I wanted to mention a player out on loan. This season, there are quite a few. In the Championship last night, it was another 90' for Max Alleyne as Watford drew 2-2 with Portsmouth. Made the most defensive contributions in the match. 3 interceptions. 4/5 ground duels won. 5/7 aerial duels won.

Alleyne has started 6/8 matches for Watford in the Championship this season. 3rd in the team for progressive passes (31) and passes into the final third (21). Made (19) and won (14) the most tackles in the team. 11/14 successful attempts at tackling a dribbler. So far this season, Alleyne has won 18/26 aerial duels (69.2%). A lot of eyes will be on the likes of Juma Bah (Nice) and Vitor Reis (Girona) as central defenders to make it through at the club, but don’t count out Max Alleyne.