Manchester City 2-0 Salford City Review

FA Cup 4th Round

It is onto the next round and the draw for Manchester City as they beat Salford City. Several key starters rested ahead of an important Premier League match against Newcastle. Another chance for Ryan McAidoo to impress, and John Stones is back to fitness. Not the attacking display, filled with goals, that many would have expected, and we’ll touch on that, but the job is done with a largely rotated side.

Notable Stats:

• Along with scoring his first goal for Manchester City, Marc Guehi has now scored 7 goals from set pieces since the beginning of the 24/25 season for club and country. For comparison, during that same period, Gvardiol has scored 5, Khusanov 2, and Dias 1.

• Manchester City have won their last 17 FA Cup games at the Etihad Stadium, equalling the longest home winning streak in the competition’s history, set by Clapham Rovers between December 1873 and February 1881.

Game Stats:

Manchester City 2-0 Salford City

• xG: 2.42 - 0.36

• Possession: 80.0% - 20.0%

• Penalty Box Shots: 15 - 4

• Big Chances: 4 - 0

• Passes Completed: 687 - 157

• Aerial Duels Won: 13 - 9

11 starts and full 90s completed for James Trafford this season.

John Stones makes his first start since Leverkusen (H) on the 25th of November.

Rico Lewis has now played over 1,000 minutes for Manchester City this season.

Rayan Cherki completes his 7th full 90 of the 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. 👇

Lots of changes for Manchester City, continuing with the full-backs holding the width and a first start for Max Alleyne at right-back. He’d later come off injured for McAidoo, who would then hold the width on that side. Reijnders, Cherki, and Foden take turns dropping outside the block and being between the lines. Building with the 2-2 of Nico and Lewis in front of Stones and Khusanov. Marmoush is looking to get in behind the opposition defensive line, which we saw a few times with long passes over the top from Nico, Cherki, and Stones.

A. Dorrington (OG) 6' 1-0
It didn’t take long for Manchester City to open the scoring. Simple overlapping run from Ait-Nouri, put through by Reijnders, and his low cross driven along the 6-yard box takes a deflection and goes past the keeper to open the scoring.

We've seen some glimpses into his attacking qualities, Ait-Nouri, with the assist against Newcastle as the standout moment, but they're still only scratching the surface of the output he can provide. You think back to the early first-time cross for Haaland against Galatasaray. The number of times he’s made an underlapping run and not converted his shot.

During the 21/22 season, Joao Cancelo had 8 goal contributions (1G 7A) in the Premier League. For Wolves’ last season, Ait-Nouri had 11 goal contributions (4G 7A). From the little we’ve seen, he’s got the ability to be a key part of the attack for years to come. Certainly adds a dynamic that the team has lacked from the full-back areas.

Alleyne (22’) came off injured not far into the game after making a challenge inside the box. Ryan McAidoo came on to play RW as Rico Lewis reverted to right-back.

Should have been a two-goal lead for Manchester City as Marmoush gets played in behind and rifles the ball into the top left corner. Excellent finish but ruled offside, and as was evident only a few seconds later, Marmoush was miles onside, and the linesman made a mistake. Another reminder of what we miss without VAR, despite its ongoing issues.

Guardiola spoke after the match about why it was boring and the struggles that the team had. In the first half, especially, they were poor at shifting the ball quickly from one side to the other.

That meant Salford could stay compact and high on the left side, where Manchester City mostly circulated the ball around, knowing that they had the time to deal with any pass over to McAidoo on the RW. Making it tough to play through the middle into the likes of Cherki and Foden.

Instead, they needed to drop Salford with the long switch out to McAidoo on the RW, with the dribbles of Ait-Nouri down the flank, push them back into their own box, and then you can come back inside to find your creative players in the pockets, who can take shots.

You look at the second half, particularly when the changes are made, and Rodri comes on, the spaces are there because they drop Salford City deeper, finding the wide players first, then come inside.

We can obviously complain that Marmoush should have had his goal stand, but the team needed to do better in that first half; they needed to create more, and they didn’t read the situation well enough in order to do that.

Speaking of the second half. You get two good chances early on for Reijnders at the back-post and McAidoo (50’) cutting inside and going for the top corner, only to be saved. But the clearer cut chances don’t arrive until after the changes. You had O’Reilly, Guehi, and Semenyo (65’) on for Foden, Stones, and Ait-Nouri. Shortly after that, Rodri (75’) came on for Nico.

Huge one for Nico O’Reilly (77’), Cherki getting to the byline and crossing into the 6-yard box. He finds O’Reilly inside, but he’s not quite set himself for the shot, and the keeper is able to make the save.

M. Guehi 81' 2-0 
Another set-piece goal for Manchester City and the first club goal for Guehi. Reijnders takes the free-kick, passes to Cherki to go down the line and whip a cross along the 6-yard box. Goalkeeper makes a save, tipping it into the path of Guehi to convert and double the lead.

We won’t get to see both of them involved until the very end of the season, likely next season, but to have two genuine set-piece threats in Guehi and Gvardiol will be important for the team moving forward.

Often, those situations can be overanalyzed, instead of looking at whether you’ve got a quality taker and a player worth finding in the box. Now they’ve got plenty of both.

Great chance for Semenyo (85’), who made a run behind, picked out by Cherki, and ended up hitting the post. Back to my earlier point on the first half struggles, this situation doesn’t come about if you don’t drop Salford deeper and open up the spaces, before you try to play through.

That was a first half where you saw the team struggle to read and break down the opposition in the right way. Not moving the ball quickly enough from one side to the other. That they should have done better and created more. We started to see much more of that in the second half, along with the players off the bench.

It continued to give us a better idea of where some players are in the pecking order, as well as whether they’re ready to come into the team as a more regular starter. But in the end, it’s job done with a rotated team, and the rest will be vital for many of those as the business end of the season comes around.

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Moving Forward

Very unfortunate for Max Alleyne to pick up an injury early into this match (22’), especially when this is an opportunity to push himself back into the team, and show what he could offer at right-back.

On the other hand, it was a chance for Ryan McAidoo to continue showing some flashes of his talent. Suffered in the first half, given that the team struggled to switch the ball to his side quickly enough, and put him into many 1v1 situations, but you saw the improvement in the second half.

That ability to beat a player 1v1 out wide is vital for all teams in the PL now, and McAidoo looks like he’ll be an option for the squad next season should this progression continue.

John Stones made his first start since November of last year, although he’s not expected to play a huge role, and could well depart in the summer. It’s another useful option to have as the team comes to the latter part of the season. Mateo Kovacic's return is still not clear.

Doku and Savinho are expected to return very soon, so we should get more information on that ahead of the Newcastle match from Guardiola. That’s the squad, Gvardiol aside, coming back to full fitness ahead of the time we need it most.

Watford have hired a new manager, and Stephen Mfuni started in his first game, a third start for the academy graduate since joining the club on loan. Divine Mukasa started this weekend for Leicester in their FA Cup defeat to Southampton. Great to see minutes coming for those two that went out on loan in January.

Next up for Manchester City is Newcastle (H) in the Premier League on Saturday, the 21st of February at 20:00 (UK). They’ll play their CL qualifying round game against Qarabag (A) on Wednesday, whereas City will have the full week to prepare.

Elsewhere, Arsenal play against Wolves (H) on Wednesday night, and could be seven points clear heading into the Newcastle match. They’ll then play their weekend fixture against Spurs (A) on Sunday.

Lots of moving parts there in terms of the narrative once we get to that Newcastle game, should Arsenal draw against Wolves, it puts the pressure on City to capitalise and close the gap.