Manchester City 3-0 Palermo Review

Preseason Friendly

Manchester City are back, kicking off their season with a friendly match against Palermo, ahead of the opening Premier League fixture against Wolves. Guardiola, partly through injury, only travelled with a 22-man squad that all saw minutes last night. Many players took their opportunity to stand out, most showed they’re not going to be hitting the ground running, and one made his debut for the first team.

Game Stats:

Manchester City 3-0 Palermo

• Shots on Target: 6 - 3

• Possession: 70% - 30%

• Pass Completion: 91% - 81%

• Final Third Entries: 56 - 26

• Big Chances: 5 - 4

• Ground Duels Won: 30 - 24

• Aerial Duels Won: 8 - 8

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. 👇

Heading into the match, I expected to see a team play around 60 minutes that was close to the starting eleven we’ll see against Wolves, and instead, we got every player in the team doing 45 minutes, other than Haaland, playing 60 minutes before Mukasa replaced him. Which, as we’ll touch on later, leaves lots of questions about the team to play against Wolves.

Now, it was interesting to see the buildup in the first half against Palermo. Nico drops between the two CBs that split. Cherki and NOR between the lines. FBs would swap between moving inside or pulling out wide. The front three make runs behind, or drop to receive and turn.

We got to see Khusanov playing as the LCB and showing he’s more than fine filling in there in place of Gvardiol. John Stones reminds us of how good he is, provided the fitness is there for this season. Certainly, to start the first half, it took the team a while to settle in with the right tempo. Rushing passes and those between the lines getting in each other’s way in moments when looking for space.

One of the standouts to me in the first half was Nico Gonzalez, looking much more assured in possession, anticipating the opposition players pressing him, and progressing the ball. Made plenty of clever recoveries like the one included below, very much Rodri coded. Cherki used his burst of pace well in the opposition half to counter-press.

25' Erling Haaland 1-0   

Rico Lewis had a couple of these passes back into the middle that didn't lead to a goal, but this time it does. Rayan Cherki passes to him between the lines, driving towards the box before picking out Erling Haaland, who takes a touch and finishes with his weak foot to the far left corner. Notice how, as John Stones makes the near-post run, Erling Haaland stays back in the space.

Noticable how much Haaland looks to have improved in his link-up play, combining with players around the top of the box, and dropping to collect the ball in the buildup. The role of Cherki in the first half, given plenty of freedom to move across the final third and create, as other players advance. De Bruyne was incredible at creating chances for City after drifting out wide, able to drive crosses into the box. With Cherki, I think you’ll see more of him combining in tight spaces centrally.

These are the situations to keep an eye on James Trafford throughout this season, to improve on. John Stones helped a lot, given how proactive he is in getting open for a pass. Khusanov could do better with that, moving deeper on the other side of Trafford to give him an option. Still, taking a touch and closing off his body makes him easy to press. Ederson here would be facing forward and wouldn't take a touch, playing the ball over the top straight away.

John Stones is unfortunate here as the ball goes through his legs, but it is an example of poorly timed jumps from the FBs (Rico Lewis), giving the opposition enough time to play over the top. The rest of the team is positioned better than we saw last season, which stops them from playing inside. The intensity from Bobb, Nico pushed up, Cherki moving across, and both central defenders were aggressive. That’s much better than we saw last season.

In the second half, we saw a near-complete change in the team, with only Erling Haaland staying on. Now, in the build-up, there was a back four as Ederson joined them, Ake deeper as the LB. Nunes is moving inside, looking to receive the ball, turn, and drive forward. Savinho and Doku are holding the width up high. Reijnders is looking to make runs in behind, attacking the right half-space alongside Savinho, or supporting Haaland in the middle. Highlights just how useful Reijnders is that across three different games, you can change up his midfield role, and he’ll do the job. That’s going to get him lots of minutes this season.

The best work from City came down the right side, through Savinho and Reijnders, compared to the left side, with Doku isolated. Now, that’s fine if you can consistently find him 1v1, but often it was too slow, so he’d be doubled up, waiting for Bernardo or Ake to support. He could have done better on a couple of box entries, but nothing to be concerned about. Neither would I have any concerns about Marmoush, who made plenty of good runs and worked hard off the ball. Wasn’t picked out enough. Great to have those two different options in the team on the left side though.

The runs Savinho was making, this one in particular, picked out from Gundogan, were encouraging to see. Along with Doku, both of them last season were always players wanting the ball at their feet, rather than mixing up their movement with runs behind or from out-to-in. Signs of that happening, in this match and the CWC, were good to see.

59' Tijjani Reijnders 2-0

You can see the value of Reijnders' movement into the box in supporting the wingers. Savinho doesn't need to beat the two players up against him; just drop them enough to open up the space for a pass to Reijnders, who finishes into the far left corner.

82' Tijjani Reijnders 3-0

Reijnders again, but this time arriving a little later, as Savinho passes inside to Mukasa for a lovely touch into the space for him to run onto. Another cool finish into the far left corner.

In the lead-up to the move, we see Nunes able to receive the ball deep, turn an opposition player, and run towards the final third. That we saw a few times in the second half, with him finding free space drifting inside.

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Moving Forward

Players still need to go before the transfer window closes, and Guardiola spoke about it before the Palermo match. Assuming that Echeverri and Nypan go out on loan. That Ortega, Grealish, McAtee, and Phillips are moving on. To meet the CL limit for non-HG players, one player from Akanji, Kovacic, or Gundogan has to depart. They’re the only realistic non-HG players to move on. Now, Mateo Kovacic is set to be injured/in recovery until October. That leaves you two players who are not first-choice in their position and have plenty of competition to even get some level of minutes.

Rodri, Gvardiol, Foden, and Echeverri were all classed as ‘not fully fit’ to travel. Rodri to play minutes but not start games until after the first international break. Foden, with a knock on his ankle, could be involved against Wolves. Gvardiol is unknown. Trying to guess the team against Wolves is tough after that friendly match, given how many players performed well, and neither half having a team I expect to start against Wolves.

Haaland, Reijnders, Nico, Dias, Nunes, Ait-Nouri, and Ederson seem the safest bets to start the match, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see a CB pairing of Stones-Khusanov again to start. You’re going to need to break down a back five and deal with some threatening players in transition, the likes of Larsen and new signing Jhon Arias.

Reijnders was a player I was looking forward to seeing this season, in particular for his carrying ability, as I highlighted in the thread below, but in the match against Palermo, we saw his running capacity without the ball shine. Always on the move, looking for space and composure to finish in the box once he gets the ball. At least two out of three times.

Divine Mukasa is only 17 years old and came on for his first team debut against Palermo, a player who was incredible in the U18s PL last season, and in the thread below, you can learn all about him. His touch to set up Reijnders’ second goal will be the talking point, but for me, the most impressive part was how seamlessly he slotted into the team. Wasn’t wasteful on the ball, dropping into the right pockets of space to give a passing option, and worked hard to win it back. Expect he’ll play mostly with the EDS this season, train with the first-team, and pick up minutes in the cup competitions.

If you wanted to learn more about James Trafford ahead of the new season, then check out the in-depth article, going through his strengths and weaknesses, linked below. 👇

Next up for Manchester City is the opening Premier League match against Wolves on Saturday, the 16th of August at 17:30 (UK). During the preseason Wolves have lost to Santa Clara, Lens, Girona, and Celta Vigo as they prepared for the new season. In this fixture last season, Manchester City won 2-1 after a 90+5’ winner from John Stones, a corner delivered by Phil Foden.