Villarreal 0-2 Manchester City Review

Champions League LP GW3

This was an important win for Manchester City to get, against Villarreal, who were unbeaten at home this season. To put to bed any anxiety of winning away from home in the Champions League. Ahead of another tricky away game against Aston Villa. Resting some key players and seeing others in the squad step up.

MOTM: SAVINHO

Notable Stats:

• Manchester City win their first away game in the Champions League since Bratislava (01/10/2024). Before that, it was Copenhagen (13/02/2024).

• Villarreal lost their first home game of the season. Only the fourth time they've lost at home since the beginning of the 24/25 season (Manchester City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Real Betis).

• Erling Haaland (942) and Ruben Dias (905) are the first two City players to reach 900+ minutes played this season.

• Donnarumma has now kept three consecutive clean sheets for Manchester City. The team has kept seven clean sheets across the opening twelve games of the season.

• Bernardo Silva has only started two of the last six games.

Game Stats:

Villarreal 0-2 Manchester City

• xG: 1.99 - 2.49

• xThreat: 0.79 - 1.36

• Possession: 34.5% - 65.5%

• Field Tilt: 46.1% - 53.9%

• Penalty Box Shots: 7 - 7

• Deep Entries: 7 - 17

• PPDA: 11.0 - 6.8

• High Turnovers: 6 - 4

• Buildup Completion: 86.1% - 93.2%

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. 👇

This is how Manchester City set up when in possession against Villarreal, who sat in their 4-4-2 block. Reverting to what we’re used to seeing during the 22/23 season, with John Stones inverting into midfield from RCB, to play alongside Nico Gonzalez. Doku and Savinho are holding the width whilst your two eights are operating between the lines in Silva and Lewis.

Nunes, as the RCB in possession, a role he struggled with initially last season, put in a good performance. Much more relaxed in possession, not being too drawn towards the ball. The back three can deal with the two strikers of Villarreal in transition. Looking to find the passes into Stones and Nico, who can shift the ball out to the wingers, or play through the lines.

It’s key to this setup that the wingers are disciplined in holding the width, pulling out the full-backs in the Villarreal back-four, and opening up space for the likes of Lewis, Silva, and Haaland in running into the box.

Manchester City made the most, especially in the first half, of attacking down the right side. Aiming to draw out Buchanan to create space and find Savinho 1v1 against Pedraza, who can then drive into the box. Jeremy Doku, on the other side, was left isolated as an option for a switch and to stretch the pitch.

All of which you can see play out with the box entries from Manchester City coming down the right side with Savinho. Once in space 1v1, he’s excellent at driving back the opposition defender, pulling others towards him, to free up his teammates inside the box.

Erling Haaland 17' 0-1 

The opening goal comes after Manchester City eventually gets the timing right to pick out the run of Rico Lewis into the box. Nunes skipping Stones, passing straight to Savinho, who can play it through for Lewis. Similar to his assist against Wolves, this time he cuts back to the top of the 6-yard box as Haaland changes his run to arrive and score.

Worth mentioning the double movement of Haaland, initially, he makes a run to the back-post, then changes to cut back across in front of the defender. All the space for him to attack.

Bernardo Silva 40' 0-2  

Lewis pulls out wide to receive from Dias, turns, and drives forward with the ball before laying it off to Savinho, isolated on the right. He makes his way into the box, stands up the defender, and pulls two more towards him before chipping a cross into the middle of the box for Bernardo Silva to score. Silva starts his run following behind Haaland, with their RB tracking Doku, RCB tacking Haaland. He's able to drift into the space completely unmarked.

Other than the claim by Donnarumma that Comesana was trying to contest (33’), which made up 0.57xG, and the shot by Gueye from outside the box, Villarreal was kept to very little in the first half. Manchester City, on the other hand, had four big chances and could have been out of sight by half-time. Good chance for Jeremy Doku, but the pass was a bit behind from Savinho. Header for Haaland after Bernardos’ run was picked out by Doku. The team was careful to time their runs well, as we saw work out for both of the goals.

The two-goal lead then plays an important role in the second half, and Manchester City has a comfortable margin to manage the game. Villarreal were more aggressive in their press, and were able to have a good spell of possession between 68’ - 77’ with 6 shots. 3 missed the goal, 1 was saved, and 2 were blocked. Followed by a couple of headers off set-pieces in the final minute. City was sloppy in possession to lose the ball a few times in their own half, and not dominant in the ground duels. Their success rate dropped from 70% to 44% across the two halves.

Reijnders and Bobb came on towards the end of the second half (73’), which added some fresh legs to the team, but I don’t think either quite had the impact they’d have hoped going forward.

Rayan Cherki and Omar Marmoush (86’) came on for the final five minutes of the match, with the two of them combining for a couple of chances to make it 0-3. The limited amount of time is telling of their fitness levels after returning from injury, but encouraging signs ahead of some tough games. To have those options on the bench. The coming League Cup match against Swansea is a great opportunity to get the returning players a full ninety minutes.

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Moving Forward

It’s the result that was important above all else. Continue the momentum into a tough away match against Aston Villa. Remain in the top eight of the CL league phase. Settle the fear of not being able to win away from home in the CL. Impressive first-half performance to play through Villarreal, find the spaces, and create chances.

In the second half, they struggled to drop the opposition as much, to then create the chances they had in the first half. But they were stable and up by two goals. Managing the remainder of the game. Dealing with teams that go more aggressive in the press and man-to-man is something to keep an eye on going forward. I don’t think Villarreal's performance is something to be overly concerned about. You’re going to suffer at points away from home in the CL when leading by two goals and the opposition has to come out. In the future, they need to punish teams in those moments to get the third goal.

Savinho would be my pick for MOTM, providing an assist and creating 4 chances. 5/6 dribbles completed. 6/9 ground duels won. 1 big chance missed. Led the team for progressive carries (9), carries into the penalty area (6), successful take-ons (5), ball recoveries (6), key passes (4), xA (0.7), progressive passes received (16), and touches in the opposition box (8). His performances are heading in the right direction. Plenty more to come from him.

The graphic by Ishdeep highlights the turnovers by Premier League teams this season by zone. Manchester City has only a couple more total turnovers than Arsenal, but quite different by zone. They’ll want to reduce the number in their own half, and the spot on the right side, just inside the opposition half.

An interesting point made in the Ninety Three Twenty review podcast was the feeling that Guardiola was making better use of his bench this season. Having the increased quality will be a factor, but as we’ve seen lately with injuries, he’s not had tonnes of options to bring on. Well, comparing to last season, the numbers back it up. Close to using five subs every single PL match of the season so far.

I’ve highlighted some examples in recent games of how the team is looking to create opportunities on either side, essentially creating a triangle with two runners ahead of the passer, to get in behind the opposition's back line. Encouraging to see them continue to add different ways of creating chances so far this season. 👇

Next up for Manchester City is Aston Villa (A) on the 26th of October at 14:00 (UK). They’re sitting 11th in the Premier League table and have won both of their games in the Europa League. Villa have won two PL games at home this season, against Fulham (3-1) and Burnley (2-1). They played on Thursday evening against Go Ahead Eagles in the Netherlands, before travelling back to play Manchester City.

If you haven’t checked out our YouTube channel, then you can find the review of the match against Villarreal linked below. 👇