In the last five visits to Tottenham's new home, Manchester City have lost all five games, with a total of 84 shots and 0 goals on goal. What is even more disappointing to the fans is that the team's striker Haaland not only has 0 shots in the whole game, but also 0 touches in the opponent's penalty area. It seems understandable that the team lost 1-0.
Haaland has yet to score away from home against the BIG6 side so far this season. In 10 days' time, when the Blue Moon Legion visits the Emirates Stadium, will Arsenal read the defensive textbook from their north London arch-rival?
01. Eat and sleep and play Manchester City: Tottenham are real nemesis
A. Tottenham snatched a 1-0: Are Manchester City paying Lewis tuition?
From the position of the average touch point, Manchester City's front pressure is very high, in contrast, the home team Tottenham Hotspur let Kane rush forward to wait for the ball, driving the back row to follow up and push the counterattack.
Because Haaland was restrained, Manchester City's attack was difficult to gain, so Tottenham Hotspur played very well after taking a 1-0 lead.
Tottenham's dominant idea was to defend and counter-attack, but in the opening period, there were also attempts to press too high.
Manchester City's starting line-up uses a 442 formation, but there are not many people in the middle who have the ball. This time the striker Alvarez pulled back, while left-back Lewis closed in midfield to make up for the lack of midfield, but it ended up making a big mistake.
The key is that Hoibel broke Lewis this time, and the difference in strength between the two is large.
Tottenham, who counter-attacked, were given a 4-on-2 opportunity in front, Kane and Son Heung-min moved to the flanks of space, and the Manchester City defender was helpless.
From Alvarez's match with Perisic to Hojbel's break on Lewis, Tottenham's advantage in power is clear.
Pep Guardiola's starting line-up was still too taken for granted, and the opponent took advantage of Manchester City's power flaws, and Hoibel's beautiful split ball found Kane, who scored.
Manchester City used youngster Lewis to play left-back in this game, and his overall performance was good, and there were many highlights as a young man.
The problem is that he is still immature in some key rounds, whether against Kulusevski or Emerson, or often falling behind. I don't know if there will be a moment when Manchester City fans miss Cancelo a little.
This time Lewis missed a header and Emerson's pass was quite good, but Kane caught up with his left foot and volleyed and missed a 2-0 chance.
b. Tottenham fought back with tension: 1-0 was a shame
From the position of the pitch, it can be seen that when Tottenham do not have the ball, except for Kane, everyone else retreats.
After the team got the ball, the forward line used Son Heung-min's speed and Kulusevski's active running, and the trident was in place in an instant, with good tension.
This time Romelo made a steal on Grealish, and the subsequent counterattack was Son Heung-min who got the ball to push into the side, Perisic crossed the back point,
Unfortunately, Kane missed a half-step and missed another 2-0 chance (Kane also had a chance to face the goalkeeper, and Son Heung-min's counter-attack was quite good).
02. Tottenham's 50 million incentive plan: "Old Mo, I want to fight back!" ”
A. City have too few scoring chances: Emerson is Tottenham's first goal
As you can see from the statistics, Tottenham's expected goals have always been higher than Manchester City's after taking a 1-0 lead.
On the one hand, Tottenham have more and more counter-attacking opportunities, and on the other hand, their defence has extremely limited City's attack.
Because De Bruyne didn't start, City's creativity in front of the box in the first half was limited. At the same time, Tottenham's defense is very targeted, arranging a defender to always stay in front of Haaland, limiting crosses or straight balls to the Norwegian.
In desperation, Manchester City can only choose to play the back point, hoping that Grealish will do it back and let Haaland find the opportunity to score two penalties.
Why Emerson said he was Tottenham's best of the game was first of all that he completely limited City's strong side with the ball on one at his feet.
The latter had no choice but to return the pass, and as a result, Manchester City's pass from the right flank hit the back point, trying to detour the ball to find Haaland, but Emerson could always complete the clearance or interception.
b. $50 million incentive plan: Emerson lived
Tottenham spent nearly $50 million on right-back Polo, sacked Doherty and loaned Spencer out. Unexpectedly, Emerson has performed well in recent matches, but there are signs of being activated.
Emerson has faced Manchester City many times, but he has actually played well. Because when Manchester City is the main attacker, his defensive characteristics can be released, and the problem of mediocre passing in attack can be covered up (Emerson, who used to be the first full-back in La Liga, needs a wing-forward to drive, allowing him to play crosses without the ball, which is unlikely to be such a chance under the Premier League play).
City's problem is that after releasing Jesus and Raheem Sterling and loaning Joao Cancelo, they found that they relied more and more on Grealish on the wing.
Grealish faced Emerson and failed in almost every attack with the ball. Even if you don't have the ball, you don't have a chance.
03. I can't get the ball! Haaland 0 shots on goal + 0 touches in the opponent's penalty area
a. After De Bruyne's appearance: some changes
So far this season, Haaland has scored 0 goals away from home against other Big5 teams in the Premier League.
However, in this away game against Tottenham, he not only did not score, but also 0 shots, and even 0 touches in the Tottenham penalty area. Can't Haaland play in the high-end innings? Or is the problem with Manchester City's tactics?
De Bruyne's appearance helped Manchester City a lot. He could go more to catch the ball between Tottenham midfield and the back line.
Because Tottenham's double back cover is limited, there is a certain amount of space behind it. In particular, Alvarez retreated and counter-inserted together, pulling out the space of the combination of three central defenders and forming a certain threat.
This time with Haaland against the centre-back, Alvarez retreated to match De Bruyne's small ball, the former turned and shot directly, perhaps Manchester City's best attacking cooperation of the game, but unfortunately it was slightly deflected.
b. Emerson's tactical value: Just limited Manchester City's attack
If Emerson beat Grealish alone in the first 60 minutes, the help Emerson brought to Tottenham in the second 30 minutes was the tactical value of the defensive end.
Winning eight one-on-one one-on-one faces, creating five fouls, and contributing six saves, two tackles, two interceptions and one key pass, Emerson was one of Tottenham's core competencies in securing a 1-0 victory.
As you can see from the image below, De Bruyne can pick up the ball and pass between Tottenham's two defensive lines. In this way, the weakness of the home team is exposed. Because of Tottenham's three-centre-back + double-back system, there are deficiencies in turning and moving after all.
Kulu tried to pinch Grealish with Emerson, but De Bruyne behind him was completely empty. Cristiano Romelo tops out, and once he is successfully cut in the ribs by Grealish, then Haaland can easily outflank the pie in front of the goal.
Manchester City's attacking characteristics are to stretch the width and hit the ribs, and finally many people grab the point in the middle to form a fatal blow in front of the goal.
If Emerson hadn't turned over from the outside to chase and block Grealish, once the latter sent the pass, whether it was a flat draw for Haaland to cover the front and back points, or an inverted triangle to the top of the penalty area, it would have been a dead corner that Tottenham could not prevent.
The goal also exposed City's lack of a wide impact after the departure of Raheem Sterling and Jesus. Grealish's personal ability is really not enough to bear the burden of tackling tough problems.
De Bruyne played the ball beautifully, hitting Cristiano Romeiro's back and tearing the ribs of the Tottenham defence. But Emerson's next recovery was too timely, nipping the crisis in the bud.
Grealish was helpless against Emerson with the ball, so the ball would return from City's left flank to the right, using De Bruyne's cross to find Haaland.
But this time it was no one else who solved the siege, it was Emerson.
Even Gundogan was scheduled to play in the final moments, and he frequently inserted into the box to cover Grealish at the back point.
De Bruyne's transfer ball quality is very high, even if it is impossible to directly find Haaland's head (Haaland's header under the confrontation is not high), but originally the back point is 2-on-1, once the roundabout ball returns to the middle, Haaland's impact advantage in front of goal can be released.
It can be seen that in this wave of defense, Emerson is watertight against Grealish one-on-one. The latter returned the pass, the rib Gundogan cut forward without the ball, Emerson hurried inward.
If Emerson hadn't followed Gundogan at the time, his teammates would have been distracted and Haaland would have been able to open his seat. Seeing Emerson's successful fill, De Bruyne moved the ball to find Grealish, but was still cleared by Emerson.
He was even able to take the ball back from behind, leaving Grealish forced to foul and Tottenham won a free-kick at the back.
Conclusion:
Tottenham were extremely successful in defending and counter-attacking, and also took some chances against Lewis.
Manchester City next travels away to Arsenal, who also have a role similar to Emerson like Tomiyasu. Will Arteta set up targeted tactics and then play a sharp counterattack as well? Guardiola gave up a lot in order to buy Haaland, is it wise, maybe different people have different answers.