Nobody likes a know-it-all manque. It is one of the many, many reasons I hate Donald Trump. But I am a know-it-all manque. I understand why nobody likes me. And so, go on, bring it.
Both [Dark Vader and Pep Guardiola. No, I am not making that up. That's the comparison The Guardian makes] have created awesome weaponry that can obliterate opponents, whether Alderaan or Watford. Yet both cannot help but leave in their destructive creations a fatal flaw. Bournemouth nearly exploited it. Norwich did and on Sunday, in winning 2-0 at the Etihad, so did Wolves.
Perhaps the flaw is unavoidable. Perhaps it is even necessary for the functioning of the machine’s attacking capability. But it is there, nonetheless. City will rack up huge numbers of goals. They will dominate sides so utterly that they can keep clean sheets by keeping the ball. But they will always be vulnerable to teams who can beat their press, who can run in behind them, who can make their back four turn, who can make their defenders defend.
A high line lets City control possession and facilitates their attacking might but it always gives opponents a chance. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/oct/07/pep-guardiola-manchester-city-darth-vader-death-star-dark-side
I have been saying that since Pep has been at City. In complete honesty I have been saying something slightly different, that the way to beat Pep's boys is to press them. If an opponent lays back he will be obliterated. I have said since the beginning of tiki-taka that the opponent must pressure the ball. Do not give them yards of real estate to pass. Jump in the passing lanes. Play man-to-man, do not play "zone" defense as it is called in basketball and tackle football in the colonies. Instead opponents play City by "parking the bus," backpedaling in a "prevent defense" that, it is also said over here, prevents nothing but victory. How hard is it to see this? I (Here I go again) saw it the first time I saw tiki-taka diagrammed. Tiki-taka's exploitative flaw is dependence on precision passing. The opponent has to cooperate by adopting a rope-a-dope strategy of letting City's arsenal of guns file away at the wall. Another analogy to another sport. Have you ever boxed? I have not except with my single-digit aged son and his friend. Of course I had an adult's firepower to obliterate my opponents but I sort of like my son and didn't want to hurt him. So I played rope-a-dope, letting him, and his friend by turns, wail on me on my knees. We played three minutes rounds and they won if I fell; I won if I stayed upright (on my knees). I never won. I had so must tension and expended so much energy just kneeling there absorbing the blows that I fell over exhausted before the round ended. I do not know how Muhammad Ali did it against George Foreman, egads. The point of the boxing analogy is that incongruously the rop-a-doper is not "taking a breather," not "conserving his strength," he is counting the seconds with every muscle in his body tensed up. The pressure is exhausting. It must be similar to those opponents of City who continually backpedal and absorb cannon shots from City's artillery. From these three sports, two of them American, I have had an abiding conviction since Pep came to Manchester that opponents' strategy has been all wrong. Switching the analogy back to basketball again, you let LeBron James bring the ball up to half court, survey with his unmatched vision his attacking zone and you, my friend, are going to get your ass posterized with pin-point, often no-look passes that induce panic in you and LeBron will slice your bus in two and dunk on your head or kick to a wing who will bury a three pointer. I have never understood why continental soccer coaches do not see these analogies, especially to NBA basketball which is the nearest analogy to soccer. It is a truism in the American team sports that "a good defense beats a good offense every time." A good defense both in NBA basketball and in soccer is pressuring the ball. You will disrupt the exquisite timing that tiki-taka relies upon. Passes will be slightly hurried by your pressure and go slightly awry. Again, timing. And occasionally, you will get a steal and break in on Ederson alone or two-on-one. That is what Wolves did Sunday on their first goal. I swear to you, my English friends, if a basketball team playing one of LeBron's settled into a passive, back pedaling, rope-a-dope this would happen: The defensive team's coach would call an immediate time-out, give his players the blow dryer treatment, throw his clipboard and make wholesale substitutions. It would not stand and it would take about five minutes of playing time before the coach lost his mind.
I have been saying that since Pep has been at City. In complete honesty I have been saying something slightly different, that the way to beat Pep's boys is to press them. If an opponent lays back he will be obliterated. I have said since the beginning of tiki-taka that the opponent must pressure the ball. Do not give them yards of real estate to pass. Jump in the passing lanes. Play man-to-man, do not play "zone" defense as it is called in basketball and tackle football in the colonies. Instead opponents play City by "parking the bus," backpedaling in a "prevent defense" that, it is also said over here, prevents nothing but victory. How hard is it to see this? I (Here I go again) saw it the first time I saw tiki-taka diagrammed. Tiki-taka's exploitative flaw is dependence on precision passing. The opponent has to cooperate by adopting a rope-a-dope strategy of letting City's arsenal of guns file away at the wall. Another analogy to another sport. Have you ever boxed? I have not except with my single-digit aged son and his friend. Of course I had an adult's firepower to obliterate my opponents but I sort of like my son and didn't want to hurt him. So I played rope-a-dope, letting him, and his friend by turns, wail on me on my knees. We played three minutes rounds and they won if I fell; I won if I stayed upright (on my knees). I never won. I had so must tension and expended so much energy just kneeling there absorbing the blows that I fell over exhausted before the round ended. I do not know how Muhammad Ali did it against George Foreman, egads. The point of the boxing analogy is that incongruously the rop-a-doper is not "taking a breather," not "conserving his strength," he is counting the seconds with every muscle in his body tensed up. The pressure is exhausting. It must be similar to those opponents of City who continually backpedal and absorb cannon shots from City's artillery. From these three sports, two of them American, I have had an abiding conviction since Pep came to Manchester that opponents' strategy has been all wrong. Switching the analogy back to basketball again, you let LeBron James bring the ball up to half court, survey with his unmatched vision his attacking zone and you, my friend, are going to get your ass posterized with pin-point, often no-look passes that induce panic in you and LeBron will slice your bus in two and dunk on your head or kick to a wing who will bury a three pointer. I have never understood why continental soccer coaches do not see these analogies, especially to NBA basketball which is the nearest analogy to soccer. It is a truism in the American team sports that "a good defense beats a good offense every time." A good defense both in NBA basketball and in soccer is pressuring the ball. You will disrupt the exquisite timing that tiki-taka relies upon. Passes will be slightly hurried by your pressure and go slightly awry. Again, timing. And occasionally, you will get a steal and break in on Ederson alone or two-on-one. That is what Wolves did Sunday on their first goal. I swear to you, my English friends, if a basketball team playing one of LeBron's settled into a passive, back pedaling, rope-a-dope this would happen: The defensive team's coach would call an immediate time-out, give his players the blow dryer treatment, throw his clipboard and make wholesale substitutions. It would not stand and it would take about five minutes of playing time before the coach lost his mind.
