That’s how City looked all match against Chelsea: stumped. “How do we break through this wall?” Only closer to the box. When you see City in a static formation passing horizontally you know that you have them beat.
There's the wall.
But two seconds later, it is losing formation and there are yawning gaps, especially on the left flank.
On two occasions we snuck a player through one of those gaps to break in on goal. One of them produced KDB’s goal. Chelsea played packed together so that we had to try to go around the wall on the flanks or shot-put the ball over.
Playing against City is like boxing rope-a-dope. It takes the right formation and requires enormous discipline by the players to stick to it and not crumble.
Here’s the wall again, but note the gaps. It’s like a wide-spaced dotted line. This is the beginning of De Bruyne’s goal.
Here’s how the goal played out.
The gap is so wide that two Angels fit through it. The Arch Angel goes through too but holds up as he sees Phil eying Kev. Play a wall not a beaded curtain Atli.
How do you beat tiki-taka? Until Chelsea did it I didn’t think a wall could. The way that Leicester and Jamie Vardy did it repeatedly was by pressing high and preventing or delaying City from settling in their bucky-ball formation. If you press and are opportunistic and are fast, as Vardy was, you can pounce and get a counter. Atletico did this in the opening kickoff:
Cityloves to start their tiki-taka from their back, so they often pass back into their own zone as here. At least they want to start from midfield. Tiki-taka requires space, the more the better. Deny them that space. If you press high and tight, one errant pass and you can have a breakaway on goal. Second-best you delay the formation. Worst case, they play hook-and-ladder on you for 90 minutes and score 15 goals.
You can't play a faux high press on City. What is that one guy in red doing chasing the ball and nobody up on the flanks? What, did you think you were going to scare the City guy with the ball? There are four blue shirts before you get to the second red shirt. That's a bullshit defense.
