Was wondering how they do it so well and sure it’s been that way since Sheikh Mansour bought the club. At other big clubs there’s a first XI that’s going to play most weeks with some squad players on the fringes when fit whereas at City I’ve noticed that they could probably field 2 good starting XIs from one week to the next and wouldn’t struggle. Like sometimes you’ll see Stones and Ake in defence then another game it’s Dias and Gvardiol, sometimes Akanji plays there. Been like that for quite a while remembering when it was 4-4-2 under Mancini and Pellegrini having Aguero and Tevez up front with Dzeko and Balotelli before Negredo and Jovetic as back up. Whenever someone gets injured it’s barely even a problem and they seem to know how to manage big players really well, bit jealous as a United fan as whenever one player is dropped, it’s such a big deal.

Noticed that the formation also changes as well quite often, for example

3-2-4-1 vs Chelsea

3-4-2-1 vs Bournemouth

4-2-3-1 vs United

  • Jealous_Foot8613@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    The two players per position thing hasn’t been true for a while , they just have a lot of players who can play multiple roles and are so flexible , for example Bernardo is probably seen as both a midfielder and attacker but if Bernardo is on the pitch playing as a winger he obviously can’t then be subbed on as a midfielder.

    • misteraaaaa@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Exactly this. Look at the players mentioned in OPs post.

      Gvardiol. Ake. Akanji. Stones. Dias.

      They play CB and LB. That’s 5 players for 3 positions, and stones plays in midfield a lot.

      In the game against Chelsea, pep had 2 keepers on the bench and didn’t even name a full bench. That’s how lean their squad is. It’s just players being v positional flexible.

      For reference, United have 8 CBs/LBs - lisandro, varane, lindelof, maguire, Evans, shaw, malacia, reguillon - (8 players for 3 positions).

      Chelsea have 9 lbs/cbs - silva, colwill, fofana, badiashile, disasi, chalobah, cucu, chilwell, maatsen.

    • Disasterator@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Their key seems to have been to have a solid playmaking midfielder and then the pieces around him. KDB/Rodri/Kovacic can have good skill set to play through