Pep Guardiola, I am seriously impressed! Not because your team has just beaten my lot, or that most pundits are saying that the title is yours to lose, and that you may go the season unbeaten. You impressed me because you came up with a clever tactical move that I had not seen before, and I have watched a LOT of football.
When a goal-kick is awarded, there are two basic options
1. The keeper plays the ball short to a defender or a midfielder, who will turn in possession to face the eleven opponents. An option if the opposition has basically retreated to the half-way line.
2. The keeper kicks it long. Sometimes with this option all the attackers will move to one side of the pitch and all twenty outfield players congregate in a small area of the pitch.
Let me try to explain what Man City did. In the second half at 2-0 they had a goal-kick. As the keeper placed the ball, two defenders moved to the edge of the box, one left and one right, almost towards each corner flag. This encouraged three of our attackers to press up to the edge of the penalty area, to stop a short goal-kick, or to deny an easy clearance, if the keeper passed to either of them.
At the same time Man City pushed THREE attackers deep into our half, across the pitch, in offside positions (but of course you can’t be offside direct from a goal-kick). We responded by bringing four or five defenders back to guard against the long goal-kick.
In complete contrast to the usual long goal-kick where the immediate active area is very small, Man City have now created a huge active area 100 yards square, in the middle of which there are relatively few players. What the keeper now does is chip the ball to one of his team-mates in this wide-open midfield area, who heads the ball inside to Kevin De Bruyne, who is ready to receive the expected knock-down. He can now run forward unchallenged for 20 to 30 yards straight at the opposition back line. And, he already has three of his team-mates in advanced positions to interact with!
They tried it twice, and it worked twice. From a goal-kick to a goal-scoring position in the blink of an eye. I thought it was very clever, obviously created on the training-ground, and it was extremely effective. With the benefit of hindsight, you perhaps ought to let them play it short, unchallenged, and drop your attackers back into midfield. But in the heat of the battle, you feel the need to press, and we fell for it. I suspect we will not be the last.