Pep's Praise for Brentford: A Tactical Breakdown of the Etihad Clash

Despite a 2-1 loss at the Etihad, Brentford outplayed City in all phases during most of the first half. Pep Guardiola emphasized this in his post-match comments. This brief analysis highlights key moments where Brentford’s strengths disrupted the Citizens' high press.

Guardiola’s comments shows that it was a wake-up call for City early in the season, so it’s now clear to their future opponents how vulnerable they can be in certain areas, particularly when being in high press, which is the focus of this article.

“Thomas (Frank) is one of the best!” - Pep Guardiola

Wissa’s Dilemma

Manchester City relied on Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland as their first pressing line, both tasked with multiple roles. When the ball reached Brentford's right center-back, Haaland would close in while simultaneously applying shadow pressure on Brentford’s defensive midfielder, Christian Nørgaard The same pattern applied to De Bruyne, while the wingers curved their runs to block passing lanes to the wide players.

The issue arose in midfield, where Wissa dropped deep to create a central overload, leaving Mateo Kovačić in a difficult position—either mark Wissa or step up to press Janelt.

The last (White column) would easily offers support behind Belgium’s main man by moving wider than his shadow, receiving behind City’s first pressing line.
Then with Wissa (who’s pinning Kovačić) and Collins on the line, they can progress easily due to having numerical advantage.

Later on, Frank kept the unsolved Wissa’s question till the end.
This one is a little higher than the last, same pressing scheme from City with few differences; Lower wingers, to jump on wide players easily. Higher pivots, to cut the supply to Nørgaard and Janelt. And having Wissa in higher position made that 442 idea looks logical.

Ball goes wide, Collins receives, and the stage is set. Collins with one touch to Lewis-Potter the left wing-back.
Lewis-Potter falls deep dragging Walker behind him, but before that Wissa (white column) fall deep too once Collins released it.
It took one touch from Lewis-Potter then a quick turn to have dynamic advantage over Walker who had no clue what’s going on, then another touch into space from Wissa to find space in behind.

After that both Wissa and Mbeumo rushed into space to find the ball behind City’s defense, and it ended with Mbeumo almost scoring from the edge of the six-yards area.

Trapping Flekken

On a separated context each time Pep’s team pushed from mid to high-press when ball is going back to defense/keeper as a trigger, they had a typical scheme to force The Bees playing it long.

De Bruyne moves to Nørgaard, Savio goes inside to Janelt, marking both 6ers to avoid any central progression.
Jack Grealish goes to van den Berg, whilst Haaland cuts the lane to Pinnock, forcing Flekken to a trapped zone or a long ball.

Brentford tried to find their way out through Ajer the right wing-back, supported by Damsgard (white column), both trying to hold up play using their physical abilities against Rico Lewis and İlkay Gündoğan respectively.
Brentford's pivots, Nørgaard and Janelt, advanced high up the pitch, providing an outlet for the attack. With both KDB and Savio failing to track back, they were able to push City into a low block.

Another time, and almost the same thing, KDB (sky blue column) goes to Nørgaard to prevent central progression, while Haaland forcing Flekken to the trapped flank.

With low pressing intensity from Grealish on van den Berg he found a lane to Nørgaard, who exploited negative reaction from KDB as well leaded to Haaland falling all the way down trying to put some pressure on Nørgaard.
Ajer (Yellow column) drops pulling Rico Lewis up to him, with Damsgard (white column) is way higher than Gündo’s shadow this time.
Ajer tried to find Damsgard behind City’s Left-back but the execution wasn’t as good as the movement.

Finding Collins

Manchester City's pressing approach is more ball-oriented than man-to-man, which naturally leaves some opposing players unmarked—something City accepts.

However, the pressing system is designed to either prevent this or provide a clear strategy for handling it. Brentford broke through this system within just three minutes. As Brentford’s center-backs dropped deeper, City’s wingers, who are meant to block wide passing options, pushed higher.

Kovačić moved up to press Janelt, who had previously acted as Brentford’s outlet. Meanwhile, Pinnock's back steps forced Savio to move closer, creating a larger gap between the Brazilian and Collins.

So Flekken would easily send a wide diagonal to reach the flank players who had all the time in the world to reach space in behind. Potter wall passed it to Collins who tried to reach Mbeumo in space.

Ten minutes later, Pep with new adjustment, Savio (sky blue column) goes inside to mark Janelt, which makes Kovačić mission to solve Wissa’s dilemma way easier, KDB cutting passing lanes to Janelt too, in case they tried to find him through passing combinations or 3rd man movement. and Gündo goes to Norgard who wall passed van den Berg’s pass to Flekken.

KDB rushes to the keeper preventing him from delivering it centrally but that wasn’t the plan.
Pinnock takes quick back steps dragging Savio away from Collins and first line has been broken.

With Collins receiving the ball in a large pocket of space and time, Kovačić (sky blue column) was forced to push forward and close him down. This gave Wissa (white column) the freedom to reposition himself and create a passing lane behind the second line of Pep's team. On top of that, the space was too vast for Savio to track Wissa's movement, a direct result of Pinnock dropping deeper moments earlier. As a result, second line has been broken too.

One more time, Kovačić pointing at Janelt and looking at Pep expressing his confusion as Brentford has a free man up there and he’s pinned by Wissa.

Kevin De Bruyne pushes forward to keeper, Pinnock lowers his level dragging Savio as usual. And Flekken switches.

Seconds later, another scene, another switch, with Kovačić (sky blue column) expressing his frustration through his body language.

So he’s forced to react, jumps to Collins leaving Wissa behind him.

As a consequence Stones jumps out of The Citizens backline to defend Wissa but space is too far, and all what Wissa needed was only one touch to send Collins in space.

Then, they aimed to reach Lewis-Potter in behind, exploiting the space vacated by Stones.

Not a fairy tale

And because all the good things must come to an end, by the time Guardiola revamped his pressing system, transforming it to crush Wissa and Collins’ influence, the tide had shifted.

Savio dropped deep, almost level with Collins, while Haaland cut off Pinnock’s passing options. De Bruyne and Gündogan locked down Brentford’s pivots with suffocating pressure, a pattern seen in earlier phases.

Kovačić and Walker relentlessly closed down Wissa when he received the ball, with Stones primed to step in as an extra defender in the backline.

Haaland pressing Flekken, KDB switches to man marking instead of shadow pressing (white circles), and most importantly Savio gets lower to shorten space that he would jump to press Collins.

Flekken made the switch, and with a single touch, Collins found Wissa, who was quickly doubled up by City's pivot and right-back.

Manchester City regained possession, and just moments later, Haaland netted the equalizer.

“last season it was long balls to (Ivan) Toney, this season no. This season they play short passes, they break, they move inside, outside, and after they’re so quick”. Said Guardiola after the game.