Mah may struggle for City game time
RIYAD Mahrez’s future at City is a topic of conversation that is only going to receive more attention as the transfer window approaches.
The Algerian winger’s time at the club looked to have turned a corner last season as the integral role he played in the Blues’ run to the Champions League final made him Pep Guardiola’s go-to man.
Yet despite enjoying a full preseason, Mahrez has started just two Premier League games so far this campaign. On Wednesday, speculation surrounding his future forced him to rubbish claims that he intends to leave the club in January.
However, if Guardiola persists with a recent tactical switch, Mahrez may find himself reconsidering his decision.
In the first half of the 4-1 Champions League win against Club Brugge, City just didn’t look right. After a freak John Stones own goal had cancelled out Phil Foden’s opener, the Blues struggled to get in behind the Belgian side’s back five to create chances.
Every attack was predictable; the ball would be passed out to either Mahrez or Jack Grealish who would cut inside and cross. With little overlapping from the full-backs, City were very narrow.
Playing with ‘inverted’ wingers - left footers on the right wing and right footers on the left - has its upsides. The combination of a winger who can cut inside onto his stronger foot and an overlapping full-back who can get to the byline and cross creates a hellish two-pronged attack for an opposition defender to deal with.
The downside is that wingers waste precious seconds by cutting inside. In the event that no full-back overlaps, the winger has slowed the attack down and allowed opposition defenders to get back into a solid defensive shape.
Guardiola made no changes at half-time and in fairness, City did soon take the lead, but when he brought on the right-footed Raheem Sterling to go on the right wing and pushed the leftfooted Foden out to the left, City’s attacks looked much more fluid.
“Against a back five when you
go to the byline you break all the back five,” explained Guardiola when asked why he left Grealish out of his derby starting XI.
“With a back five, you play on the opposite foot so a right-footer if you go inside they wait for you.
“We thought the best way was to play Phil left and Gabby [Gabriel Jesus] right. Both can play in different positions so during the game we thought that they could play in different positions.
“In those positions you make actions to the byline and you drop them and you can make your attacks more efficient.”
Said approach yielded City’s opening goal of the 2-0 win at
Old Trafford. Left-back Joao Cancelo advanced to the byline and put in a left-footed cross which Eric Bailly could only convert past his goalkeeper David de Gea.
By and large, City’s struggles this season have come against teams that have defended deep and challenged them to break them down.
They did well against Chelsea and Liverpool, sides whose own attacking intentions left spaces for the Blues to exploit.
But when Southampton and Crystal Palace came to the Etihad Stadium and defended deep, City struggled to create. One of the best ways to unpick both back fives and low blocks is to get to the byline and in behind.
That creates a problem for Mahrez.
Unlike Guardiola’s other attackers, he plays pretty much exclusively in one position.
That means that if the City boss wants to start with a rightfooted right winger, Mahrez stays on the bench.
A lot of fans will be glad that Guardiola is starting to use wide players on their ‘natural’ sides with more frequency, but Mahrez certainly won’t be.
If he is going to stick with this tactic, it seems logical that the 31-year-old will start to consider his options.