Winner takes all showdown
CITY ANALYSIS THE MAIN TALKING POINTS FROM CITY’S DEFEAT AT SPURS
IT was a high-risk strategy, and it didn’t pay off. Brendan Rodgers opted for a three-man back-line with a combined age of 98 and asked them to push up and squeeze the game. It was clear where Leicester City’s weak spots would be – in behind, on the counter – and it was evident Spurs had the tools – fleet-footed dribblers like Son Heung-min, and sharp finishers like Harry Kane – to do the damage.
That was how the game panned out.
It would be worrying if Brendan Rodgers had not noticed this as a potential problem, but his postmatch comments suggested he had, and had chosen to gamble on the added attacking possibilities the setup and style gave his side.
Plus, he perhaps felt there was no other way to play, given the club’s injury woes.
And anyway, Spurs’ game plan was high risk, too. They were voluntarily giving up 70 per cent of the possession, and plenty of territory, and hoped their defence would minimise the number of chances City created, or if shots did find their way to goal, that Hugo Lloris would save them.
That was also how the game panned out.
Both teams’ approaches benefit from scoring the first goal. Fortune favoured Spurs as Son’s shot deflected in off James Justin.
City’s attacking play deserved an equaliser thereafter, but they faced a goalkeeper in unbeatable form, with Lloris pulling off one of the saves of the season to deny Ayoze Perez.
When Kane scored goals two and three, Jose Mourinho shut the game down.
Since his Manchester United tenure, the Portuguese boss has been the subject of accusations that he’s past his best as a manager.
Maybe, but he still knows how to close out a win, and despite conceding the three goals in the first half, it was the second 45 where City were more disappointing, failing to muster any clear-cut opportunities. The troubling news for City now is that Mourinho has done his former side United a kindness in showing them exactly how to beat this injuryhit, not-quite-at-their-best City side ahead of next Sunday’s showdown. Because, worryingly for Rodgers, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a rapid front three in Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, and Mason Greenwood – who have hit 60 goals between them this season – and he has the Premier League’s secondbest defence.
IN only one game this season have City had more shots than they had at Spurs.
But while the 25 efforts at Southampton resulted in nine goals, the 24 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium resulted in none.
There were a fair few pot-shots in City’s tally, but they still managed 13 efforts inside the area, the most they have recorded in a Premier League game in 2020.
Spurs, meanwhile, had seven shots and three on target.
But everything fell their way, from the deflection, to Lloris’s bagful of saves, to Kane’s finish from a ludicrous angle.
The Expected Goals measure, which calculates the balance and quality of chances in a match, had City down as fashioning the better collection of opportunities. And yet they lost.
DEADLY: Harry Kane scores Spurs’ second goal in their 3-0 win on Sunday
Troublingly, Mourinho has shown his former side how to beat this injury-hit, not-quiteat-their-best City side
This has been a theme for the second half of the season.
In the first half of the campaign, in all of the 10 games in which City were the ‘better’ side by Expected Goals, they ended up with three points. In short, not once were they unfortunate.
Since the turn of the year, the stats have had them on top in 12 games. But in that dozen, they have won just six, drawing twice, and losing four.
From watching the games, it is clear to see City have not been as good in 2020 as they were in 2019, but their form has been exacerbated by a run of bad luck.