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Looking at City's woes in this match, perhaps the root of the problem is fatigue from continuous play or flaws in the formation. Despite the fact that the battle that should have been won ended in a loss, making the gap between City and league leaders Arsenal more and more significant.
(starting lineup)
The game started with City in possession, but the team started to adjust their tactics against Everton's 541 formation defense. Right back Rico Lewis pressed forward into the center of the pitch, followed by three City defenders, with the intention of pushing DeBruyne and B.Silva further forward to create a press.
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Grealish looked a threat on the left, but as the game progressed he was firmly watched by Patterson, and his breaks and crosses looked out of reach. Everton stocked the center of the pitch with three central defenders, Godfrey, Coady, and Tarowski, to block City's passes to Haaland from the wings and the center of the pitch, a tactic that was effective throughout the game.
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In the 24th minute Everton's defense was momentarily disorganized when Grealish moved across the box and passed directly to the right where Mahrez received the ball.Mahrez made a break or draw on the right side of the box, dribbled past Mykolenko and crossed for Haaland to quickly slot in and score.
City, after taking the lead in the first period, could have continued to use the pattern of shifting left and right, but then they abandoned this strategy, and the ball was mainly concentrated on the left side of Grealish, but here there was not only Patterson, but also the solid iwobi, Everton's two full backs, Onana and Gueye, held the center and supported on both sides, and Grealish was too direct. Everton had seen through this and continued to stick to the defense.
In the second half, Everton continued to defend and formed a solid defense. City's problem was the lack of passing points in the middle of the field, the original 343 formation almost became 325 in the continuous siege, the middle of the field only Rodri, Ricolewis, and the front players waiting for a pass, City set up too much in front of the field, B.Silva is less often to return to the middle of the field, DeBruyne was blocked on the right side of the field, and looked tired, City lack of the second line of the follow up attacks City's flanks looked fragmented as the two wings also failed to recover to the center in a timely manner, coupled with a reduction in ball transfers.
In the 64th minute, near the midfield, Rodri tried to pass to Mahrez, but Gueye had already expected him to pass this line, and rushed out from behind RicoLewis to break the ball, and then passed directly to Gray to attack, City's original defense were backing up in place, but after Gray reached the penalty area, his teammates distracted the defenders, and Gray almost slipped after a few false starts, but then Gray almost slipped after a couple of dummies, but then Akanji, the defending center back, took a step back and Gray immediately fired in a shot from 17 yards, which became a wonderful world wave.
City tried to attack after being leveled, but the situation changed, Everton concentrated more on deadlocking, while several City players looked almost unable to run, five stood at the front and waited for the ball, without moving across the field to haul in the backs, as a result of which the attack naturally could not be started, instead Everton were able to break up a number of balls after adapting to City's pressure.
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Pep Guardiola did not make any substitutions at this crucial moment, and it was not until the 85th minute that he substituted Foden, Alvarez, Gundogan, Rico Lewis, who was not very useful, and Grealish, B.Silva. After the substitutions, City did show signs of offensive resurgence, and Foden's mobility on the left side of the field was significantly stronger than Grealish's. City also began to pass directly forward, and Foden was able to catch up with his explosiveness, and he had already made several crosses in the midfield. Foden was able to catch up with the explosive power, and he already had a few passes, Gundogan also increased the passing route in the midfield, City actually had the opportunity to score in the final stage of the second half, but it was too late to replace Foden, the final extra time although there are still 11 minutes, but Everton insisted on defending the end of the game, and ultimately, Everton only had two shots in the game to score a point. In the end, Everton only scored a point with 2 shots on goal, while Man City only had 3 shots on goal despite having 73% of the time on the ball. The lack of left and right transfers and center passing pivots in front of the ball, despite having too many players, was the key to the inability to win the game.
City were quite affected by the draw, and their next match against Arsenal was a win over Brighton, but the difference in points between the two teams was already 7 points. Although the league is still at the halfway point, the 7-point gap is already quite big. Not only do City need to chase points, but they also need to hope that Arsenal can't win.
