00:00Right then, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel.
00:03No prizes for guessing who I am and Al Halal of the Saudi Pro League have just stuck Manchester City's
00:11head down a toilet
00:12and then worked the flush with their foot, which is quite the shock.
00:17Now I've got a little bit of an unwritten rule on this channel, which is that when I cover one
00:22team in depth
00:23I try and give it a bit of a nice long break before I talk about them again, give everybody
00:27a shot, that sort of thing.
00:29So with that in mind, please enjoy the direct sequel to Friday's Why Man City's New Tactics Are Genius video
00:37How Al Halal Just Broke Man City's New Tactics.
00:43Yeah.
00:46And just in case you missed our incredibly subtle branding, all our Club World Cup coverage is brought to you
00:52in partnership
00:52with our broadcast overlords DAZN.
00:56All hail DAZN.
00:58But anyway, yes, if you click the link in the description, you can watch every single game in the tournament
01:03absolutely free, which is pretty good.
01:06Anyway, right, Al Halal beating Man City.
01:08What are we actually looking at here?
01:10Well, this is Simo Inzaghi coming into a brand new club and putting on a masterclass
01:16in how to immediately get them playing your brand of football
01:20without changing too much in the process.
01:25And if you recall your football heritage, you will remember that his Inter Milan side,
01:31when they were really good, not the Champions League final, played this 3-5-2 shape.
01:37It's not the back three we usually see in the Premier League with the sort of two tens in the
01:40centre forward.
01:40This is an old school three centre backs, wing backs, the same sort of midfield you get in a 4
01:46-3-3
01:46and two differently profiled centre forwards.
01:51And as you may recall, the hallmarks of Inzaghi's brand of football were defensive compactness,
01:57especially through the middle of the pitch,
01:58quick transitions in the wide areas and direct, lethal, ruthless, very funny, counterattacking play.
02:07And if you go back through that game last night, there's absolutely loads of defensive compactness,
02:13especially through the middle, quick transitions in wide areas and fluid, ruthless, whatever it was I said,
02:19counterattacking play.
02:20But Inzaghi has been in this job for four games.
02:25And despite religiously being a back three manager, he is not playing a back three.
02:31No, no, no, my friends.
02:33This is not Al-Halal at all.
02:35Ha ha!
02:35I have tricked you.
02:37Al-Halal are an absolute by-the-book, exactly as you would do it on Football Manager.
02:44I've made a total mess of this.
02:45Four, two, three, one.
02:48They've obviously got quite a lot of good players, but they like to use a back four.
02:51They're set up to have a double pivot, a number 10, a single centre-forward.
02:56And despite the clash of having a manager who wants to play a back three,
03:00they've drawn with Real Madrid.
03:02They've drawn with Salzburg.
03:03They've beaten Pachicca.
03:04And now they've put Manchester City out.
03:07So how has Inzaghi made all this fit together?
03:11Well, and not to just start handing out stray shots to any Man United fans,
03:16who may understandably be giving this a bit of a hate watch.
03:19But what Inzaghi's done is basically the opposite of what Ruben Amorim has done.
03:25Instead of arriving at a new club and forcing a tactical shape on a team
03:30in the hope that your playing style will follow as a consequence,
03:33Inzaghi has instead tried to instill his playing style in this team
03:38while allowing them to remain in a shape they're comfortable in.
03:43Well, to put that in a slightly less confusing way,
03:45basically Inzaghi's come in and gone play style first with these players.
03:49And then maybe just the formation emerges as a consequence.
03:52Whereas Amorim, and I swear this isn't a sly dig,
03:55just feels like a pertinent example,
03:56has come in and gone,
03:57right, you must play in this shape.
03:59And then just magically, what I want you to do will happen.
04:03And probably the best way to illustrate this
04:06is through the use of Ruben Neves,
04:08who I thought was absolutely sensational in this game last night.
04:12He's obviously technically excellent and really good in midfield,
04:15but he's also fundamentally a very intelligent footballer
04:19and quite physically robust.
04:21So out of possession against Man City,
04:23you would see him drop in between the centre-backs
04:27to effectively give them a back three without having a back three.
04:31And as a result, you're able to get that flat five defensive compactness
04:35that we know Inzaghi really likes to have.
04:37But as soon as they then do get the ball,
04:39he can just step back into midfield and immediately,
04:43they're back in a shape they're really used to playing
04:46that gets the most out of him in possession as well.
04:49But if you look at this here,
04:50this is the exact shape Inter used to defend in.
04:53The wing-backs are alongside the three centre-backs.
04:55You've got three central midfielders in front
04:57with one prioritising,
04:59shielding this space between the lines,
05:02and then two forwards to chase down the ball
05:05and stop any central passes.
05:07Inzaghi's managed to get that exact 3-5-2 defensive shape
05:11out of a 4-2-3-1,
05:13just by having one player be very comfortable in the back line.
05:17And look, right, obviously I'm not daft.
05:19I know for all they get this structural stuff right,
05:21they only go and beat Man City
05:22because of an unreal save from the goalkeeper
05:25and a last-minute clearance that was so good,
05:27I actually dropped my spoon back into my cornflakes this morning
05:31when I was watching that.
05:32But that's the thing about football, isn't it?
05:35For your last-minute clearance in the round of 16
05:38to beat Manchester City,
05:39you have to already be beating Manchester City,
05:43and this is why they were doing that.
05:45And I honestly think if they'd appointed any other manager last month,
05:48they would not be in that position in the last couple of minutes.
05:50They probably wouldn't even be in this game full stop,
05:54let alone crying at the final whistle.
05:56But what about those goals there?
05:57What about that quick transitional play in the wide areas
06:00and the direct, violent, merciless, counterattacking stuff
06:03or whatever it was I said at the start of the video?
06:06Well, Inzaghi has managed to instill the benefits of that
06:10from his original system
06:12without having to instill his original system.
06:16Again.
06:17So while we were, yes, positively gushing
06:19about Man City's new shape in the last video
06:21because we said it's going to give them
06:23this sixth-man running ability
06:25with the full-backs in these inside channels,
06:26which will help them to break down low blocks
06:29because of the profiles and because of the extra player,
06:31yadda yadda, look what happened.
06:34For their first goal, you've got full-back Aitnori,
06:36a sixth-man running,
06:38making this run into the inside channel
06:41to break down the low blocks,
06:42and that's what gets them the goal.
06:44Well done, me, eh?
06:46What an observation.
06:47But it was not lost on me
06:48or indeed many people in the comments
06:51that while this system will probably work
06:52really, really well
06:54when it works really, really well,
06:56it does nothing to help
06:58one of Manchester City's most notable Achilles heels,
07:01the space down the side of the centre-backs.
07:04If they are set up like this
07:06and they're blocking you in
07:07and you can get out into there,
07:09they could be in a lot of trouble.
07:10Now, it is my assumption
07:11that Guardiola is hoping to offset this risk
07:14by packing the team
07:15with much younger, fitter, more athletic players
07:18that can help with the counter-attacking thing
07:20and running back towards their own goal,
07:22which makes the decision
07:23to start both Bernardo Silva and Gundogan
07:27on either side of Reinders.
07:29A bit of a weird one
07:31because they're obviously technically
07:33unbelievable as a three,
07:34but probably not the strongest.
07:37Probably not going to be the best
07:38at breaking up breaks.
07:40Breaking up breaks.
07:41Breaking up breaks?
07:43Yeah, we'll go with that.
07:44And even when they brought Rodri on,
07:45he didn't quite look the full quid to me.
07:47There's been some stuff this morning
07:48that he might be having
07:49a small injury sort of issue.
07:51So City didn't just struggle
07:52to stop counter-attacks.
07:53They were struggling to stop
07:54any sort of direct running whatsoever.
07:57Like in the first minute of that second half,
07:59Malcolm spins Ait Nori and attacks,
08:01say it with me everybody,
08:03the space down the side of the centre-backs
08:06and manages to pull Man City
08:08into this defensive shape
08:1234 seconds after the restart.
08:14That is when you should be at your most solid.
08:16So now you've got all this space here
08:19and if that lad over on the far side
08:21gets a wriggle on,
08:22you've got a three versus two
08:23at the back post.
08:24And the thing is,
08:25if you are a Manchester City fan,
08:28or you remember me doing the video on it
08:29like nine months ago,
08:31this should look worryingly familiar.
08:34This panicked narrowness from the defenders,
08:38the midfield that's been entirely bypassed,
08:40the yawning chasms,
08:42both left and right,
08:44crying out for a pass.
08:45This is Brighton against Brighton
08:47in November 2004.
08:50It's exactly the same problem.
08:52And just once Al Halal realised
08:53they could get in behind really easily,
08:55and to be fair to Man City,
08:57that's got to do with the heat as well
08:58and the amount of games they've played,
09:00it's harder and harder to press the ball,
09:01it's harder and harder
09:02to make these recovery runs.
09:03But regardless,
09:05once Al Halal realised that was on,
09:07they did it over and over and over again.
09:11Like the Malcolm goal is just picture-perfect
09:13counter-attacking play.
09:14It's classic Inzaghi direct explosiveness.
09:18But they also got in here,
09:20and they got in here,
09:22and they got in here.
09:24Like City had nearly 70% of the ball
09:27in this match.
09:28I think like 84% in extra time.
09:32And yet Al Halal had 17 chances.
09:34Seven of them classed as big chances,
09:38i.e. you should probably score that,
09:40by Opta.
09:41Like you combine this still image
09:43with this still image,
09:44and that is just what a proper,
09:46well-executed game plan
09:48winds up looking like.
09:50And for the winner,
09:51I mean, just chuck a dishcloth
09:52over this defensive shape.
09:54You've got four players in the middle here,
09:56marking one man.
09:58Still no pressure on the ball.
10:00And once again,
10:01both the flanks absolutely wide open.
10:04And again, yeah,
10:05all right,
10:05bit fortunate with the rebound,
10:06but if you're going to conspire
10:08to not stop the cross,
10:10and then somehow
10:10not tightly mark
10:12the players in the box
10:13when it comes in,
10:15that's what you get.
10:16So yeah,
10:17I still do think Pep Guardiola's
10:18new Man City tactics
10:20are really good
10:21and really clever,
10:21and they even proved in this game
10:23they work what they're supposed
10:25to work for,
10:25which is splitting open
10:26a really disciplined,
10:28sort of compact low block.
10:29But they also have not solved
10:31one of City's biggest issues
10:33from last season.
10:34So still work to do there,
10:36Pep.
10:38Pep's.
10:38So yeah,
10:39it's just going to leave that there
10:41because once again,
10:41we're in the middle of a heat wave.
10:43So I want to keep this nice
10:44and sort of streamlined
10:45so you've definitely got time
10:47to both watch it
10:48and then enjoy a Larga Shandy
10:50within clear sight
10:51of a nice water feature.
10:54That's what I'm going to do.
10:55Thank you once again
10:55to our mighty broadcast overlords,
10:58DAZN.
10:58You can click the link
10:59in the description
10:59and watch every remaining game
11:01in the Club World Cup
11:02absolutely free
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11:04if for some reason
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11:07all the social medias
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11:09C-L-E-R-Y.
11:10And if you haven't already
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11:13what the hell are you playing at?
11:14We've got fun stuff coming.
11:16We've got all the transfer videos
11:17this summer
11:18and then the Premier League
11:19is going to start again
11:19and the Women's Euros.
11:20There's going to be so,
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11:25because I'm not very good at it.
11:28So click that button.
11:28You'll get all the future fun stuff
11:30and that was it.
11:31That was my checklist.
11:33Man City are out.
11:34So just a clear path
11:36for Chelsea
11:37to win like 120 million quid
11:39and not have to worry
11:40about PSR
11:41ever again.
11:43If they did in the first place,
11:45that feels like another video.
11:46Goodbye.
11:46Bye.
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