Crystal Palace handed Manchester City another stoppage in the title race at Selhurst Park on Saturday with a 2-2 draw and afterwards boss Oliver Glasner explained how he picked out weaknesses in the defending champions' game.
The result leaves City eight points off the leaders, with a game in hand at Liverpool, while Arsenal and Chelsea – both a point ahead of the title holders – will be looking to go clear with the London derbies . live on Sky Sports Sunday.
With fitness issues continuing to limit Pep Guardiola's options and expanding his available players, City are up against it. At Selhurst Park it became clear how opposition teams intend to hurt City at the moment.
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Highlights of the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Manchester City
Bring the intensity
“We knew we could play at a higher intensity (than City), all the data showed this,” Glasner said afterwards. “We knew when we got into transition we would get us in behind us. When we get them running they might struggle a bit.
“City have so much possession in every game, but they are the lowest in high intensity and sprint speeds and we are fifth or sixth in the league.
“Also, the games they lost this season, they lost to very high teams: Bournemouth, Tottenham and Brighton (and Liverpool).
“We were talking about it – we are a strength, our intensity, the running we can do behind us with our full-backs, our strikers and we thought this could help us by winning because it is not so easy to beat City with possession. I don't know many teams that can do this, so you have to find different things.
“These worked well – but it's just a draw!”
Of course the stats Glasner cites to illustrate his point. Going into this weekend, Man City were second in the Premier League for sprints this season.
Man City had gone out of the sprint in 10 of their 14 games in this round of games. In four of the six games where they had gone out by the biggest margin, they had lost.
Seven of their eight victories have come when they have either outscored their opponents in terms of distance covered or been within 2km of their opponents.
After the draw, Guardiola highlighted the pressure on his team at the moment. “We played in the last 15 minutes with 10 vs 11 (after the red card of Rico Lewis). ..”
Find a place around Gundogan
Crystal Palace were planning to take advantage of places around Ilkay Gundogan
Rodri's absence has been consistently and rightly pointed out as a reason why City can be vulnerable to the transitions and fast breaks that Glasner mentions. An injury to Mateo Kovacic didn't help either. And at 34 years of age Ilkay Gundogan is struggling out of possession to put out the fires.
With City playing a 4-1-4-1 formation, Glasner saw the opportunity for his side, with Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr playing opposite Jean-Philippe Mateta, with Will Hughes and Jefferson Lerma in midfield, to take advantage of its surroundings. at Gundogan's remote times.
Hughes helped the opener from getting into that situation.
“There was so much space on the other side next to Gundogan and we didn't find this space that often,” said Glasner. “We showed the players at half-time. You have one or two touches to be there. If we find this more often we can create more and more chances. The first goal was where we are to find it. We should do it more.
“When you play with a No 6, 4-1-4-1, like City play, there's a lot of space to the left and right of the No 6, that's how you find this space . It can be by passing. – City found this space by passing for their second goal we found it on the first goal Sometimes you need the long ball and go for the second ball.
“When we get our runners on pace and get the space, it's not as easy to defend us. It was part of the idea to get into those spaces and one thing was long balls and long balls to go.”
A set of pieces
Man City had only conceded once from a set-piece before Saturday, but Glasner saw an opportunity – and Palace went big with Maxence Lacroix rising above a rooted Kyle Walker to head home Hughes' second-half corner.
It's an area of strength for Palace – only three teams have won more from set-pieces this season – but also an underused weakness for City, with the players they lack right now.
“They're missing a lot of good heads,” Glasner said. “Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Rodri – very tall players and good defensive leaders. So attacking set plays was a big opportunity for us.”
With City's problems laid bare, it's clear that their upcoming opponents are going to target similar areas of weakness. Guardiola and his players need to change – and hopefully some of the players who are currently injured can return soon to solve the problems.
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