Guardiola vs. Tuchel: two styles dictate the new European order

Two great strategists face to face, with a great moral advantage from Tuchel. They have met twice this season, two victories for the German.

Defensive structure of Pep Guardiola's Manchester City

• Traditional Training: 1-4-3-3, 1-4-4-2.

• Tactical variants in their training: 1-3-4-3, 1-4-2-3-1.

• Preferred defensive position: Under pressure, he seeks to start the defensive process in the opposite field.

• In retreat they are comfortable in the front of the area in a low block position.

• Defensive objective: Get the ball back as soon as possible. Secondary objective: Close penetration routes.

One of the most determining characteristics of a special team is “innovate when you win.” Soccer lives in a permanent and perpetual evolution. The Manchester City directed by Pep Guardiola is a clear example of this. Its basic characteristics, sustained in a game of position and in a pressure defense after the initial loss, have been shaped by the peculiarities of the players who joined the team and the incidence of rivals in the study and the response to their strategy. operational.

From a defensive point of view, Guardiola has established a containment line in City based on two characteristic features:

• The domain of longitudinal and transverse space. In relation to this aspect, the team bluesky he has managed to perfectly manage the defensive game of reducing spaces throughout the field of play, imposing a line that has varied over time. Guardiola proposes an action-play defense with a tendency to retreat and a final position with a high density of players. His capacity for defensive depth is marked by the speed with which he responds to the opponent's team's evolution with the ball. Its virtue, knowing how to stop the adversary's creative process right in the last third of its own field, causing a reduction of binding spaces, depending on the situation of the ball. The other variable is the transversal development of the defense, that is predefined when the ball is on the flanks, an aspect that causes a reduction in the width of the playing field that leads the furthest sides to be located just in the middle point, neglecting the remaining half of the field that is behind them . This forces the rival to optimize its performance in reduced spaces and to look for alternatives of deep pass or changes of orientation that imply a greater degree of precision.

• Defensive pressure. The main identity factor is “not to lose the individual duels”, a facet in which its two sides stand out mainly, with particular relevance to Walker. Shrinking forward is a primary feature of the team. Reducing the space to the width of the field and using defensive aids and the reuse of overwhelmed players are a differential weapon of the celestial team.

Chelsea defensive structure by Thomas Tuchel

• Traditional Training: 1-3-4-3.

• Tactical variants in their training: 1-3-5-2.

• Preferred defensive position: In mid-block, folded position, in midfield, with lines together and symmetrical.

• Defensive objective: Close penetration routes, avoiding the adversary's offensive progression. Pressure in the opposite field in defensive situations that arise after an immediate completion of one's own attack.

Since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea, a fundamental nuance has defined the defensive organization of his team. He does not mind being penetrated by the wings, but he is not interested in being complicated by his defensive order through the central corridors. Hence the spatial distribution of its players on the pitch (1-3-4-3). The side can yield to the low block position, since the defensive aids and the adjustments on their sides is one of the strengths of the team, with players like Kanté (7) in the center of the field and Rudiger (2) or Azpilicueta (28) on the defensive line.

Another differential factor is not giving up space behind the back. Corrective measures in the center of the field are constant. They do not grant meters to their back because they do not want to see matches in two halves and that the cut players are away from the defensive process. Tuchel gives ground to the place where they start the defensive pressure, where they increase the intensity of their defensive process, but never allows spaces between the lines in the areas of influence of their game, behind their mid-centers and centrals.

The movements in waves focus the global defensive demonstration, both transversally and longitudinally. The team moves harmoniously, pondering the importance of space at all times and as soon as he regains possession of the ball, he seeks to immediately activate his offensive deployment capacity.

Pep Guardiola's Manchester City offensive structure

• Traditional training: 1-4-3-3.

• Prevalent attack type: Combinatorial attack. Search for control of the game based on offensive arguments.

• Primary Tactical Principles: Offensive depth, maximum mobility, use of spaces between lines.

• Pace of play: Alternate. The high offensive intensity, with a tendency to seek individual duels in the last stage of the offensive process, is complemented by low-cadence rhythms in the moments in which one seeks to control the game through possession.

The initiation of the play has different variants, with the “lavolpiana” output as a classic already established in the functionality of the equipment, but endowing its evolution over time with interesting nuances. At the start, Guardiola invites the sides to close at a point on the midline and opens their ends to guarantee combination ability at the start and later take advantage of the amplitude to create and end the play.

In creation, City addresses combination and depth as the most characteristic tool, the game being deep and vertical. The maximum “looking deep” is what defines the change of rhythm and the alteration of the speed of movement of the ball. It is at these moments when the ends close and the sides arrive from the back very open to generate a greater degree of combination possibilities in internal corridors and surprise with unexpected arrivals from the flank.

In the completion, the change of positions of the most advanced players causes the game to diversify. Ferran, heeled to the flanks, tends to occupy positions of center forward at times. This way it facilitates, with its diagonal breaking unchecks, the deep pass and the overflow to finish.

Chelsea offensive structure by Thomas Tuchel

• Traditional training: 1-3-4-3.

• Prevalent attack type: Counterattack. Search for depth based on using surprise after the robbery, either with more individualized or more collectivized manifestations depending on the place where the ball is recovered.

• Primary Tactical Principles: Breaking unchecks of the players who are in front of the keeper of the ball, depth and offensive progression. Maximum amplitude given that the sides are the main occupants of the attack flanks.

• Pace of play. High from the moment the ball is recovered to proceed to the counterattack. A large number of individual duels are manifested on the wings, where he frees his sides to generate one-on-one actions. The central on each side closes the spaces behind the back and carries out the corresponding surveillance.

The initiation is configured based on the position of its three very open centrals and with the sides advancing lines depending on the dynamics of the play to take advantage of the short game or the long game as appropriate. A middle center usually approaches to combine short. Kante (7), the other, staggers to connect with the next attack station.

Creation seeks to be as short as possible. It is intended to connect in depth with Werner (11), thanks to his speed and enormous sense of breaking unchecked or with the players who appear on the wings, either wingers who progress, or midfielders who list. The aim is to reach the rival frame as soon as possible.

The completion is, generally, in progression, with a high percentage of shooting or arrival due to evolution on the flanks or due to rupture behind the rival defensive line in deep passes to Werner (11) and actions of one on one against the opposing goalkeeper.

Chelsea and Tuchel play football where the final consequence of the robbery prevails. That is, the counterattack, rather than the organization of an attack from the start. It is not a reactive team, but its talent emerges with a greater probability of reaching the rival frame in launched, uncontrolled actions.

The individualities of Manchester City

17. Kevin De Bruyne. The 29-year-old Belgian player has reached his zenith in Pep Guardiola's team. It is the perfect qualification of the footballing diversity that Pep Guardiola intends to establish as a basic foundation in his team. Striker, passer, capable of breaking lines from the flank or from the center aisles, an excellent shot and brilliance in individual duels, he is the perfect partner for all those who manifest themselves in the last third of the pitch. His defensive involvement adapts to his peculiarities, Pep breaks his traditional formation at times to accommodate De Bruyne with Gabriel Jesús (9) as the first defensive barrier.

8. Ilkay Gundogan. Midfielder who combines all the values ​​that Pep Guardiola estimates in an interior of guarantees. At the age of 30, the German player of Turkish origin has reached that point of maturity that reveals in the mastery of the tempo of the game, the rhythm and his immense ability to know how to appear surprisingly from the second row. Over time he has established his game within the general framework of the team, generating a synergy in which everyone wins.

3. Rubén Dias. The ideal center-back for Pep Guardiola's football philosophy. A player who has understood how to manage defensive and offensive risk as a result of the particular idiosyncrasies of his team. Expeditious as well as elegant, technical in the short game and precise in the long game, dominating the interception and the cut, high percentage of individual duels won, he has understood the collective context in which he must manifest his talent, endowing his game from a point of solidarity that has made the 21-year-old Portuguese a correcting player of an entire line, the defense and activator of defensive processes in unusual areas. An already polished pearl that will shine in the skyblue future.

Chelsea's individualities

19. Mason Mount. At 22 years old, the English player has touched the sky in his footballing evolution. Subtle, with an excellent individual and collective technique, he has found himself in a team in which he offers the counterpoint to the offensive proposal. Dominate the space between the lines, manage like few others the first control of the ball and the subsequent action and reach the goal with efficiency and effectiveness. The best offensive exponent of a Chelsea that Tuchel has given a deserved shine.

7. N'Golo Kante. The indefatigable French player represents the culture of effort and the sense of the game in a Chelsea that has him as the basic source of order and organization. At 30 years old, his defensive contribution is unquestionable, being perhaps the best correction player in Europe at the moment. His offensive dynamism is surprising for its simplicity, he plays short with meaning and always well outlined, he saves effort by giving his game an exemplary basic technique. Always attentive to help, his sense of solidarity, offense and defense is worth studying.

11. Timo Werner. Spearhead of Tuchel's team, the former Leipzig has found in London at the age of 25 the right place to show his virtues, the depth of his unchecked and his offensive instinct. This exercise has alternated unproductive parties collectively with others in which it has been decisive. His goal count doesn't do him justice. It is the main offensive reference, especially when playing the counterattack, being the determining piece of a puzzle that makes Tuchel's Chelsea a solid team and aspiring to everything.