Manchester City beat Burnley 1-0 at Turf Moor on Sunday courtesy of a Sergio Aguero goal and a tactical change that allowed Raheem Sterling to make a subtle, though telling, contribution.
Half-time tactical switches were a key feature of the Premier League action this weekend, with Southampton, West Ham, and Leicester City all reshuffling to great effect.
From Manuel Pellegrini correcting a bad decision to Unai Emery compounding one, here are five tactical points from the weekend action...
Watch Premier League beginning in August 2019 | Soccer Live Streaming | DAZN CA
Pellegrini outwits Pochettino in West Ham win
For the opening 45 minutes in north London, Robert Snodgrass and Mark Noble pressed too high up the pitch, leaving Declan Rice all alone to cover three Tottenham players operating in the number 10 space.
Mauricio Pochettino’s narrow diamond 4-4-2 meant Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, and one of Lucas Moura or Son Heung-min were constantly flitting around the West Ham midfield, while the gaps around Rice were particularly large because the Hammers’ back four kept dropping deep to track Son’s and Lucas’s runs (see image below).
But Tottenham could not capitalise on the visitors’ positional errors, despite Alli and Eriksen creating good chances via central attacking midfield.
West Ham corrected this problem in the second half, with their wingers tucking in and central midfielders dropping deeper to squeeze out those gaps, which in turn forced Pochettino into a change of tack.
He went 4-3-3, hoping to inject width now the centre path was blocked. Prior to this, fear of Felipe Anderson and Michail Antonio counters had pinned Ben Davies and Juan Foyth, meaning there was nothing out wide for the hosts.
The change did not work, primarily because Marko Arnautovic dramatically improved in the second half and began running the channels, giving West Ham counter-attacking opportunities that prevented them from being penned in.
Pedro Obiang’s introduction further stunted a clearly exhausted Spurs, who out of sheer desperation then went to an awkward – and ineffective – 4-4-2 for the final few minutes.
Manuel Pellegrini’s response to this was final evidence he had enjoyed the upper hand; only by moving to a back three in the closing stages could Fabian Balbuena have had the freedom to get back and clear Vincent Janssen’s shot off the line.
Hasenhuttl & Howe play out entertaining tactical chess match
Southampton dominated the first half at St Mary’s, their 4-3-3 cutting Bournemouth open every time Nathan Redmond and Shane Long drifted into the central column of the pitch.
The hosts had exposed Bournemouth’s soft centre, with all three forwards regularly driving through the heart of midfield easily, eventually leading to Redmond feeding Long for the opener.
However, they conceded twice on the counter-attack – and so Ralph Hasenhuttl decided to make a change at the break.
He switched to a 3-4-1-2, halting the visitors’ counter-attacks by adding a third centre-back. No longer could Callum Wilson and Josh King ease through, and simultaneously he funnelled Southampton’s attacks more deliberately through the centre.
James Ward-Prowse was now able to push on into space, benefitting from the distraction of Long and Redmond being permanently stationed centrally, which led directly to the England midfielder's equaliser.
Hasenhuttl’s formation change was then further vindicated when one wing-back, Yan Valery, crossed for the other, Matt Targett, to score a third.
Then it was Eddie Howe’s turn to change formation and change the match.
He brought Dominic Solanke onto the pitch and shifted to a mirroring 3-4-1-2, which almost immediately shut Southampton down.
Their rhythm was interrupted by finding themselves man to man in all areas of the pitch, ultimately leading to two sloppy giveaways of possession by the hosts. The first resulted in an equalising goal, and the second saw Wilson fluff a one-on-one with Angus Gunn.
Emery exposed as Leicester obliterate Arsenal
As soon as the line-ups were announced it looked like a mistake.
One of the most prominent tactical components of Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City is filtering attacks through James Maddison and Youri Tielemans, who alternate up and down the half-spaces like Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva did last season for Manchester City.
Why, then, did Emery play in a flat 4-4-2, leaving just two central midfielders to deal with the Foxes?
It took a while for Rodgers and Maddison to cotton on to where the space was. The English playmaker began on the right wing, and only towards the end of the first half did he begin to realise he could dominate through the middle.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ red card clearly changed the game, and yet Leicester would almost certainly have won the three points even if Arsenal had 11 men.
The visitors were remarkably weak in the middle, mainly because of Emery’s formation; note in the graphic below how Arsenal did not attempt a single tackle in Leicester’s number 10 space.
PIC: Arsenal tackles (red) vs Leicester (blue)
Once Maddison was in the middle with Tielemans – and Rodgers switched him there at half-time, partly to exploit the spaces in midfield and partly so that Harvey Barnes could run at Shkodran Mustafi – it was just a matter of time.
The two midfielders combined for the crucial opener, Maddison taking advantage of the gaps around Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was oddly asked to play in midfield in Emery’s 4-4-2 before he was eventually hauled off for Matteo Guendouzi. It was far too late by then.
Sterling switch-up the key to City's crucial victory
At half-time Burnley will have been very pleased. They deserved a 0-0 scoreline earned because their narrow 4-4-2 formation had stumped David Silva and Bernardo Silva completely, denying space in midfield
It was all very expected from a Burnley perspective, albeit made easier by Pep Guardiola’s surprise formation. He played in a 3-2-2-2-1 with Oleksandr Zinchenko alongside Ilkay Gundogan in central midfield and Kyle Walker making up a back three.
This shape inevitably made City too narrow at the back, the goal of that 3-2 shape being to lure Burnley into its midst, conjuring space out wide for touchline-hugging Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling to receive earlier passes into feet.
It just did not work, and so for the second half Guardiola allowed Walker to get forward and City went to a more conventional shape.
As part of this, Sterling began making numerous arcing runs in between the Burnley left-back and centre-back.
These caused panic and notably improved City’s fluency in the final third. The winning goal might not have directly involved Sterling, but it was another one of his runs that pulled players away and opened up the gap for Silva to feed Sergio Aguero.
Fitness issues holding Man Utd midfield back
A limp second half from both sides made for an unexpectedly dreary 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.
The tempo of Man Utd’s performance almost exactly mimicked Wednesday's showing against Manchester City; quick and meaningful for 30 minutes, then suddenly bereft.
Fitness is clearly a big issue for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to correct over the summer.
Analysing the first half, United’s improved showing was courtesy of Juan Mata flitting neatly in attacking midfield, Ander Herrera constantly keeping the ball moving, and Nemanja Matic stepping into spaces and recycling possession like we used to see at Chelsea.
PIC: Matic passes vs Chelsea
All three of these players could have big roles in a high-tempo United next season; certainly, the ability to constantly seek space, and to play one-touch passes, is a skill Solskjaer needs to prioritise if he is to bring back Fergie-style tactics.