Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishRight from the start of his nine-year tenure as Manchester City manager — from awkward beginnings with Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy, to the seamless rotations of Rico Lewis — Pep Guardiola has consistently asked one, or both, of his full-backs to step into midfield with his team on the ball.But City’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final was the seventh game in a row, including six victories, in which he has practically abandoned that plan.Something seemed to click for Guardiola in the last round of this competition, a 2-1 win at Bournemouth at the end of March, with his wide defenders pushing high and hugging the touchline.It’s a tweak that may have been made in anticipation of Andoni Iraola’s aggressive approach, designed to stretch Bournemouth’s high press across the pitch during build-up, but for one reason or another — maybe it was Nico O’Reilly’s eye-catching run to set up Erling Haaland in the second half — it is a structural shift that has stuck ever since.“In the back four, now we are stable,” said Guardiola ahead of the semi-final, alluding to the defensive advantages of the new shape. “We have pace with Josko (Gvardiol), with Mateus (Nunes) and Nico because they are so fast, and the intelligence and unbelievable leadership from Ruben (Dias).”Going forward, it represents a departure from the control in possession that his full-backs can bring when they tuck inside, but with the arrival of explosive forward Omar Marmoush and the emergence of O’Reilly and Nunes as strong channel runners, it gives City added dynamism in the final third. Wingers have overlaps, runs are being made in behind and, crucially, spaces are being opened up in the middle.Sunday’s semi-final was far from a complete performance, with familiar defensive lapses on the transition returning to plague a laboured second half. That said, a dominant opening 30 minutes showed an exciting glimpse of how a stronger, quicker, and more physical City can pull opposition structures apart down the line.
(Alex Pantling/Getty Images)It took City just over a minute to fall into their new in-possession shape at Wembley on Sunday and only a few seconds more to nick their crucial opening goal.Recovering the ball from a long goalkeeper punt forward, Mateo Kovacic drops between the two centre-backs to help get things moving, with both O’Reilly and Nunes advancing down the flanks. That forces Forest’s wide midfielders to stretch across the pitch, concerned with blocking those passes out wide.Couple that with City’s rapidly rotating midfield four and the defensive issues stack up. Elliot Anderson feels he needs to push on and pass Lewis on to his midfield partner Danilo, while Nicolas Dominguez steps up to follow Jack Grealish.Already, there is uncertainty within the defensive shape, with concern over the positioning of Lewis a sign of things to come.A few moments later, things look different again. Bernardo Silva has now dropped deep and Savinho has come back into shot, leaving Danilo with a decision to make — follow the run, or hold the shape to keep an eye on Lewis just behind him.All the while, both passes to isolated full-backs are on. Anderson is in an even more uncomfortable position; he needs to be attentive to Nunes, be ready to sprint out and meet Savinho, while also keeping his head on a swivel with Lewis drifting over to his side and lurking in a dangerous pocket of space behind.Danilo opts to drop with Lewis, which means Anderson has to push on and apply pressure to Savinho. The body position of Anderson is revealing here, caught between closing Savinho down and covering the pass out wide.In the end, he can do neither, and City’s attacking players are suddenly situated behind the Forest midfield four, all across the pitch.There is tension everywhere for Forest — full-back Harry Toffolo can’t rush out to Nunes either, as he will leave Lewis with a free run in behind.It’s too much for them to handle and with a sweeping move to the opposite side of the pitch and a handful of incisive passes, Lewis is found between the lines, where he turns, has time to take aim, and confidently dispatches into the bottom corner.Such relentless rotations were a nightmare for Forest’s first-half 4-4-2 approach, unable to simultaneously cover the width of the full-backs and darting movements in midfield.They hardly see the ball from the resulting kick-off before City are teasing them out of their defensive shape once again, as Ruben Dias slides a pass into Lewis, with both Danilo and Anderson unable to react in time.That confusion between the two Forest midfielders is clear to see in the two grabs below; first, Anderson is signalling for his partner to pick City’s No 82 up while he jockeys out wide to keep track of Nunes…… only to react furiously as Lewis drops into the exact space he has just moved from, both midfielders pulled away by players lurking behind.It quickly became an exhausting exercise of dropping deep and sprinting forward to apply pressure. It is psychologically demanding, too, having to constantly pass men on, creating moments of hesitation that allowed City to pounce.Later in the same move, Kovacic drops into defence again, as City successfully tempt Forest’s wide players into a more aggressive 4-2-4 shape.The route into Lewis is blocked successfully by a deeper Danilo, but it’s now movement down the flanks that exploits confusion in the defensive shape, as Savinho’s selfless run into midfield leaves Anderson stranded once again.Look again how wide City are spread between the lines, giving Forest little chance to shuttle over and block the simple ball around the side.Out goes the ball to Nunes, where Toffolo is unable to immediately apply pressure given the threat of Savinho’s run. Again, both defenders are frozen in between City players, and in that split second, the Brazilian makes a run to escape both markers and receives a through pass that sends him into the box.It’s a theme that continued throughout a frightening opening 10 minutes, in which City held 88.6 per cent of the ball. Passes into the lively Lewis were too easy to pick out, with Forest’s defensive structure stretched thin across the pitch.This run of games with flying full-backs isn’t strictly a first for City this season — they deployed Lewis and Gvardiol in advanced positions for large portions of their 1-1 draw with Everton in December — but it is certainly the most prepared they have been to search for those wide runs.In that Boxing Day draw, Nathan Ake refused a pass down the line to an onrushing Gvardiol, eliciting a frustrated reaction from the Etihad crowd. On the touchline, meanwhile, Guardiola was extremely animated, pleading with his fans to have patience and applauding Ake’s more conservative decision.At Wembley, City were happy to lean into the destructive power of Nunes and O’Reilly down the flanks, often searching for long passes out wide to allow them to career forwards with the ball.Towards the end of the first half, for example, City’s deep build-up swirling midfield movement has once again pulled Forest up the pitch, before Gvardiol seeks out the switch for Nunes to advance.That such wide combinations were such a glaring theme of an electric first half points to not only a change of shape, but a change in attitude, too.There were more disruptive rotations in the midfield and more runs down the flank, both of which were targeted more often than we have seen in a season where Guardiola’s more measured approach to build-up has started to look slightly stale.While undoubtedly encouraging, there are things to bear in mind about City’s new approach. The early goal certainly helped ease Forest out of their shape more easily than usual, while there was a frustrating lack of end product at times that allowed their opponents back into the game in the second half.Forest were more aggressive in their man-to-man approach in midfield after the break and less willing to be tempted up the pitch, and showed City that they might not have it all their own way against more disciplined defensive blocks.Below, for example, centre-back Nikola Milenkovic rushes out of the defence to deal with a pass into Jack Grealish, turning over the ball high up the pitch and giving his side the opportunity to attack.That said, City have potential to refine the approach further, with 19-year-old Lewis a particularly intriguing profile in such games.“Rico helped us a lot as an inverted full-back inside, but I think his preferred position is in the pockets because he moves in small spaces like Phil (Foden),” Guardiola said. “He has the ability in small spaces to be aggressive in the next action.”“When we play really good with control and we can drop the opponent in the final third, players that move in the small spaces are really important,” he explained. “And Rico is one of the best I’ve ever seen. One of the best. His reception, his control, his rhythm, really good.”Marmoush is similarly springy and explosive from a No 10 position, playing the role well alongside Phil Foden and in support of Erling Haaland on his debut against Chelsea. And with Kevin De Bruyne leaving the club, it opens the door for another player — potentially Florian Wirtz, one of the best in world football at identifying space and receiving in tight spaces — to add even more movement and quality to a more aggressive kind of City build-up.
(Alex Pantling/Getty Images)It’s still not in City’s, or Guardiola’s, nature to attack with speed every time, but these are encouraging signs of variety as the average Premier League opponents become more transitional, physical, and less prepared to be smothered by possession of the ball.There have been some dreary performances this season — Aston Villa, Juventus, and Arsenal away from home all spring to mind — where City’s approach play felt a bit too safe, the movement from full-back into midfield quite predictable and containable in front of the opposition defence.These flying full-backs at least give City some forward thrust and open up spaces in the middle that have previously been too easily blocked out. By reverting to an older approach, Guardiola has reignited hope for the future.(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
