Manchester City outplayed Manchester United on Sunday, with Bernardo Silva explaining how the Blues targeted the opposition full-backs to control the game.
All the talk in the hour before kick-off of Sunday’s Manchester derby was how Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans would cope against Erling Haaland.
Given Haaland got a brace and assist against Manchester United, that battle was particularly one-sided, but Bernardo Silva has revealed how Manchester City’s main focus in their game plan was to exploit United’s full-backs instead, knowing the mismatched defence would be unbalanced.
United started with back-up Diogo Dalot at right-back and Victor Lindelof out of position at left-back, and City used that inexperience to their advantage.
““Knowing their full-backs were going to be tight with Jack [Grealish] and Phil [Foden], making those moments – me and Julian [Alvarez] tried to give them the option of the pass in the pocket between full-back and centre-back,” Bernardo explained, outlining how simple City’s plan was.
But also if they followed us to come inside and shoot – it was definitely something we worked on and it worked today, we’re very happy how we dealt with the game and our energy in pressing, which we lacked a bit at Arsenal. To do that today was a key point.
“Slow build-up, attracting the opponent and then when we find the space in behind their midfielders, we attack quick. It really worked.
The momentum that we created and the timings of the build-ups and attacking in the final third worked brilliantly.”
Bernardo also explained how the timing of City’s first and second goals enabled them to change to a more familiar, expansive approach, knowing that United had to attack more and change their own tactics to try and get back into the contest.
He said: “The [first] goal makes it easier because it gives us what we want. It put us in the lead, and they had to come a bit at us.
We should have scored a goal in the last minute of the first half but we were happy to get that second goal at the beginning of the second half which gave us a bit of relief to then play a different game – calmer and more controlled, it was a very good performance from us.”
As well as dictating play on their own terms, City were also keen to disrupt United’s plans, and also minimise the influence of the Old Trafford crowd.
Bernardo continued: “The way we controlled the tempo and transitions when we lost the ball.
Our defenders were really close to their attackers, and we didn’t let them break through.
We know what they want – they want us to lose our simple balls and to counterattack. We didn’t give them much.
“The most important thing is to do a proper build-up and control the tempo of the game and not get the crowd involved. If you get these types of crowds in big stadiums involved, it creates the moment for them.
We were perfect in keeping the crowd a bit quiet and controlling the game well, and then in the final third looking for the right moment to attack.”
With City dominating possession throughout, Bernardo went on to say that everyone in the squad trusts Pep Guardiola’s system, which gives them confidence even if things are not going to plan.
“That’s what we train for – if you want to play for Man City you have to want to play and give an option to the player who has the ball,” he said.
“Today, everyone was really good on the ball and without the ball. That’s what we do, how we train and the way that Pep has built this team.
If things don’t go well, you have to try and do your best to keep with the plan. We know that we play the right way for us, and we keep trusting in our process.
It’s always a process – if you relax a bit, you stop winning and we don’t want that to happen.”
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