Ange did something that I don’t remember another coach doing at City yesterday and I have been calling for someone to try for a few seasons. I’ve heard lots of pundits and reports call our performance “brilliant” but so far, I’ve not read anyone identify why it was brilliant, tactically, they’ve mostly just spouted the usual football geezer cliches.
Up until we took the lead, City were dominating the ball and pitch. Then we scored in the 13th minute. What normally happens then is we (or any away side at City) would normally then shell into a deep and desperate block and pray to get out our half a couple more times.
But from the 14th minute to the 53rd when we scored our 3rd, we actually had 54% of the ball, and were pressing them in middle/higher areas, it’s how we got the second goal.
I’ve given Ange stick for his selections recently, and I’m not giving him much credit for bringing in Bissouma yesterday, because I’m not sure if he would have played him if Bentancur hadn't been suspended, but bringing Maddison back and moving Sarr over to R8 (and pushing Kulusevski back up to RF) was a great call and was pivotal with us being able to actually have more possession in that period. Maddison was all over the place and constantly dropping deep and helping us play through City's press in deeper areas too (which admittedly wasn't as good as it would be with Rodri in it). For that middle chunk of game our midfield (with the right balance) was able to compete with theirs. This highlights the importance of both Bissouma and Maddison in that:
I think Ange deserves a lot of credit for the way we played yesterday from 13-60 minutes - that was as proactive as I've seen any team be (along with Klopp's best Liverpool) away at Guardiola's City and earned us 3 goals, and once 3-0 up we defended very well.
The team selections married the tactics and the resulting performance was outstanding. Certainly the best by any Spurs manager at ManC during the Guardiola era - even caveating with their current form dip.