Guardiola’s Manchester City narrowly beat Sunderland

2:1

Pep Guardiola finally completed his first match in the Premier League, with a narrow win over David Moyes’ Sunderland team. The managerial merry-go-round was struck into full swing when Sam Allardyce replaced Roy Hodgson as England manager, leaving David Moyes to take up the vacant Sunderland managerial role. With only a few weeks of pre-season preparation, expectations were not high against the favourites for the title.

Lineups

The teamsheet is never as expected with Guardiola as manager, and he did not disappoint with his selection on debut. Perhaps the most surprising move was the introduction of Willy Caballero in goal, instead of England & City regular Joe Hart. There was also no place for a number of City’s other big earners; Yaya Toure, Elaquim Mangala,Samir Nasri and Wilfried Bony were all left outside of the matchday squad.

David Silva was moved into a slightly deeper midfield role, and Aleksandr Kolarov continued his central defensive role from pre-season. New signing John Stones completed the backline.

Sunderland opted for a more conservative selection of personnel with John O’Shea deployed in central midfield alongside Jack Rodwell. Youngster Lynden Gooch was given his first Premier League start, and new signing Donald Love made his Sunderland debut at right-back.

One of the most obvious tactical features utilised by Guardiola was the full-backs drifting towards the halfspace during build-up and attacking organisation.

A tangent: on irregularity

There is something to be said for irregularity. Part of the reason an unusual approach like this can be successful even without perfect implementation is a lack