New Pep Guardiola 3-4-2-1 Tactic with Man City | FM23 2023-24 Season

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Welcome to our 2023/2024 Tactics in FM23. The tactic that will be starting this series is the new Pep Guardiola 3-4-2-1 tactic with Manchester City so far. Before I get into it, remember to follow us on TikTok, because we will be posting all our football manager videos there: from build-up strategy to players’ best goals videos and so forth.

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Now back to the tactic at hand, Pep Guardiola’s Man City are the only Premier League team on the 100% winning run, plus they secure the Uefa Super Cup against Sevilla. The 3-4-2-1 tactic has been Man City’s dominant tactic so far. You can compare this tactic with the one, I predicted that Guardiola will go for this season. With no further ado, let’s get into the details.

New Pep Guardiola 3-4-2-1 Tactic | Tactical Details

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In Possession

Man City plays out of defence in a 3-4-3 shape. The back-3 made up of Gvardiol, Dias and Walker, will position vertically across the box while the defensive midfielders drop close to the box with De Akanji dropping deeper than Rodri. The side midfielders, Grealish and Silva will push forward at the flanks and be ready to attack.

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While still in possession, the Cityzens prefer to focus on plays either through the sides of the pitch or through the middle. The team adopts shorter passing directness to dominate the possession of the game, as they always do. As Man City approaches the opponent’s box, they will use underlap on both sides of the pitch. In addition, they also use a “pass-first” mentality, which is equivalent to “dribble less” in FM23.

In Transition

In transition, the attacking width is wider. During attacks, the back-3 will stay higher up close to the halfway line, but Kyle Walker as the right centre defender will always forward at the right flank. Gvardiol on the other hand, balances his attacking and defensive duties. Akanji as the deepest midfielder will hold his position or get forward to support the attack, while his midfield partner, Rodri will dictate plays from a deeper position.

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City also go for counterattacks when they win the ball on the break. The counterattacks are mainly fluid counterattacks at standard tempo ball movements. When they lose the ball during the transition, they mostly counter-pressed to win back the ball in the opponent’s half.

Out Of Possession

The team defends in a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 shape. During defensive situations, Akanji will drop to form a centre-defensive duo with Dias, while Gvardiol and Walker become defensive fullbacks. They press opponents at a much more often pressing intensity, with a higher line of engagement and a much higher defensive line. Moreover, the fullbacks close down crosses often.

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City equally defends compact with their “trap outside” strategy, forcing the opponents outside. Moreover, Guardiola’s defenders mainly step up the defensive line in order to trap opponents to compress the opponent’s half, leaving them little time with the ball.

Formation Lineup

New Pep Guardiola 3-4-2-1 Tactic | Role Selections

GK

The goalkeeper, Ederson is a sweeper keeper on attack duty.

CDs

Gasperini’s preferred back-3 defenders are Scalvini, Demiral and Toloi.

Dias is a ball-playing defender on cover duty. He will stay below the defensive line and sweep out through balls as a sweeper. Dias is also comfortable while controlling the ball on his feet. In other matches he didn’t feature, Ake replaced him at the centre.

Gvardiol and Walker are both wide centre-backs but have support and attack duties respectively. As I said before, Walker will always attack from the right flank, crossing the ball often and taking risky passes. Gvardiol will also stay wide when the team gets forward to attack like a fullback, but will sometimes stay behind together with Dias.

DMs

Rodri is a deep-lying playmaker on support duty. He will dictate tempo, switch the ball side to side, set up attacks from deeper positions and then get forward to support the team’s attacks. In the first match of the Premier League, Rico Lewis was a traditional defensive midfielder on support duty.

Due to Stones’s injury, Akanji was replaced at the DM with the role of a half-back. He stays deeper than Rodri but will also get forward to support the attacks. In the defensive situations, Akanji would drop to the centre defence position as an extra central defender. His role is more of a half-back on support duty, but due to this role lacking in FM23, I gave him the defensive half-back role.

Side Midfielders

Grealish and Silva as the side midfielders are inverted wingers on support duties. They will both stay wider when the team gets forward to attack, looking to beat their markers and cut towards the opposition box. Silva will roam from his position often, take risky passes and cross the ball often. Grealish will not roam often but still cross the ball often and also take risky passes.

In the game against Newcastle and Sevilla, Foden was a wide playmaker on attack duty.

AMs

Due to the long-term injury of Kevin De Bruyne, Foden and Alvarez replaced him. Foden is an attacking midfielder on attacking duty. He will operate in half-spaces during attacks, and sometimes as a partial winger. Foden will always get into the box to supplement the attack in the final third. Alvarez is a shadow striker. He operates as an extra striker and attacking midfielder at the same time.

Kovacic is an advanced playmaker on support duty. He can stay higher up the pitch or drop deeper, inspecting places to position himself to impact the team general tactics. Kovacic will also play some killer passes to create goalscoring opportunities in the final third.

CF

Haaland is a poacher, which is surprising for a striker at his age. Guardiola wants him to just stay higher up on the shoulder of the last defender, to find goalscoring opportunities often inside the box.