psg played man city in the second leg of the ucl . psg had to score two goals to reach the finals . mbappe was injured in this tie and so psg selected icardi in place of mbappe to lead the line. even though it was shown 4-2-3-1 it was 4-4-2 . i had already said that players are the ones who execute the coaches plan and the coach has to take into account their weakness and their strength's . icardi is not that mobile he is a good header and finisher of the crosses . for man city they selected zinchenko in place of cancelo who also i like but zinchenko takes nod because i think he is technically a bit better than cancello who is also very good . in midfield fernandiniho came in place of rodri . i think compared to rodri fernandiniho is bit more mobile even though the age has caught with him .
the match started with psg chasing and trying to close down man city and in that process they conceded the goal . here the game reading is very important . i had already said that while you go on attack you dont keep your back door open to let the opposition creep through that . that is what is exactly happened in this game . psg went on to press but in that process they forgot that zinchenko was there unmarked and he could open up psg defense . the game then started with man city trying to frustrate psg and play around and keep the ball and if they get out of shape try to exploit it . when psg had the ball i think neymar and veratti were there preffered ball players . just like first leg neymar would drop deep to help his midfield move the ball but here was the catch . now man city could play a high line because icardi is not mbappe who could out run dias and stones . so man city could play a high line and press psg . man city could congest psg and psg didnt had proper plan as to how they would open man city's defense cause whenever they would come near the man city box they would ran into a man city wall who defended very nicely . pochettino had a good plan in mind he brought both wide players di maria and veratti inside so that the full backs can bomb forwarded . the other thing was that by bringing both wide players inside you have advantage and disadvantage both . the advantage is that you can play a crisp tiki taka game and it can be very fast and the second advantage is that since you congest the opposition too has to congest so when you loose the possession you can press them quickly and try to recover the possession. these are the advantages but there are obvious disadvantages . first thing is that the opposition can read your moves and can stop you in the tracks . pochettino made the right plan but there was wrong execution . first off icardi was not seeing any of the ball and he had little on the game . when you make a plan you need to have a balance of all the sides not just one or two . only neymar,veratti and di maria were preffered on the ball and this hampers the moves because if the opposition can shut you main players then you are blocked . man city knew what they had to do and they just literally shut down neymar and di maria and frustrated them which is what gaurdiola wanted since that would had let to the breakdown in the shape and that is what had happened for the first goal and that is what was gaurdiola had set his team up for . most of the psg's shots were from distance they didnt the necessary compsure . they should had hold on the ball more and should had worked man city more . there desperation cost them the match .
man city had two upfront they were prepared as to what psg were going to do . they knew that psg were desperate and would come hot and would try to close them down . they could play a high line and press psg since they knew that psg didnt had the pace upfront . whenever man city would recover the possession de bruyne or silva either one of them would take positions which had been left open by the fullbacks . the centre back couldnt come too wide since they knew that would put quite a bit of space between them and de bruyne and silva are very good on the ball as well as with pass . once the pressure was released by man city they would pass the ball around frustrating man city and in process eating time . the difference from the first half was that man city were ready this time . they were getting players in the box and were ready to pounce as soon as psg was to make mistake but the onus on psg .
pochettino just couldnt change things and when he should had . till icardi was on the field he wasnt trusted with a pass . instead of playing a team game psg were dependent on individual skills to open up opposition defense . only veratti,di maria and neymar were trusted with the ball . he should had realized that the forward wasnt coming much into the game . he could have asked di maria to go forward and try something new to confuse the opposition defense . di maria's pace would had caused some worry to opposition . pochettino should had played his team as whole instead of relying on the individuals .
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