How Pep Guardiola's 4-2-2-2 has rescued Man City's season

Times

28-04-2025

Rico Lewis had received plenty of bumps and bruises during Manchester City's FA Cup semi-final victory over Nottingham Forest, but even after the final whistle had sounded, he was still vulnerable to attack.
As he spoke to the media next to the tunnel deep inside Wembley Stadium, another assailant approached him quietly from behind before pushing him in the back.
This time, the offender was not dressed in red. Instead, it was the City manager Pep Guardiola, who playfully pushed Lewis like a kid in the school playground, before walking off with a wry grin on his face.
The incident served as a reminder of the relationship between the two, which remains strong even though Lewis has found himself out of the team for much of this calendar year.
He is only 20 but Lewis is one of the most intelligent members of Guardiola's squad. He absorbs information passed to him in a similar way to the likes of Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva. He is a sponge, which is why he has been involved in two of the most recent tactical tweaks in Guardiola's reign.
The first came two seasons ago, when Guardiola started inverting one of his full backs. John Stones would go on to assume that role in the final stages of the season, but initially it was Lewis who was tasked with that job because Stones was injured, but also because Guardiola knew that if he told Lewis he needed to invert at a certain point in a game, he would do it — no questions, no fuss.
Guardiola's latest tactical variation has come in the past few weeks. When the City starting XI was announced on Sunday afternoon, it caused many to scratch their heads, but those who have watched the team closely over the past month quickly spotted that Guardiola would set them out in the same way he did in the recent wins over Crystal Palace and Aston Villa.
Either side of the centre backs Rúben Dias and Josko Gvardiol, you had Nico O'Reilly and Matheus Nunes operating as full backs who would play high up the pitch and hug the touchline.
In front of the back four were three separate lines of two players, starting with Silva and Mateo Kovacic, the protectors. The most advanced pairing, Omar Marmoush and Savinho, would operate as split strikers, with each player peeling off to the left and right wings respectively.
In between the strikers and the protectors came the thrusters — Lewis and Jack Grealish — who would burst forward from midfield. They would actually be the most advanced players in the centre of the pitch because Marmoush and Savinho spent most of their time out wide.
That is why, when Kovacic strode forward in the second minute against Forest, Lewis was ready to receive his pass just inside the area, and he finished with a low drive into the corner of the net.
'I had a feeling today that something like this would happen,' Lewis said, smiling, of his goal. 'I'm not saying I knew it was going to happen 100 per cent, but sometimes you have a feeling on game days and everything just lined up for me and I took my chance.'
There are a few advantages to this 4-2-2-2 system. It causes confusion in the opposition defence. On Sunday, for example, Nikola Milenkovic, the Forest centre half, did not know whether to stick with Marmoush and follow him out to the left, or remain in the middle of the field. In the end, the Serbian defender did neither, and ended up in no-man's land. He did not follow Marmoush but he also stood off Lewis and Grealish, which gave them space, as predicted by Guardiola.
'He [Guardiola] just said, 'If you can find the spaces, you'll have chances,' ' Lewis said of his pre-match talk with his manager. 'He said that the centre backs won't jump to you if you get the ball, so turn and shoot. That's what I felt in the first goal. I felt alone. That's why I had the chance.'
Another advantage is that, with so many players in the middle of the pitch, it reduces the chance of a team's ability to play through City. The opposition has to essentially get through three groups of two before they even reach the back four.
This, of course, only works if the box of four central midfielders press ferociously, and that is exactly what Kovacic, Silva, Lewis and — to a lesser extent Grealish — did on Sunday. Silva, 30, has been criticised for much of this season, but he has approached the past two matches like a man possessed, relentlessly scrapping for the ball.
Another plus point is that this formation allows Nunes and O'Reilly, central midfielders by trade, to use their pace to attack the flanks. They do not play like conventional full backs.
In terms of drawbacks, there are a few. Jérémy Doku, City's only natural winger who has looked sharp of late, has been benched because he does not fit the system, and sometimes the football is not as attractive as it has been during Guardiola's nine years in charge.
But, in the grand scheme of things, that does not matter. Guardiola has always claimed that he is a pragmatist and with this formation, he has found a way to beat teams in a solid, mechanical way. It seems to have passed most people by but City are unbeaten in eight matches.
It is doubtful that Guardiola will adopt this formation in the long term. Erling Haaland, when he returns from injury, is at his most deadly when he is in the box. He is not accustomed to breaking off and playing out wide.
For now, though, Guardiola has come up with a plan to drag City over the line in the race for Champions League qualification, and his team are in the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace, which is admirable given they seemed to be in freefall a couple of months ago.