Manchester City’s offside trap failed against Tottenham – and shows how precarious it can be

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Ironic cheers faded to a nervous silence as it dawned on the Etihad that the offside call to disallow Brennan Johnson’s opening goal was so tight the VAR already had the protractor out.

The only people immune to the sense of jeopardy appeared to be those in the Manchester City technical area as Pep Guardiola, Pep Lijnders and Kolo Toure, hands above their heads, theatrically applauded what they believed to be a perfectly executed offside trap.

John Stones had stepped up at the very last second to catch out Richarlison — or so they thought.

There were centimetres in it, but that is the margin between City’s aggressive new tactic of squeezing the life out of the opposition working, or being an act of self-sabotage.

Mohammed Kudus beat Rayan Ait-Nouri to a header, Stones anticipated the flick-on but stepped up a fraction too late. Richarlison was sent through and squared the ball for Brennan Johnson to tap home at the back post, with Rico Lewis unable to get back in from the high line City were holding.

In the 4-0 win over Wolves, City again pushed up just in time to force their opponents into wasted passes. They did the same in the opening half-hour against Spurs, luring them into playing balls over the top that bounced straight through to goalkeeper James Trafford.

While it is not quite the swarming charge of Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan team, City’s attempts to play offside are certainly more pronounced this season.

The goal highlighted the high stakes of employing such an aggressive offside trap, a shift towards a strategy that Unai Emery has taken to extreme levels at Aston Villa. It only takes one minor misjudgement for it to come undone.

When City do not possess the same pressing intensity compared to their pomp, it is an efficient way to condense the pitch and pressure the man in possession by eliminating the pass over the top. There were several clever examples of City getting their timing right when Spurs had the ball in what looked like potentially dangerous areas.

Below, as Joao Palinha turns with the ball unopposed, Kudus makes an out-to-in run from the right wing in a bid to get in behind Ait-Nouri. Rather than track the run and drop, City held the line and comfortably played him offside.

It only took four minutes for Richarlison to be on the wrong side of a Guglielmo Vicario punt. It happened again in the 33rd minute and the 44th minute, with one of City’s triggers to set the offside trap being a pass back to the opposition goalkeeper.

But James Trafford looked uncertain throughout the game and Spurs were able to prey on those nerves by, often blindly, putting the ball in behind the City defence. It may have been rudimentary, but it unsettled City. The number of times City allowed the ball to bounce meant they did not regain control of possession.

A prime example from the first half is below. The City defence push up at speed (so much so they are first out of camera when Rodrigo Bentancur hooks the ball over his head) to play Richarlison offside. It is successful but as he does not touch the ball, they are then forced to retreat with the secondary runner, Kudus, challenging Dias for the bouncing ball. It leads to Trafford being involved in an untidy collision, which sees claims of handball…

“We talked about the high line,” said Spurs manager Thomas Frank, who masterminded the 2-0 away victory.

“It’s one thing to talk about it and try to train it. It’s never that easy. So, to be fair, we ran into offside six times before that. Of course, the goal looks very successful and that’s what we look at, but there were a few times where we didn’t do it well enough. But, yes, we looked into it.”

There was plenty of evidence for Spurs to examine, even from City’s single league game against Wolves and their only public pre-season game against Palermo. Below, against Palermo and Wolves, are carbon copies of the situation that led to Spurs’ opener.

In the first, City push up aggressively while contesting a long ball and successfully play the striker offside — it would have worked but for misfortune, seeing the winger chase after his own ricochet.

Against Wolves, Stones is caught deeper than the rest of his defence, but manages to sprint up in time to play Jorgen Strand Larsen offside in case Wolves won the flick-on.

Stones and Ruben Dias put in an outstanding display of partnership at centre-back in this game as they consistently timed the moment to drop off, step up or hold the line.

Below, as Wolves beat the initial press and worked the ball to their wing-back, Ki-Jana Hoever, Ait-Nouri confronted the man in possession while the other three players in the defensive unit squeezed up. It meant that, as Hoever opened his body up to look for the through ball, he knew his team-mates would be offside, so he had to turn all the way back.

City may have won comfortably at Molineux but there was a period of 15 minutes in which Wolves were the dominant side and were simply unable to convert the pressure into a goal.

(Photo: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)

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