West Ham manager David Moyes was refreshingly open and honest when asked why his side struggled to cope with Manchester City last weekend.
On the face of it, City eased to a comfortable 2-0 win thanks to Erling Haaland. The striker's athleticism and ruthless finishing earned both of City's goals, as he proved how he can improve an already brilliant attacking set-up.
But as Moyes rightly pointed out after the game, it wasn't Haaland that made City so hard to play against — it was how Pep Guardiola positioned full-backs Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo. Both pushed into the centre of the pitch to form a narrow midfield trio with Rodri, sitting ahead of a defensive two and an attacking five. The aim of the tactic is to guard the centre of the field against counter-attacks — West Ham's favoured route to goal. As Moyes explained, it achieved exactly that, while also creating more space out wide for Phil Foden and Jack Grealish to attack.
