Manchester City draw with Nottingham Forest was not what their supporters had expected on Wednesday, March 4, in a Premier League match at the Etihad stadium. The Cityzens drew the match 2-2 to be seven points behind Arsenal in the league table, albeit with a match in hand.
The Manchester City draw once again raised question marks about their ability to truly dominate a match. The Cityzens won 1-0 against Leeds United in their previous match, but their performance was not very satisfactory. It makes one wonder whether a change in approach is needed after the Manchester City draw with Nottingham Forest.
Manchester City Draw Against Nottingham Forest Calls for Fresh Ideas
The Manchester City draw with Nottingham Forest probably calls for a change in approach. The Cityzens have been primarily playing with a 4-2-3-1 formation for the last year and a half, shunning Pep Guardiola’s own innovation of playing with a hybrid full-back, which kept winning matches for them until a couple of seasons ago.
However, they switched to a 4-2-2-2 against Leeds United, which had a box midfield, but clearly lacked width in attack, which was provided by the full-backs ultimately. Moreover, they cannot play with a 4-2-2-2 with Erling Haaland in attack.
With the departure of Kyle Walker and the prolonged injury to John Stones, Matheus Nunes has made the position of right-back his own. However, he has not shifted to the midfield nearly as often as Stones used to.
The Cityzens used to employ a 3-2-2-3 formation while in possession on a regular basis a few seasons ago, which allowed them to have that extra man in the central area of the pitch. Rodri and John Stones stayed deep, and Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne operated in front of them to form a box in midfield.
It allowed the Cityzens to breach the lines of opposition defence down the middle of the pitch – something which they have not been able to do in quite a while. It also allowed them better ball retention in the middle of the pitch.
These days, they are more reliant on overlapping runs of Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nunes. However, in this context, we have to keep in mind that Manchester City are not a team that plays their football relying on crosses predominantly, because it just does not suit their style.
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Re-Implementing the Box Midfield Will Require the Cityzens To Make Some Adjustments
Playing with the box midfield will require the Cityzens to play with a solid back-three. They cannot afford to have either Nunes or Ait-Nouri in a back-three. In that case, they will need to throw in either Abdukodir Khusanov or Nathan Ake as the third centre-back.
They will also need speedy wingers like Jeremy Doku and Antoine Semenyo alongside Erling Haaland, with people like Omar Marmoush and Phil Foden or Savinho used as their back-ups on the flanks.
It will mean that there will be no place for Nunes, Ait-Nouri or Nico O’Reilly in the playing XI. O’Reilly can, however, be played as a holding midfielder alongside Rodri in the second line of that box in place of Tijjani Reijnders (or Nico Gonzalez). However, there will certainly be no room for either of Nunes and Ait-Nouri.
Still, it will enable them to dismantle the opposition team with passes played among the four players in the box midfield, with the wingers joining at times. It will, for example, grant more license to attack to Rayan Cherki if he is positioned alongside Bernardo ahead of the two holding midfielders.
The Manchester City draw against Nottingham Forest should come as a wake-up call, and it might be time for Guardiola to change his approach again.
Main Photo
Credit: IMAGO / Pro Sports Images
Recording Date: 05.03.2026
