Inter tried to make game with like a 3-5-2 and Manchester City pressed high with a 4-2-4 line up.
In Inter, Barella usually kept taking position in right half-space and closer to forward a little bit more than Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Brozovic. Brozovic and Çalhanoğlu usually tried to make game from behind.
Manchester City pressed like they don’t have a centre forward but they have 2 offensive midfielders. Both Haaland and De Bruyne didn’t press to Inter’s centre stopper Acerbi directly. First they tried to be sure that they could cover Çalhanoğlu and Brozovic.
When Inter’s right or left stopper took the ball, Bernardo Silva and Grealish pressed them. But if none of Darmian or Bastoni took the ball, then Grealish and Bernardo Silva just kept taking position a little bit away from Darmian and Bastoni.
Manchester City full backs matched with Inter wing backs. If the ball went to a wing from centre, the full back closed to the wing back, which takes in the same vertical space with the ball and wing back. For example, if Inter’s left stopper Bastoni took the ball, because the ball would get closer to Inter’s left wing, Manchester City’s right back Stones started to close Inter’s left wing back Dimarco.
In centre midfield, İlkay Gündoğan and Rodri tried to cover both central areas between them and centre forwards and between them and defense line. So if Hakan Çalhanoğlu or Brozovic became free, they closed to forward and covered them. Because sometimes when De Bruyne and Haaland took position closer to Inter stoppers to press them better, they couldn’t control Brozovic and Çalhanoğlu great enough. So this time, İlkay and Rodri had to close to forward. And also if Inter’s one of the centre forwards closed to midfield to take the ball, they covered this centre forward.
The problem for Ilkay and Rodri were, because they were just 2 players, they couldn’t cover all central spaces by themselves. If Inter’s one of the centre forwards shifted to midfield and at the same time Brozovic or Çalhanoğlu became free in the midfield, they couldn’t cover all players because there were too much distance between them and forward or between them and defense line. And also Barella’s positioning effected them in a bad way.
Barella took position in right half-space and this positioning didn’t let İlkay or Rodri to cover him. Because if one of them would close to half-space to cover Barella, this time to cover centre, Manchester City would have just one centre midfielder.
Also when Inter was trying to make game, if the ball got closer to Inter’s left wing, this time İlkay and Rodri had to shift to the wing a little bit too. They didn’t shift too much because if one of them would shift to wing or even half-space, this time centre would be too free for Inter players but still they got closer to wing. And this time, Barella became more free than even normal time. Because when the ball went to left wing, Barella didn’t close to left wing. He kept staying in right half-space.
This position happened just once but with that positioning, actually Inter could manage to pass Manchester City’s pressing comfortably. In this position, Inter tried to make game with 3-3-4. Brozovic came to defense as the centre stopper, Acerbi shifted to left stopper position, Bastoni shifted to left wing back position and Dumfries went to left winger position. In this position, it doesn’t matter which player is in which position. The important point is line up. Now Inter had 3 players whose took position in left wing. So in the end, in the left wing, 1 Inter player became completely free. It’s because, Manchester City’s right winger took position closer to Acerbi. And Manchester City’s right back Stones covered Dumfries. So Bastoni was completely free. İlkay and Rodri also didn’t shift to wing to cover him because as I explained before, they didn’t want to cover centre with only just 1 player.
And I have to say that, in this position, Manchester City were not pressing aggressively. They were just keep taking position closer to forward as much as they can. And when you meet your opponent high but don’t press, then you have to be more careful about covering opponent’s players which are taking position closer to your own defense line or trying to escape your defense line’s behind. Because when you don’t press, you give your opponent to think about which spaces they can pass the ball. It’s not a bad thing if you can cover opponent’s players which are taking position closer to your own defense line or trying to escape your defense line’s behind but first, you have to be sure about you cover them good enough.