Wayne Rooney has explained how Manchester City and England play similarly.
Pep Guardiola employs quite a specific style of play — which can be associated with how Barcelona have historically played.
Gareth Southgate, on the other hand, is a pragmatist in his approach. As a result, both teams have quite a different approach from a tactical perspective.
Wayne Rooney says England do something just like Manchester City
However, how fans and managers, like Rooney, who is Plymouth Argyle’s boss view the game is wholly different.
On The Overlap: Fan Debate Euros Special, Wayne Rooney claimed that much like Manchester City, England tend to dominate possession and play in the opposing half.
The Manchester United legend said: “England are similar to Man City in terms of, they’re playing in the opposition’s half, so the backline is up here [close to the halfway line] and they’re playing in one half of the pitch.”
Against Iceland, while the Three Lions lost 1-0, they kept the ball for most of the game — with 69% possession on the day.
City tend to register such possession figures on several instances, as they are parked up in the opposition’s half.
In the FA Cup final, where Guardiola’s side were defeated 2-1 by Manchester United, they had 74% possession.
Manchester City are far more attacking and mainly well-coached
While it is tough to disagree with Wayne Rooney in terms of England often playing in the opposition’s half, they are not as inventive and well-coached as Manchester City.
Guardiola’s patterns of play are there for all to see — from cutbacks often utilised as a source of chance creation to switches of play used when the opposition defence gravitates towards one side of the pitch.
Furthermore, Manchester City’s players are seemingly given the license to attack, as the team as a whole is up there in terms of their goalscoring numbers. In the last two Premier League seasons, the Sky Blues have outscored every other team in the division — with 96 and 94 goals in the 2023/2024 and 2022/2023 campaigns respectively.
The profiling of players at City is superior to that of the Three Lions’ as well. For instance, how Nathan Ake’s athleticism and wide defending are strengths that have led to him becoming a makeshift left-back as opposed to Kieran Trippier playing in the same position — despite looking uncomfortable in the role for years.
Ultimately, the differences between Manchester City and England primarily emerge due to Guardiola and Southgate as coaches, even if they dominate teams as Rooney stated.
