After Manchester City beat rivals Manchester United 7-6 on penalties to win the Community Shield, football writer Alex Keble looks at the main talking points from Saturday's match at Wembley Stadium.
To some it might be little more than a friendly, but Pep Guardiola has always taken the Community Shield seriously – and this one might have had particular significance.
Finding motivation is something Guardiola has worried about out loud.
Lifting silverware, experiencing that winning feeling again, and getting revenge for the FA Cup final defeat to Manchester United should put a spring in Manchester City’s step.
Man Utd will not be too disheartened. A penalty shootout defeat will happily be interpreted as a draw and after a “mixed” summer, to use Erik ten Hag’s pre-match words, they will be contented.
Here are five things we learnt from the 2024 Community Shield.
Bobb & Lewis could become key players
Aside from winning his third Community Shield, Guardiola will be most pleased with the performance of the two young players who controlled the right flank for Man City.
Rico Lewis was particularly strong in the first half, not only containing Marcus Rashford but taking up intelligent positions when City were in possession.
He would often drift infield, not so much inverting into the middle as making under-lapping runs and picking up the ball in an advanced No 8 position in the style of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Lewis seemed tired in the second half, as did Oscar Bobb – until he came alive to produce the equaliser in the final minutes.
Bobb has now scored or assisted a goal in each of his last four friendly appearances. The 21-year-old winger is on the verge of a breakout season.
The way he wriggled past Diogo Dalot to cross for Bernardo Silva’s equaliser typified a display full of energy and attacking intent. Bobb created three chances, more than any other player on the pitch, with one of those for James McAtee, who hit a post.
Man City won’t start many matches this season with quite so many young players on the pitch, yet Bobb and Lewis can definitely expect to play together in the months ahead.
Man Utd still struggling to build out from the back
There were plenty of positives for Man Utd, but before we get to those it’s worth giving some attention to an issue that still lingers from last season.
When signings are completed and the squad is fully fit United’s entire back four looks set to be different: Luke Shaw, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, and Noussair Mazraoui will presumably be Ten Hag’s preferred defence, if reports that the club have agreed deals to sign the latter two from Bayern Munich are accurate.
Still, the four who started on Saturday have spent a long time under Ten Hag and therefore it is concerning how often they struggled to pass out from the back.
As is so often the case, they seemed to be improvising each pass, slowly recycling the ball and playing themselves into danger, in stark contrast to the positional symmetry and smart patterns of Man City.
Lisandro Martinez twice gave the ball away in his own third, the second time leading to McAtee hitting the frame of the goal, while Kobbie Mainoo often looked isolated.
Man City too easily closed them down, to the extent that with 25 minutes on the clock United had had only 10 touches in the opposition half.
Things improved in the second half, but only because a host of destabilising substitutions stretched the pitch.
Improvements in attack
United’s football in their own third gave the impression that the tactical coaching hasn’t improved since last season – but in the attacking third, there was a notable uptick.
In the first half, two moves in particular caught the eye.
Amad played a neat one-two with Casemiro but couldn’t quite find Mason Mount for what would have been a brilliant team goal, and a few minutes later another quick give-and-go involving Bruno Fernandes led to Marcus Rashford firing wide.
What was striking about this was the effortless one-touch manner of their interactions, suggesting – maybe – that Ten Hag’s new coaching team is working on attacking moves in greater detail.
Ten Hag appears to have worked out how to counter Guardiola
Lots of United’s attacking moves, however, were exactly the same as those we saw in similar matches against the top clubs, not least in the FA Cup final.
From a United perspective the biggest takeaway of all is that Ten Hag really has got Guardiola’s number: playing "false nines", with Fernandes dropping off the front line to set the wingers away on the counter-attack working again.
It created several big chances in the second half, when Alejandro Garnacho – as usual – moved brilliantly off the right wing, anticipating the longer through balls down the middle.
When this tactic is put together with a 4-4-2 midblock, surrounding the Man City midfield and staying compact by refusing to press high, United regularly seem to stump Guardiola.
That being said, if Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne had started the match, Man Utd probably wouldn’t have found it so easy to break. Which brings us onto the final point.
Central midfield could be a slight issue for Man City
City’s midfield never quite got to grips with the match and while that is entirely understandable when it comes to the young players, it may concern supporters that Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes did so little to affect the play.
In yet another example of the alarming drop-off when Rodri isn’t there to hold things together, Fernandes received far too many straight passes between the lines.
So far this window Man City have focused on improving their attack and sure enough Savinho did look sharp in his cameo, completing three take-ons in just 30 minutes on the field.
But Guardiola could really do with a press-resistant, forward-thinking central midfielder to help sew things together.
“We have Kova [Mateo Kovacic], we have Rico [Lewis], Nico O’Reilly, John [Stones] and Manu [Akanji] who can play alongside another player [in midfield] so we have alternatives, and we could look in the market,” Guardiola said.
Since Ilkay Gundogan’s departure to Barcelona last summer, too many Man City midfielders lack urgency, and in a season when even the manager is concerned motivation might be an issue, they could do with some extra bite in the middle.
