Manchester City 6-1 Huddersfield Town Six Things: Citizens dominate

Ruthless Aguero bags his second – bbc.co.uk

A Sergio Aguero hat-trick helped Manchester City to a 6-1 win over Huddersfield Town on Sunday afternoon. Here’s Six Things from the game.

City’s adaptability

The absence of Kyle Walker, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane from the first eleven meant that Manchester City didn’t have quite as much pace in wide areas as usual, but left-back Benjamin Mendy made some excellent overlapping runs which Alex Pritchard was guilty of neglecting. They had to be arguably even more patient than usual in the first quarter of the contest but, in David Silva, they had a man capable of pin-point passes; he began an outstanding performance by, from the right-channel, picking out Gabriel Jesus from the right-channel, but the lively Brazilian couldn’t beat Ben Hamer from close-range. It was impressive that City could still fashion openings without so many key players; Kevin De Bruyne, of course, is out for another three months.

Huddersfield caught out by Ederson

Although, David Wagner’s side were executing a reasonable containment job in the opening quarter; Phillip Billing made some good interceptions, Christopher Schindler looked solid and Florent Hadergjonaj closed down effectively. The major problem came when, after Jon Stankovic fired over following a break led by Steve Mounie, the team gained enough encouragement to scrap their initial strategy and press man-for-man with nine men in the opposing half. Ederson Moraes exploited that with a wonderful long kick towards Aguero, who in acres of space, pounced on a questionable decision from Hamer to rush out by lobbing the ball home.

The goal glut

Aguero’s opener marked the start of a 10-minute period during which the hosts went from being level to leading by three goals. Tommy Smith produced a firm challenge on Mendy but, with the right-back on the floor, Jesus eluded Stankovic’s attentions before firing inside the near-post with the outside of his left boot. Then, when, Hamer spilt Mendy’s cross, Aguero got ahead of Smith and Schindler to predictably gobble up the chance.

Wagner’s wishful thinking

Surprisingly, Billing’s 42nd-minute long throw led to a Huddersfield goal: Mounie beat Jesus in the air to allow Stankovic to elude John Stones to tap home at the back post. The manner of that goal might have influenced Wagner’s half-time substitution; he added another target man in Laurent Depoitre, perhaps dreaming of a second half in which Huddersfield pressurize City and frequently pump balls into the box. Alas, any hope of that scenario was extinguished by a delightful 48th minute free-kick from Silva, the prelude to further City dominance. Huddersfield then tried to contain, but with the handicap of having two tall, out-and-out strikers who aren’t especially mobile.

Aguero gets his treble

Because no Huddersfield defender was assigned to man mark Aguero, his clever movement allowed him to find pockets of space just in front of the back-line. He was denied by Hamer and the woodwork early in the second half but, with Pep Guardiola set to take him off, the Argentine secured his hat-trick by turning home the excellent Mendy’s drilled cross at the near-post. There was still time for the visitors to concede a slightly comical sixth following Sane’s tight-angled effort, as City delivered an early reminder, if it were needed, of their credentials.

Hope that kills for The Terriers

Wagner, a positive character, has built a Huddersfield team that buys into the romance of football; that mentality, although admirable and crucial to their promotion in 2016-17, didn’t necessarily help here. Firstly, a momentary structural sea-change in approach contributed to the opener. Secondly, the decision to put on two target men for 45 minutes was perhaps asking for trouble. Although Huddersfield sat deep for much of this match, it was those two risks, combined with various defensive imperfections, which meant the West Yorkshire outfit endured a more morale-damaging afternoon than they would have hoped. City’s world-class quality cannot be doubted, but their visitors made their life easier than they perhaps should have done.