How do you see football? With which eyes, the ones from the past or the ones whoch belongs to the current days? That is something which is currently happening to me.

I was watching a recent Manchester City match and noticed a positioning that was somewhat old and familiar. Manchester City have a peculiar way of playing on the sides, and the positioning of their wing-backs is not similar to that of the vast majority of teams. Furthermore, on many occasions it is quite possible to notice a line with five forwards. Due to these characteristics, it is as if the Italian system went back to the ancient pyramid. City often play in the following format:


Foden                  Haaland                  Silva
Gündoğan            De Bruyne

Cancelo         Rodri         Walker  

R. Dias         Stones

Ederson

Manchester City wing-backs, due to their positioning, closely resemble former wing half-backs and both midfielders – Gündoğan and De Bruyne – often look like former inside forwards.

Regarding this peculiarity, some questions about this system came to me, as if it were something supernatural, some brand new system. Also, I noticed some tactical analysts commenting on Manchester City's system. Well, it's nothing new. In fact, it's all very old.

You see this standard tactical organization:

Villa                  Messi                  Pedro

Iniesta                  Xavi     
Busquets
Abidal                                    Alves
Puyol            Pique

Valdés

This is the same design that the coaches adept at the Italian system did. However, due to the forgetfulness of this system and the later use of numbers to identify lines in the field, it was called 4-3-3. Of course, I'm just writing about the standard tactical organization; not how the teams worked — which is something completely different.