How Pep Guardiola Has Turned This Manchester City Team From Good To Great
It’s way too early to be calling the Premier League title race now, it’s not even Christmas yet. Victory in the Manc Derby puts Manchester City eleven points clear of Man United with their record fourteenth league win in a row but plenty of water has to pass under the bridge before the trophy gets engraved. Injuries, suspensions, poor form, compressed fixtures… so many things could yet bust up this proposed City triumph. But, bloody hell, it’s getting harder and harder to imagine it.
City weren’t at their imperial best at Old Trafford. They didn’t need to be, this was always going to be a certain type of game as long as Jose Mourinho was standing in front of the home benches. The Former Special One’s big game tactics may not be the most popular but a man as addicted to manufacturing victories as he is wouldn’t use them if they didn’t have a tendency to seriously disrupt teams. It’s like sabotage for the sake of sabotage then his blokes are expected to craft something out of the mess. Even City were not entirely immune.
David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne were fantastic here, initiating attacks and maintaining a tempo of passing, yet they were also kept deeper than they wanted to be (until Silva played the last half hour as a lone striker). Gabriel Jesus was more than wasteful on a couple occasions. Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane never quite unleashed what they can do. All United were doing with the ball was launching pointless long balls in a game they needed to win but at least they were keeping it equal.
So City scored from a set piece instead. Then they scored from another one in the second half after Marcus Rashford had capitalised on a crap error from Fabian Delph (don’t ignore Nic Otamendi missing the header either). Man Utd didn’t even have a shot until damn near half-time and when Ederson made back to back stunner-stops from Romelu Lukaku and Juan Mata near the end, well… that was about it. The Sky Blues killed it off by taking it to the corner and even their time wasting was classy, efficient and exciting. Again, long way to go yet, but it’ll take quite the bugger-up from here for Pep Guardiola not to raise a third league title in the third country he’s managed in.
Pretty Peppy, aye? With his tight trousers and designer cardigans. Sure we can chuck the old ‘could he do it with West Brom!?!?’ line at him and the answer is an emphatic ‘NO’… or at least not unless he compromises on his usual visions and who wants to see that? Some managers are great with great players and some are great with average ones. Manchester City were already a brilliant team full of title winners and plenty of money to spend but that shouldn’t diminish what Guardiola has done here. People who tried to write him off as a phony midway through his first season in England, on the other hand…
City were pretty good last season. They won their first six PL games before finally dropping one away to Spurs and ended up finishing a solid third. Drew a few too many home games and lost a couple too many on the road. Mostly against top teams. They beat Man Utd 2-1 at Old Trafford and beat Arsenal 2-1 at home and that was it – neither of those teams finished top four either. Pep had his side scoring goals and looking silky in possession, as you’d expect, but they were conceding way too many at the other end to mount a genuine challenge to Chelsea. Yeah, about those things…
- MCI 16-17 vs Top Six: 2 W | 4 D | 4 L | 11 GF | 15 GA | 10 PTS
- MCI 17-18 vs Top Six: 4 W | 0 D | 0 L | 11 GF | 2 GA | 12 PTS
They beat Liverpool 5-0, they beat Chelsea 1-0, they beat Arsenal 3-1 and now they’ve beaten Man Utd 2-1. They play Spurs next week at The Etihad. Already Pep’s Pups have more points and as many goals against the top teams as they bagged in all of last season. Oh and the Chelsea and ManU games were away thus there go arguably the two toughest places to play in England in the rearview.
It’s the defence that should have your eyes bulging out like randy cartoon character. After a season in which John Stones caught heat for his performances after signing for big bucks, Vincent Kompany struggled to prove he could play two games in a row, Nic Otamendi was somehow left as their most reliable defender and Eli Mangala spent the year out on loan and came close to leaving on a permanent… Senor Guardiola chose not to buy a single centre-back.
That’s because he had a better solution in mind. Five new first team signings and not one was a CB, though four all addressed that backline. Ederson was roped in as the new keeper while Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo signalled a complete refreshing of the fullback stocks (with all the old bastards given the flick). Plus some dude called Bernardo Silva arrived, a European Champion with Portugal who is lucky to even get on the park as a sub most games with all the attacking magnificence on offer here. We got a sighter of him at Old Trafford for the last few ticks.
Sixteen games into last season, City had just kept their third clean sheet in a 2-0 win over Watford. They’d fix things up after Claudio ‘No Saves’ Bravo got dropped and end up with 12 CS for the full Premier League campaign. This time around they already have seven despite four 2-1 wins in a row lately. Obviously Kyle Walker is a big upgrade on Kolarov or Zabaleta or Sagna or Clichy but it’s about more than personnel. Otherwise there’d have been a bigger drop-off after Benjamin Mendy did his ACL or after John Stones tweaked the hammy last month and will miss all of December.
Here’s a weird one… City faced exactly 300 shots in PL play in 2016-17. That’s a dozen fewer than Liverpool who were second-best on that list. Chelsea (323), Spurs (349) and Man Utd (361) were the only others leaking fewer than ten per game. Yet City conceded 39 goals and Liverpool conceded 42. Meanwhile Chelsea (33), Man Utd (29) and Spurs (26) were way more effective. Shout out to those three teams because they’ve not-coincidentally got the three best keepers in the league which helps enormously. Pep brought Bravo in to aid the way they were going to play in possession but it turns out you also need a goalkeeper to, you know: keep goal.
Also, four of those City goals came from counter attacks and nine came from set pieces. So when you add in a keeper that can’t save a shot on target then of course they’re gonna have issues. They scored five goals in the home leg of their Champions League knockout tie with Monaco and still lost, remember.
A mistake was made… and a mistake was fixed. Ederson is a very good goalie who also brings a lot of the same skill on the ball as Bravo had whilst also doing a commanding job between the sticks. Plus John Stones has been a new bloke this year, playing like the impending star they thought they were getting. Bravo is still around but he was dropped to being backup keeper. John Stones, in contrast, was nurtured and developed to where he’s now living up to the hype. Which players a manager indulges and which they don’t can be a bit random and we only get to judge from the outside with hindsight. So… in view of that, check and check.
Pep’s ability to improve players with his coaching is a big theme here, by the way. Chuck Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling in that category too, those two are reaching scary new heights these days. Same goes for a more consistent midfield, with Ilkay Gundogan back to fitness and Fernandinho playing outstandingly. Much like his time at Barcelona though, there’s more to Guardiola’s defending than just defending.
Like, you wouldn’t think that fullbacks would make the difference yet here we are. Kyle Walker is supremely fit, he’s the best right back in the England squad and he knows how to win a tackle. His delivery into the box can be sketchy but City aren’t really crossers of the footy, they’re over-lappers and quick-switchers and give-and-go-ers. Walker has the pace and skill to get forward and set the edge on attack while also being able to get back and defend. Ben Mendy is the same on the left… only he’s injured. Suddenly they’re able to funnel the attacks they face down the middle where they have cover, doing their defending on their own terms as much as possible. (Granted, set pieces are still a problem).
The fact that they’ve risen from 60% of possession in games to a whopping 66% of possession does some damage as well – there’s only so much you have to defend when the other team barely has a third of the football. It’d almost be cheating if it wasn’t so much harder than they make it look.
Yes, and then there’s that impossible goal-scoring prowess. Raheem Sterling is a top quality player now, bet ya didn’t see that coming. He’s doing it in a different way to what he did at Liverpool too - his mazy speed and dribbling in open spaces has been levelled up to where he’s becoming a master at playing in tight areas; quick one-two passes and confident movements are getting it done. The vision of Silva and KDB needs no explanation, suffice to say that if you get open then they’ll get you the ball, but the way they’ve settled into this central midfield combination is impressive. Gabby Jesus and Sergio Aguero? No explanation required here either.
At their best this City team is unstoppable. 5-0 vs Liverpool, 6-0 at Watford, 7-2 v Stoke… they’re averaging three goals a game. At this pace they’ll end up with 114 bangers – 11 more than the current PL record of 103 (Chelsea in 09-10). The volume is impressive enough, the timing is even more so. Particularly from that lad Sterling who has scored 13 goals already in all competitions and eight of them have come after the 80th minute. Five of those earned extra points:
- 82nd min equaliser vs Everton (1-1)
- 97th min winner vs Bournemouth (2-1)
- 84th min winner vs Huddersfield (2-1)
- 96th min winner vs Southampton (2-1)
- 88th min winner vs Feyenoord (1-0 / UCL)
Next time you watch these guys play, take note of the patience they display when on attack. It’s not about snap shots and hopeful efforts, though Sterling’s curler into the top corner against Southampton was a worldie. City are happy to turn down a half-chance in order to make it a better one. They get the ball into the box and try milk an overlap or a one-two, something to get a dude down to the line where he can square it for an easy finish. Some teams get a sight at goal and panic, Manchester City are always looking for something better.
Of course, they’re good enough to actually be able to create something better, but still. You don’t have to like Pep Guardiola, you don’t have to put KDB on your Ballon D’Or list, you don’t have to start wearing blue and you don’t have to listen to Oasis all of a sudden. But it’s pretty hard not to appreciate what Man City are doing right now.
Chuck a quick smack on an ad like David Silva flips quick passes around the attacking third and you’ll be doing your bit to ensure TNC gets to keep dishing this stuff up.