A True Test: Pep Guardiola at Manchester City
Football’s worst-kept secret has gotten out:
Starting this summer, Pep Guardiola will be manager of Manchester City Football
Club.
The current Bayern and former Barcelona coach is the
most successful manager in the modern era, having won almost every trophy
imaginable in his few years on the scene. He is renowned for his tactical
brilliance, both offensively and defensively, and for having a strong personal
relationship with his players. Many of the greatest players of the past
generation, including Lionel Messi, have touted him as somewhat of a managerial
magician.
But
the Premier League is a different animal altogether. Who’s to say that he can
just waltz in and succeed right away?
Some will say that Guardiola hasn’t yet created
success as much as inherited it. His record as a winner can’t be denied, but it
must have been a little easier walking into a locker room already occupied by Messi,
Iniesta, and Xavi at Barcelona and Robben, Ribery, and Muller at Bayern. Sure,
there is something to be said for being a strong personality and man-managing
these superstar egos, but just putting these teams out on the field already
guaranteed victory about 90% of the time. In the Premier League, there is
significantly more parity. Not only is no club in England on the level of
Barcelona or Bayern, but the league itself is already looked down upon as a
frequent under-achiever in international competition. Even Guardiola himself
doesn’t know how good he really is at reversing declines or rebuilding a
faltering team, and his job will be even more difficult in a league notorious
for giving managers a very short leash.
Another important point to discuss is the difference
between cultures. While Guardiola has usually had good friendships with his
players, it is publicly known that he’s not the biggest people person behind
closed doors. Throughout his time at Bayern, he has often sent assistants to
deliver messages instead of doing it himself, and he has even been known to
fall out with a team doctor or two (something that didn’t work out too well for
another Premier League manager). At times, he has revealed himself as
relatively inexperienced on the PR side of things, and the brutal English media
will eat that up.
On the other hand, the media will have boatloads of
praise for Guardiola once he inevitably attracts some of the world’s superstars
to play in the Premier League. We all know about the high-profile footballers
who have rejected moves to England in recent years, but that could very well be
a thing of the past should he find success on the field. Under the Manchester
City ownership team, Guardiola will have the freedom to spend big, and the
blessing to select the players he wants with little interference from the
club’s hierarchy.
 |
| Which players will survive and thrive under Pep's leadership? |
On
the topic of changing up the squad, which current City players could succeed
next season, and which will probably be seeing the exit door this summer?
I am by no means an expert, but a quick look at City’s
current team should make Guardiola feel relatively confident heading into his
first year in charge. Highly technical and intelligent players thrive under his
system, and he will already have a few of those at his disposal.
It’s hard to think of a system in which Sergio Agüero wouldn’t excel, and tiki-taka should be no different. The
Argentinian is a technical striker that could successfully be employed as the
center forward in a False 9 system, one of Guardiola’s favorites.
Kevin
De Bruyne is one that jumps out to me, and he could easily end
up being Guardiola’s Müller 2.0. With his
intelligence and positional flexibility, he could be very well-utilized all
over the field and could really hone his game and become a complete footballer
before too long. Similarly, Raheem
Sterling is a pacy winger who fits the manager’s mold completely, and could
hugely benefit from learning how to be more positionally sound and composed on
the ball.
David Silva has often struggled to
nail down one position on the field as his own, but his talent has never been
in question. He is instrumental to the function of the City team, and he
certainly has the intelligence and skill required by Guardiola’s system. I
could see him playing as a central midfielder slightly pulled the left, much
like Iniesta at Barcelona.
On the other hand, players like Wilfried Bony, Fernando, Martín Demichelis,
and Eliaquim Mangala stand out as
players that will almost certainly struggle under the tiki-taka system. They
are the worst on the ball technically, and are fairly weak in terms of passing
and positional discipline. Under proper tutelage they could very well prove me
wrong, but they all seem the most likely to be on their way out.
Other players are trickier. Yaya Touré seems to be on his way out,
but more because he is tired of City and less because of any deficiency in
footballing skills. Jesús Navas doesn’t
exactly fit the Guardiola style, but could be an effective source of energy off
the bench. Samir Nasri is a quality
player but seems to be have been out of form for a good few years now.
Alright
Cameran, enough rambling. Will Guardiola succeed or not?
What makes Guardiola truly special is how he views and
thinks the game of football. He has never faltered with his tactical
tendencies, and this consistency is a large contributor to his success. We will
all have to wait and see, though, how the tiki-taka style translates to
Manchester. A methodology that depends heavily on technical ability and quick
decision-making shouldn’t theoretically be a huge problem for a talented City
squad, but the infamous English weather conditions might be roadblocks on some
matchdays. Imagine trying to string together a dozen one-touch passes on a cold,
rainy night in Stoke. Now imagine that the cold and the rain could be very
prevalent in more than just a couple of the team’s 38 league matches. Tactical
consistency is crucial to any team’s success, but it’s safe to say that
Guardiola will have to be more willing to adapt than he has been in the past.
There is an exorbitant amount of money in the Premier
League these days, which has allowed teams like Leicester, West Ham, and
Southampton to go all out for the top spots in the table; the traditional ‘top
four’ clubs are no longer solidified. With no disrespect to the Bundesliga or
Liga BBVA, Guardiola will have to be at the top of his managerial game every
single day in England, because the difference between qualifying for the
Champions League and finishing in the bottom half of the table is smaller than
it has ever been before. In terms of money, though,
Guardiola will be given whatever he needs. He is arguably the world’s best, and
will soon begin working for a club desperately aiming to join the elite of
world football. If it’s going to take hundreds of millions of Pounds to bring
in the players he needs, that is what he’ll be given.
While other Premier League managers like Jürgen Klopp have found it tough to adapt to English life,
I don’t think Guardiola will have quite so many growing pains. In fact, I think
he already has a head start on his tactics from his time in Germany. He
prepared for the Bayern job by learning how to stop counter-attacks, because
that’s how most German teams play; specifically, his Bayern team was incredibly
successful at pressing high up the field for the ball as soon as possession was
lost, so the opponent couldn’t built up the momentum necessary to start a
counter-attack. Luckily for Guardiola and for City, counter-attacking is the
most prevalent style of play in England, so it seems inevitable that the team
will know approach most matches.
Managing in England is no easy task.
Many have tried and most have failed, often not even lasting a full season. But
Pep Guardiola has a consistent tactical identity, he knows how to deal with the
counter-attack, and he has the freedom to assemble a team of his ideal players.
It will be absolutely shocking to me if he doesn’t win multiple trophies during
his first couple seasons in Manchester, while also helping the league regain
some respect in the eyes of the world.
Who knows? With his help, the Premier
League may rise to prominence once again.
0 comments: