“His level of detail, management of egos and passion converted into discipline”: the keys to the success of Pep and his historic City

Like the vast majority of feats that Pep Guardiola has accustomed us to in his career as a coach, the feat he has been achieving with Manchester City It has its own shine. Never has an English club been one game away from winning the Premier League for the fourth time in a row. In fact, if the victory against West Ham is consummated today, as everything suggests, the Catalan’s record would be seven tournaments in a row, except that in the 2019-20 campaign Liverpool won brutally, adding 99 points. Six cups and one runner-up in seven years is proof of a hegemony that, before, was only seen in France (Lyon, PSG), Scotland (Celtic) or Germany (Bayern Munich). There are no signs that the English throne will have succession soon.

The question is how he achieves it. The short answer is that it is due to his tactical genius and how he takes advantage of his ancestry with the figures he leads.

The first thing to highlight is the ability to evolve. Between the Barcelona of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta, and the City of Haaland, Rodri and Phoden there are more differences than similarities. With the Blaugrana he proposed a 4-3-3 with a false 9 (Messi) and looked for the creation of spaces from possession and passing, yes, but he did not continuously press high nor did he play religiously with the ball at his foot. from the area (neither Márquez nor Puyol were that type of center back, let alone Valdez). With the citizens the drawing is flexible and fluid to the point that the most recurring scheme in attack is a 3-2-4-1 with Rodri as an anchor in front of the backs and behind the creative midfielders; In defense, they fit into a very compact 4-1-4-1 that is difficult to break through. But those who seek to freeze a strategy to a system that is defined by its malleability will suffer greatly.

The key to success

Success, however, is impossible without the conviction of the squad, and that is where Guardiola’s leadership achieves superior commitment. His level of detail in training, dedication to the game, ego management, passion converted into discipline, all build a culture of planned triumph. One can look for evidence in the statements of those targeted (“It’s incredible, no one comes close to him. The things he comes out with make you say ‘how did that occur to him?’”, said Jack Grealish), but more concrete is compare the performances of individuals with and without their influence: whoever looks for the current performance of Mahrez, or Sterling, or even Gündogan himself will not find what he saw routinely at the Etihad.

This ability to exploit talent manages to turn quite normal players, like Akanji or Aké, into fabulous timers; and talented figures, like Doku or Kovacic, into cracks. How does this promotion, this improvement occur? It happens because in addition to believing in the system, each player on the team knows with extreme detail what and what they should not do on the field. Every teammate who moves next to him, every co-religionist of this faith, improves them with his relays, his short strikes, his coverage, his pressure, his possession. Manchester City, whoever its performers were, is a collective animal that has a life of its own. And that magnificent beast has only one mission: to obey its master.