Guardiola magic is working wonders for City

Manchester City look ready to win the title once again, with Pep Guardiola finally but firmly stamping his influence on the team. Effervescent attacking play, married with a tight defence, has created a formidable side; a side that only city rivals Manchester United have been able to match stride for stride so far this season. In a title race that should go down to the wire, City fans will be hoping the guidance of a man who has grown accustomed to success in his managerial career will be enough to fend off their great rivals.

Sergio Aguero’s recent involvement in a car accident is primarily saddening for the Argentine striker, who has begun the season in imperious form for City, but will inevitably have repercussions for how Guardiola will line his side up. United, meanwhile, are able to call on the prolific Romelu Lukaku who has settled into life at Old Trafford with ease. Yet City have standout performers throughout the side, and have overcome sterner opposition than a United team who are yet to face any genuine contenders for the race for European qualification this season.

Guardiola seems to be finally proving his doubters wrong. Of course, that will not have concerned the Spaniard one iota. Moreover, it seems bizarre that one of football’s great coaches would even have doubters. The boring assertions that Guardiola has had a managerial career handed to him on a plate can decisively be crushed by a quick look at Barcelona’s procession of coaches that have struggled to satisfy to the extent that Pep did, or by the dismissal of esteemed coach Carlo Ancelotti who has failed to deliver the imperious results that Guardiola achieved.

Bayern Munich have lost the fear factor, something that Manchester City now have in abundance. Where Munich seem fallible, even with such a dazzling array of stars at their disposal, City have steel in their mentality and an irrepressible verve to their attacking play. Admittedly, the fees spent to bring top players to the Etihad Stadium are undeniably exorbitant. Alas, that is the nature of life at Europe’s biggest clubs. Money is not equivalent to success, although it obviously can help a great deal. But in a league blessed with some impressive sides full of leading talents, it will take a canny manager to come out on top of the pile. Guardiola will be expecting nothing less than a title, and the side is currently looking like a team that can deliver on those ambitions.

The season started relatively inauspiciously for City, with a 2-0 victory over newly promoted Brighton the expected result but not by the expected margin. The subsequent 1-1 draw with Everton perhaps gave false expectations to fans of both clubs. City, although hamstrung by Kyle Walker’s early dismissal for… something, were already huffing and puffing and failing to blow down a resolute Everton who looked threatening on the counter. Sadly for Ronald Koeman, Everton have rarely looked that good since and are now wallowing in the lower reaches of the league as a result of insipid displays devoid of pace or coherent strategy.

City were unperturbed by the disappointment of points dropped in their first league home game, and have since gone from strength to strength. September saw a side clicking into top gear, with seven victories sealed and only one goal conceded. Perhaps surprisingly given the attacking calibre of opponent that they faced, that goal came from combative holding midfielder Claudio Yacob of West Bromwich Albion. Any sadness of conceding to such an unlikely source is tempered by the facts that this was the EFL Cup, and City ultimately prevailed through a brace of Leroy Sane goals.

A resolute defence has been welcomed with relief by the Etihad crowd. Far too often a laughing stock last season, with the likes of Claudio Bravo, John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi at various points figures of derision, Guardiola has now moulded a stern rearguard with some unlikely building materials. Perhaps the most crucial element is the foundation of the defence. Where Bravo came out and flapped at criticisms that he was inferior to Joe Hart, Ederson has come out confidently and punched those criticisms into touch.

Cynics will point out that you expect nothing less for £35 million, but the blue of Manchester, who will have been sneaking jealous and covetous glances across the city at David De Gea, now have a goalkeeping asset who could match the Spaniard’s reputation and ability. At 24 years old, Ederson is a baby in goalkeeping years. The traditional fears about how this poor Brazilian will cope with the physical demands of the Premier League have thankfully been forgotten, with Ederson deciding to convincingly prove this by taking Sadio Mane’s boot head on. His command of the area has been impressive, whilst his distribution has been intelligent.

Sterner tests await the goalkeeper, but he is already projecting an aura of confidence and competence. Considering the fairly makeshift nature of the defence in front of him, that is all the more noteworthy. The backline in the impressive 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge is presumably not one that Guardiola would have anticipated fielding in such a crucial fixture, but it certainly worked. The central defensive duo of Stones and Otamendi have been reinvigorated this season, with the former showing a glimpse of his considerable potential and the latter reminding critics that he is a very talented player who actually had a career before he came to England.

The £50 million man Kyle Walker was at right-back, a player whose name at Tottenham nearly became synonymous with left-back Danny Rose as they delivered equilibrium to Spurs’ devastating attack. Only time will tell if Fabian Delph will develop into Walker’s new Rose. With the long-term injury of Benjamin Mendy, Delph appears to have emerged as an unlikely but serious candidate to fill in the left-back berth. Both him and Danilo would not be natural contenders to bring balance to the left-hand side of the defence; Danilo does have the fact that he is a full-back going for him, but Guardiola does love to eschew convention in favour of shoving midfield players where you might not expect them to fit.

City show their unity against Chelsea. Source: Manchester City via Facebook.

City show their unity against Chelsea. Source: Manchester City via Facebook.

Invariably, it works. The tactical nous and the self-confidence to make those calls are what separates the Guardiolas from the England managers. Of course, England fans have had years of watching players shoehorned into incorrect positions, but the difference between how Guardiola manipulates formations could not be greater. Firstly, Guardiola is currently operating out of necessity rather than choice. Importantly, Guardiola has a clear way of playing that encourages tactical flexibility, and it is an ethos that his squad buy into wholeheartedly. To put it as kindly as possible, England do not have this.

It would not be surprising to see Delph put in a whole season of impressive performances at left-back to seal a starting spot in central midfield for England at the World Cup in the summer. While the national team manager has constraints in that Southgate cannot go out and spend £50 million on a midfielder, it would be typical of England to stubbornly select a player in a position that they haven’t occupied all season. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is another prime example; it would not be surprising to see Southgate disregard his starting position for Liverpool thus far and include him in the starting lineup rather than on the bench where he has done some adequate sitting this season already.

It was a former England manager who gave City one of their two 5-0 victories in September (the other 5-0 was against Liverpool, while City also delivered a 4-0 dismantling of Feyenoord and a 6-0 thrashing of Watford). Taking over at Crystal Palace is the epitome of a thankless task, especially in the short term. Having failed to register a point or a goal in the league, the timing was far from propitious from Roy Hodgson as his new side entered a somewhat tricky run of fixtures. A home tie against Southampton was probably earmarked as a kind fixture to ease Hodgson in, but a 1-0 defeat was not the best preparation for facing both Manchester clubs and Chelsea in consecutive league fixtures. City managed to outdo their city rivals by winning 5-0 compared to 4-0, but those results will have Chelsea salivating for their encounter after the international break.

Hodgson’s sides are usually nothing if not organised and dogged. After all, it was his competent stewardship that took England to positions where they could disappoint so significantly. However, defeat against a rampant City seemed as close to certainty as one can find in the unpredictable world of football. Pundits expected a rout, and they were vindicated; the betting preview by Oddschecker backed Manchester City to win to nil and by a margin of more than two goals, and those predictions proved correct in straightforward fashion. With an attack blessed with creativity and clinical finishing, it will not be the last time that City run riot against a defence in disarray.

While victories such as the comprehensive defeats of Palace and Watford were not surprises, although the latter were predicted to deliver more of a resistance, it is the triumphs against would-be title contenders in Liverpool and Chelsea that have marked Guardiola’s side as one that will go the distance in this campaign. The 5-0 defeat of Liverpool was made easier by Mane’s reckless red card in the first half; before that dismissal, City may have held a 1-0 lead but were looking vulnerable to Liverpool’s blistering pace. After that, it became a formality, albeit a formality that was very easy on the eye.

The 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge is the one that will have given Guardiola most encouragement, and its timing just before the international break leaves City in the enviable position of topping the league for the next fortnight. Kevin De Bruyne, a former Chelsea player more in name rather than in experience, was a master at work. His reinvention as a deeper-lying playmaker worried many pundits as it negated the propulsion that he can deliver to swift counter-attacks. However, this element of his game has not disappeared. Rather, he has become more of an all-action midfielder, with his incisive vision and precise passing just as lethal from deeper positions as it is in tight situations around the opposing penalty area.

Kevin De Bruyne celebrates his winning strike against Chelsea. Source: Manchester City via Facebook.

Kevin De Bruyne celebrates his winning strike against Chelsea. Source: Manchester City via Facebook.

David Silva has enjoyed a similarly stunning start to the season, with the Spaniard now bearing a physical resemblance to Stephen Ireland but a footballing resemblance to few others, such is the level that he is operating on. It will be interesting to see how City adapt in the longer-term to the absence of Sergio Aguero. The Argentinian had begun the season in prolific form, and had usurped Gabriel Jesus as the main man in a battle that Guardiola would have been thrilled to witness.

However, the stage is now set for Jesus to flourish. There will be increased pressure on the young Brazilian’s shoulders as he will now be relied upon to regularly produce goals in addition to contributing to build-up play, but Jesus has shown no signs of buckling under pressure in his City career thus far. Leroy Sane has come back into the team with a flurry of goals, the perfect response to being sidelined by Guardiola for the start of the season. It seems likely that Jesus and Sane will dovetail as a front two by name, but with a greater flexibility to drop deep and run wide than perhaps Aguero would have offered.

Manchester United are unlikely to go away without a fight, and the Manchester derby on December 9 could have dual significance in terms of bragging rights and supremacy at the top of the table. With Chelsea and Tottenham capable of staying the distance, Guardiola will have a tough task negotiating the resistance of the title challengers. There are a lot of experienced managers in the Premier League, but Guardiola’s convictions in his approach and his innovative tactical strategies could be the difference between challengers and champions.

Goalden Times Editorial Team

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