Champions League Review - Guardiola starting to look human

Guardiola starting to look human

The only times that Pep Guardiola has been under real pressure are 1) when he failed his drug test in Italy (later cleared, naturally) and 2) when Jose Mourinho was standing behind him for two seasons offering advice on every breath he took. Other than that, the pressure he has faced has largely been mitigated by producing absolutely outstanding football. He has never expected the sack, and he has left his clubs on his own terms. The three years at Bayern were planned to make sure he didn’t burn out and get into a rut with just his second club.

But there’s pressure now. While he has come close to perfection with Bayern at times, and will win another Bundesliga title, unless he wins the Champions League most of us will regard his time in Germany as a bit of a waste. Given his sides have shown themselves capable of not just being frustrated, but of being defensively vulnerable, there is the first hint that his time at Manchester City will not just be peaches and cream.

Capitalism is often said to be self-correcting. One business might have an advantage, for a bit, but then everyone else catches up until someone else discovers the next advantage. You might wonder if football is the same. Mourinho managed something ridiculous at Porto, which became something enduring at Chelsea, and Champions League-winning at Inter again. But it was largely the same tactic. Then, he was left behind by the very best, and Guardiola seemed to have perfected football.

Guardiola had his possession and his piggy-in-the-middle, and he had his Messi. But there was gegenpressing, and raumdeuters, and Phillip Lahm as a false full-back, and in the end Bayern and Guardiola produced just another side. Something special, sometimes, but not something special per se. Perhaps, like capitalism, football will allow you an edge, briefly, and then swallow you back into the competitive morass until something else emerges. The chances of that being produced by Guardiola is slim, but if anyone can, it would be foolish to rule him out.

Atletico Madrid win through brilliance, not fluke

Bayern Munich are brilliant, and they have brilliant players. They have especially brilliant attackers, and unsurpringly most of their opponents sit back and hope to absorb the pressure, and somehow escape with a draw. Occasionally, by accident, they might score against Bayern and then make them really angry. That usually ends in a 7- or 8-1 defeat whereas they might have got away with just a 4- or 5-0 defeat if they’d behaved. Very, very occasionally, a team might manage to grab a win.

The better sides, though, the ones who play outside of Germany and are talented and confident in their own right, have tried something different. Benfica might not have had the ability to match Bayern’s, but they should it is possible to attack Bayern effectively, and that for all their attacking excellence, the defence is not quite right. Something, it must be said, that isn’t helped by injuries. As well as that, Juventus showed that great players can cause them problems. Bayern, unlike Barcelona, are human. When they lose to the best of the rest, it’s not as shocking as when Guardiola’s Barcelona struggled.

Madrid are not shy. They are also not afraid of running, and they are not afraid of chasing a team across the pitch, snarling at them and reacting quickly when they have the ball. They might be brutal, but they aren’t thugs - they are both aggressive and skillful. Saul Niguez’s brilliant goal showed technique and quick reactions after winning the ball, as well as exploiting defensive weakness in central defence. This wasn’t a lucky win, it was a poised, planned and probably exhausting victory.

Manchester City somehow keep going

Manchester City could actually be in a Champions League final. A final. Of the Champions League. That won’t have been in the wildest dreams of men in flat caps drinking flat beer in Stockport 20 years ago. The most they’d have hoped for was the resurgence of the moustache. Somehow, they’ve got both. Get yourself a bitter hipster and you have yourself the happiest man alive.

It has been a weird season for City fans. They started it looking like Manuel Pellegrini had finally got the players to look at him and, not only listen, but not to laugh in his face when he asked them to do reasonable things, like run towards the goal, pass, and use all their obvious ability to win games. Of course, that didn’t last, and then the season became a little bit of a farce. They had the League Cup, but the supporters and the manager knew they didn’t have the league. In a season when Leicester City and Spurs were favourites above Arsenal, FFS, for the league, this was a chance that City let drift and miss out because players like Yaya Toure were planning their exit, and players like Martin Demichelis existed.

And yet, each round of the Champions League welcomed them. The group stages was negotiated pretty adroitly. Against Paris Saint-Germain, few gave them a serious chance against a side on fire in the league and with Zlatan Ibrahimovic seemingly finally ready to impress people. But no, they held on, and were the most impressive side over the two legs. Next up, Real Madrid.

Ah, Real Madrid! Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema. No chance, City. But Benzema is playing like a man distracted by an investigation in criminal activity, Ronaldo was injured, and Bale cannot do it all by himself. Again, Real Madrid will be considered the favourites, but with each match City get a little closer, and don’t look out of their depth for once. It is a strange time at City, and an oddly positive one.

Joe Hart kept City in the tie, but his place should still be at risk under Guardiola

If Joe Hart wants to keep his place in the Manchester City side managed by Pep Guardiola, then this needs to be the minimum quality of his performance. Guardiola’s style demands focus from a goalkeeper, and that is where Hart has often failed. He’s an excellent shotstopper, but a vulnerable ‘keeper when it comes to actually having to pay attention, and think.

The ‘sweeper-keeper’ is, by all accounts, the worst word in the history of the world. It embues the user with a smuggery for assuming he is recognising a new development for something has been going on for decades. Nevertheless, its use at Bayern means that Manuel Neuer, and then perhaps Hart, have to be on their game throughout. It is not a standard footballing role, but it isn’t exceptional.

Against Real, Hart was the reason that City don’t have to worry about an away goal, and why they can embrace one of their own with gumption. But he didn’t display the required intelligence to persuade Guardiola that he cannot do better with a different ‘keeper. Hart seems like a committed, determined player, but one who has not yet recognised that being committed is not the same as being bright. It’s not his fault, but if Roy Keane was a cocky sixth former rather than a Terminator, he would be Joe Hart