The evolution of Pep Guardiola's Manchester City sides – and which one is the best

Manchester City could complete the treble this weekend as Pep Guardiola’s look to extend their dominance of the English game to the domestic stage. The Spaniard has won five Premier League titles in his seven seasons at the club, but there have been three distinct eras to his sides in that period. Here we analyse each of them and come to a conclusion over which was the best.

Manchester City 1.0 (2017-19)

2017/18

Squad changes

Key ins

Kyle Walker (Tottenham) - £50 million
Benjamin Mendy (Monaco) - £52 million
Bernardo Silva (Monaco) - £43 million
Ederson (Benfica) - £34.9 million
Danilo (Real Madrid) - £26.5 million
Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao) - £57 million

Key outs

Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City) - £25 million
Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna, Jesus Navas, Gael Clichy - all released

The emphasis had been very much on the construction of a new defence. City spent more than £160 million on three new full-backs, including Kyle Walker, and goalkeeper Ederson, who was a replacement for Joe Hart’s replacement, Claudio Bravo, in Guardiola’s first season. Guardiola was forced to improvise at left back, though, when his £52 million signing Benjamin Mendy ruptured the anterior cruciate in his right knee six weeks into the campaign and missed the next seven months.

Style of play

A team synonymous with fast, flying wingers (Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane), ferocious pressing, cut back goals galore and inverted full-backs. “Constant zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom,” was Sterling’s description of it. Guardiola’s decision to pair the diminutive Spaniard David Silva - who had spent most of his career drifting inside from the flanks - alongside Kevin De Bruyne in central midfield proved a masterstroke.

Between them, they had pretty much every pass covered and were given a platform to probe and penetrate thanks to Fernandinho (master of the tactical foul) and Guardiola’s “half backs”, Walker and (midfielder by trade) Fabian Delph, who offered added security against the threat of counter-attacks at the same time as allowing the team to keep more men committed forward.

Verdict

The “Centurions”, as they became known, are the only team in English top-flight history to amass 100 points in a single season and still Guardiola’s highest scoring title winning side. They remain arguably the most exhilarating of Guardiola’s three great City sides and the “front six” of Fernandinho, De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling, Sane and Sergio Aguero - the perfect blend of pace, power, poise, precision and panache - still roll off the tongue now.

Rating: 9.5/10

2018/19

Squad changes

Key ins

Riyad Mahrez (Leicester) - £60 million

Key outs

None

Riyad Mahrez was the only summer arrival but the capture of the left footed centre-half, Aymeric Laporte the previous January was more significant because it brought an added dimension to City’s build-up play from the back. Ilkay Gundogan came back into the fold after his debut campaign had been ended prematurely the previous December with a ruptured cruciate, which was a good job because Guardiola spent large swathes of the 2018/19 campaign without the injured De Bruyne.

Style of play

City underwent changes as the season progressed - some by choice, others enforced. Sane, for example, lost his place after January, with Sterling moved to the left and Bernardo Silva - signed the previous season - taking up residency on the right with some freedom to roam and proving a revelation. At the same time, Aguero evolved from deadly predator to more of a “9½” in a precursor to the hybrid role Guardiola probably envisaged for Harry Kane in 2021 before a deal for the Tottenham striker collapsed. They were still dynamic, still fast and still pressed with relentless pincer movements but the tweaks here and there would foreshadow Guardiola’s subsequent moves to false nines and a thirst for greater patience and control.

Verdict

England’s first domestic treble winners were a winning machine. City were seven points behind Liverpool at turn of the year but ended up winning their final 14 league matches to pip their Merseyside rivals to the title by a point on the final day. To do so mostly without their injured holding midfielder, Fernandinho, in the final few months was all the more impressive and another example of Guardiola’s ability to improvise, with Gundogan excelling in the Brazilian’s place.

Rating: 9/10

Manchester City 2.0 (2020-22)

2020/21

Squad changes

Key ins

Ruben Dias (Benfica) - £65 million
Nathan Ake (Bournemouth) - £40 million

Key outs

David Silva (Real Sociedad) - Free
Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich) - £55 million
Nicolas Otamendi (Benfica) - £13.7 million

Kompany had left in the summer of 2019 and 12 months later City were saying goodbye to another pillar of their success, David Silva. Sane would also depart that summer, for Bayern Munich, and an increasingly injured Aguero was nearing the end. The previous season had been a disappointment, with City finishing 18 points behind runaway champions Liverpool, and they also had a two-year European ban from Uefa for alleged Financial Fair Play breaches hanging over them. The suspension would be successfully overturned on appeal that summer. Ruben Dias arrived from Benfica for £65 million and would come to fill the void left by Kompany a year earlier, when Rodri and Joao Cancelo had been signed from Atletico Madrid and Juventus respectively - and 2020/21 would ultimately prove a breakout year for both players.

Style of play

This season marked the advent of the false nine era at City, even if Guardiola’s tactical reboot was a while coming. Indeed, it was not until after a 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion in mid-December that City clicked into gear after early teething problems and Guardiola’s reimagining of his side became fully apparent. City became even more possession focused, there were fewer direct attacks, they were not, as Guardiola stressed, “a team to make big transitions of 40 to 50 metres” and his wingers increasingly became instruments of control, rather than destruction.

Guardiola seemed to evolve the full-back role yet again with his use of Cancelo almost as a playmaking No. 10 from left back. With the manager no longer able to rely upon Aguero, the use of a false nine morphed from an occasional, tantalising Plan B to Plan A. Whoever played there tended to thrive, too. De Bruyne performed the role to devastating effect in a resounding 3-1 win at Chelsea, arguably City’s performance of the season. It was Phil Foden with a similar outcome in a 4-1 win at Liverpool, their best result. Mahrez excelled there at Old Trafford in the League Cup.

Verdict

City’s run of 21 consecutive wins across all competitions over a three month period to early March 2021 - when they went 28 games unbeaten - set a new English top flight record and they also reached the Champions League final for the first time under Guardiola. It was a reflection of the squad’s versatility that Gundogan could go from midfield pivot par excellence to City’s top scorer, with 17 goals, in the space of three seasons.

Rating: 8/10

2021/22

Squad changes

Key ins

Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) - £100 million

Key outs

Ferran Torres (Barcelona) - £55 million

With Aguero finally departing after a decade at the club, Guardiola had set his sights on signing Harry Kane from Tottenham only for Spurs to refuse to sell, despite the England captain agitating for a transfer. In the end, Guardiola had to settle for Jack Grealish, who became the first £100 million English footballer following his arrival from Aston Villa. With Ferran Torres having been sold to Barcelona the previous January, it left Gabriel Jesus as the only player in City’s squad who could pass for a centre-forward.

Style of play

Missing out on Kane might have put a spanner in most manager’s works but Guardiola simply reacted by making a strikerless team even better. City upped their possession and, with it, their patience and control. For opponents, pinned more than ever in their own third, it was death by a thousand passes.

Cancelo’s influence continued to soar as a central playmaker masquerading as a left back. Sterling had a stint, unsuccessfully, as a false nine before gradually being phased out as Guardiola looked instead to the likes of Bernardo and Foden in the role. City began taking more shots - and conceding fewer than ever - while becoming the division’s most formidable side at set-pieces, both defensively and offensively. Almost a quarter of their league goals came from dead-ball situations. The dramatic late Champions League collapse against Real Madrid was at odds with the control they had exerted for months.

Verdict

A dramatic 3-2 comeback win against Aston Villa on the final day, from 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go, saw City beat Liverpool to the title by a point for the second time in four seasons. This was a season when City revealed themselves to be masters of pausa - that willingness to make that extra pass and wait for just the right moment to strike - and a feature of both title wins in this second phase of Guardiola’s project was his successful problem solving, not least around the absence of a recognised centre-forward and a litany of injury problems.

Rating: 8.5/10

Manchester City 3.0 (2022-23)

2022/23

Squad changes

Key ins

Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund) - £51 million
Kalvin Phillips (Leeds) - £40 million
Manuel Akanki (Borussia Dortmund) - £15 million

Key outs

Raheem Sterling (Chelsea) - £47.5 million
Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal) - £45 million
Oleksandr Zinchenko (Arsenal) - £32 million

A summer of considerable change saw Sterling, Jesus and Zinchenko all depart for a combined £125 million - the latter two for Arsenal, who would go on to become City’s main title rivals. City’s most significant purchase was the prolific Norway striker Haaland, who shunned the advances of Real Madrid and most of Europe’s heavy hitters to sign from Borussia Dortmund for £51 million.

Style of play

Like the 2020/21 campaign, Guardiola’s latest new spin on things took time to take shape - before exploding with even more spectacular results. With Haaland and De Bruyne to the fore, City 3.0 are the most counter-attacking side of his seven-year reign, even if no one is going to start characterising them as a counter-attacking team. Guardiola is right when he says that “in the fundamentals, nothing [has changed]” - City still top the league rankings for possession, fewest long passes and pegging opponents back in their defensive third.

But fitting Haaland into his team without sacrificing the control he craves has been the biggest tactical challenge and necessitated some notable adaptations. Without a false nine to provide an extra man in midfield, Guardiola got creative. He asked centre back John Stones to become a second pivot alongside Rodri behind two other central midfielders - effectively creating a box in the middle of the pitch ensuring City are never understaffed there. In turn, inverted full-backs gave way to wide, no-nonsense centre-halves who love to block and tackle (Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake) - so much so that Guardiola was prepared to loan out Cancelo to Bayern Munich in January, six months after selling Zinchenko.

As for the wingers - Grealish and Bernardo - the ball sticks to them like glue, both perfect instruments of control. So on the one hand City can comprehensively overwhelm Real Madrid with 59 per cent possession but also pickpocket Arsenal 3-1 with just 36 per cent of the ball - the lowest of any Guardiola side ever - as they did in February.

Verdict

The Class of 2023 are Guardiola’s most multi-functional, multi-faceted and dynamic team and his 3-2-4-1 system arguably his most ingenious yet. They can hurt opponents in a multitude of ways from a litany of different directions, sometimes at speed blowing a hole through the middle, other times through stealth creeping round the back door. Not since Guardiola’s Barcelona has a team looked or felt so dominant.

Rating: 10/10

Other trophies during this seven year era: League Cup 2019/20; Community Shield 2019/20