First analysis of Pep Guardiola at City

Very shortly after the death of his former coach and mentor, an emotional Pep Guardiola told Radio Catalunya, “I didn’t know anything about football until I met Johann Cruyff.”
The love and deep respect he had for the mercurial Dutchman served as a benchmark for the way he would approach the game when he took the inevitable path into coaching and management.

Obsessive, compulsive and dedicated - frequently to the exclusion of many other important things in his life - Guardiola’s primary aim has always been to get the best out of himself but also to ensure that the players under his charge should be the very best that they can possibly be.

No excuses; no alibis. His opening speech to his squad when made first team coach of Barcelona sums up the mantra by which he lives his working life. “I could forgive you any mistake, but I won’t forgive you if you don’t give your heart and soul to Barcelona,” he said.
For Barcelona, read Barcelona B previously, Bayern Munich subsequently and Manchester City currently.

The proof of the pudding is, as they say, in the eating. Forget for one moment, if you can, the well-documented, glittering array of leagues, Cups, European and World competitions won by his teams, Pep Guardiola’s ultimate claim to fame and greatness - his true legacy - will be that he made football and those that played it under his command, better.

He has already hit the floor running at the Etihad and Sergio Aguero has already said that he has become a better player under Pep while Leroy Sane has commented that he knows he will become a more complete footballer under his tutelage

A good case in point is Raheem Sterling, pilloried, ridiculed and abused after a luck-lustre European Championship. By making him feel once again that he is the player worthy of the then huge price tag City paid Liverpool for his services what we are witnessing is a man reborn simply because there exists a mutual confidence between the player and his coach. That confidence was reached by words (making Raheem believe he is a better player than the world had seen in recent months) but also by correcting –positioning, by improving the way he receives the ball, or the way he directs his first touch, by explaining in detail what his role is and what he should do or can do. Sounds simple. But players like Mangala or Boateng will tell you that they had not had that kind of teaching before. It sounds amazing, but it is true.

But Raheem isn’t the only one improving day by day.

Aleksandar Kolarov has changed from an unhappy, disaffected, plodding left back looking at a move into the Turkish league with Besiktas, into a motivated, highly charged defender come midfielder and an almost automatic pick in Guardiola’s starting line-up. The coaching staff saw his ability to receive the ball, to defend, his quality coming forward and thought, should we try him as a centre back? And it worked. On current form it is difficult to think of a better player in his position anywhere in Europe.
John Stones meanwhile is gradually emerging as the player just about everyone, except occasionally himself, always sensed that he was; what we are witnessing is a young man fired with the confidence instilled in him to be brave, take chances, learn on the job and steer a path down the same road that the likes of Gerard Piqué and Carles Puyol navigated under Guardiola.

It is a work in progress and there will be pitfalls along the way, so maybe this first highly publicised, much awaited first Manchester derby that pits Pep against his old rival, Jose Mourinho is coming too early in the season to tell us too much at this stage. There will be not many conclusions, or maybe just one: who is up for the fight, for the challenge.

What is certain however is that Pep could not be happier with the way the season has started and specifically with the way that the players have knuckled down to the task in hand. Those that have problems, either mental or physical, or both, climbing aboard the ultra demanding Guardiola steam train have never survived at any club Guardiola has managed and will not survive at the Etihad.

It isn’t about ruthlessness, it’s about common sense.

Many people interpret his single-mindedness, tunnel vision, as proof positive of his lack of feeling for the players. They are wrong and by and large, with just a couple of exceptions perhaps, the really good footballers know it. It is not ruthlessness, but consistency and belief in the road that he takes. Not everybody can stay in that road.

One of the main people to find this out was Manchester City legend, Joe Hart. Talk that Joe had prejudiced his place as number one keeper with a well below par performance in the European Championships was completely off the mark.

Pep had spoken to Joe as far back as the club’s pre-season tour of China when he made it abundantly clear that unless he was to play in goal as he wanted, then he would not make the side. It had nothing to do with muscle-flexing, statement-making, or icon destroying. It was a footballing decision, pure and simple and one that Joe Hart himself - who showed a dignity throughout that confirmed just what a class act the man truly is - understood totally.

Yaya Touré and Pep have history, with Yaya having played under him at Barcelona before being sold to City. He was sold because it was felt that Sergio Busquets could do a better job for him and history tells us all we want to know about the wisdom of that particular decision. But also because the player wanted to earn more money and the club was not willing to pay it to him.

But that was then and this is now, and suggestions that Pep was not going to play him because of what has happened in the past are fatuous. In truth Pep did not pick Yaya Touré for one reason and one reason only; he didn’t think he was fit enough. It was not personal, it never is with Pep. It’s about three things, football, football and football.

Ditto Samir Nasri who returned for the new season heavier than ever and palpably unfit. What Guardiola has always done, wherever he has been, is place those players who he considers are enjoying food too much, something not compatible to that of being a world class footballer, away from the first team squad so they can regain their fitness and prove their worth; put the onus on them.

The truth is that the demands put on players during training means that if they are not in the right condition they will not survive it, they could even get injured as the work is intense and rigorous..

Guardiola has won trophies wherever he has been. The assertion that he is overrated because he failed to win the Champions League with Bayern Munich is the thought process of the stupid.

Will he win the league with City? Maybe, the bookies certainly seem to think so. Can he win the Champions League? Of course he can, but then so can any number of sides that are in it.
To date we have only seen the very best of City in flashes like in the first leg of the Champions League qualifier against Steaua Bucharest and in the first half against West Ham in the Premier League. There is much more to come.

There will be surprises along the way. Players like the German international Ilkay Gundogan have sneaked into the Etihad almost under the radar but his versatility as he can play in four positions,, coupled with an eagerness to prove himself since arriving from Dortmund with a knee injury, could well see him emerging as one of the club’s trump cards.

Time will tell just how successful Pep will be in the blue half of Manchester. But of this I am sure; the football will be memorable and it’s going to be one hell of a ride. By the time Pep leaves Manchester City, whenever that might be, mark my words, this will be a different club. I can’t wait.