Manchester City Fan View: Pep's Guardiola's improvements have the team greater than the sum of its parts

Manchester City have fallen short of their expected standard since 2014. That year, Manuel Pellegrini lead the Blues to a Premier League and League Cup double and the future looked very bright indeed. Sadly, everything since then has been varying degrees of below par.

For three full seasons, the undeniable fact has been that the City team has been less than the sum of its parts. A squad loaded with individual talent spent those campaigns putting in frustrating, turgid displays. Some of the world’s best creative players and goalscorers lacked ideas and ingenuity and City suffered. One League Cup in three seasons is not really much to show for the outlay made.

The blame mostly falls at the feet of Pellegrini who, after a great first season, dragged his side backwards with tactical naivety at the heart of his problems. When he was given Raheem Sterling, a player perfectly built to solve the Blues inertia and ponderous play, the Chilean instead turned him into a two-touch footballer.

Pep Guardiola’s first season didn’t solve the problems. Of course there were some great games and it’s true that he was trying to overcome the problems left behind by Pellegrini, but the Spaniard was open to accusations of refusing to adapt. He didn’t have the players to do what he wanted but he persisted regardless; the result was that despite all the work on the training pitch, on match day the team were still too similar to Pellegrini’s side.

That’s all changing now, and it’s down to Guardiola. If that season was ultimately underwhelming, his second campaign is shaping up to be anything but.

Whilst City have undoubtedly changed as a team, it’s the improvement of individuals that is spearheading the current run of form. No longer less than the sum of their parts, the Blues are at least equal to the sum and maybe even surpassing it.

Take the full-backs as an example. On their own, Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo are all proving to be extremely worthy additions to the Blues squad. Each has put in good performances each time they’ve lined up for their new club. They defend well and they offer exceptional attacking threat.

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Separately, look at Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian has stepped up to a whole new level this term. His incisive passing higher up the pitch is already paying dividends, but it’s his work in a deeper role that is really catching the eye.

From his own half, De Bruyne now has two fullbacks ahead of him to aim for. If he doesn’t want to use them, the opposition are so pre-occupied with them that De Bruyne can go through the centre instead.

Each of those players is performing at their best personal level. Guardiola has set up a system that then allows them to bring the best out of each other and make the most of their talents to create a team that is breathtaking to watch and ruthless in its destruction of opponents.

With every player at his best, and with a tactical genius to guide them, City are without doubt the best team in the country. Only time will tell if the Blues can spread this form over the whole season.