How Pep Guardiola made Man City’s 100-point title winners even better

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Twenty-seven goals scored, three goals conceded. Manchester City’s 1-0 victory over Spurs on Monday was their eighth of the season and moved them back to the summit of the Premier League table.

Their 100-point haul in 2017/18 was something special and this term they are looking to achieve back-to-back Premier League title wins, something only Manchester United and Chelsea have successfully managed in the past.

City’s head-to-head record against the rest of ‘the top six’ was excellent last season and, so far this term, they’ve accumulated seven points from games against Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs. All of those matches were away from home, too. Could that be the deciding factor in the title race this season?

Perform the same way they did last term and they should be fine again, right? Well, in case you didn’t already know, that’s not how Pep Guardiola’s brain works. He’s looking to make one of the most impressive sides of the Premier League era even better.

Of course, Guardiola himself will argue that this is just natural development and is normal for any team. Liverpool, who look set to emerge as City’s main title rivals this season, are doing just the same under Jurgen Klopp. But what exactly is different about this Manchester City side this season? And why is Pep changing things? Read on for the lowdown on the beast that is Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City version 3.0.

The future: John Stones and Aymeric Laporte

The stats speak for themselves this season. Stones and Laporte are two mightily impressive defenders and Pep has clearly handed both of them more responsibility.

Some pundits were beginning to worry about Stones’ lack of game time at City at the end of last season and how that might affect his performances for England. But it seems Guardiola feels now is the time to make him one of his most important players.

The England defender has played most of this season at centre-back but, interestingly, Guardiola has used him at right-back and in the No. 6 role on a number of occasions, too. City were in the market for another holding midfield player in the summer, with Fernandinho their only current natural fit for that role. Jorginho was their first-choice option, but the Italian opted to follow Maurizio Sarri to Chelsea instead.

But back in August, Guardiola backed Stones’ ability to play in midfield, following City’s Charity Shield win over Chelsea. “I was happy to see him in the last 10 or 15 minutes like a holding midfielder. John maybe can play there,” he stated. “We will see what’s going on in the future. In the Premier League, there are a huge amount of games and everybody will be involved.”

Playing in a number of different positions will only help to develop Stones, whose ability on the ball has been vital for City this season as they look to build attacks from the back.

Laporte, meanwhile, has been an ever-present for City in the Premier League and the Champions League so far this term, something few might have expected after an impressive 2017/18 campaign for Nicolas Otamendi, Pep’s previous first-choice left-sided centre-back.

Pep spoke at length on why he’s chosen to make Laporte such an important part of his XI towards the end of last week: “First of all, his level.

“Today (last Friday), for example, in the training session he was so focused. Every action was there. I am seeing the same with Vincent, John and Nico, but especially with his left foot, playing on the left side.”

And that is a key point. Guardiola is not the first manager to see much value in pairing left- and right-footed players in central defence. The left-footer Laporte brings balance to a City backline and makes them even better at building attacks from the back.

As Guardiola added: “He gives us [an] alternative for the build-up quicker and faster than the other ones. When you receive to go to the right, you have to go inside. In the left, you go to that side.

“It helps us to create this build-up. With the right, it is a little bit more complicated.”

Having signed for City for a fee of £57m in January, we all expected Laporte to eventually establish himself as one of Pep’s first-choice centre-back’s, but it’s interesting that, after Otamendi’s high level of performance last season, the City coach has chosen now as the time to give the Frenchman more responsibility. Mad that he can’t even get into Didier Deschamps’ France squad, isn’t it?

Only Jose Mourinho’s 2004/05 Chelsea team had conceded fewer goals after the opening 10 games of a Premier League campaign than City have this season. Guardiola’s side are on a run of six successive Premier League clean sheets and have only conceded three goals in the league so far, all of which have – funnily enough – been scored by defenders.

Much of this is down to the excellent form of Stones and Laporte. City were good at the back last season but the early signs during this campaign suggest it could soon become near enough impossible to break them down.

Double-inverted wingers

Go on then, admit it, you were one of those people saying ‘City don’t need Mahrez!’ in the summer, weren’t you? Guardiola’s plan has become very clear in recent weeks and the key to this has been the return of left-back Benjamin Mendy.

Last season, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane were both firm fixtures of City’s strongest XI. Sterling was typically used on the right while Sane was deployed on the left, meaning both players operated on the side matching their strongest foot. In essence, while Sane most frequently stayed wide, catching chalk on his boots and stretching the opposition, Sterling was given license to cut inside more often by Kyle Walker’s over-lapping runs.

Mendy’s injury left no other out-and-out left-back options to provide auxiliary width on Sane’s flank; players like Fabian Delph and Oleksandr Zinchenko, both naturally midfield players, were asked to fill in. Neither have the attributes to hustle and bustle their way down the left-flank for City with the speed and energy of a player like Mendy. So Pep had to adapt City’s game.

We’ve witnessed Pep ask his full-back’s to come inside and provide cover in midfield in the past and this was the case for both Delph and Zinchenko, which is why so much depended on the width provided by Sane, who assisted the second-highest number of goals in the Premier League last season.

The return of Mendy has changed things, though, and now we see why Pep was so desperate to bring Mahrez to the Etihad.

The Algerian, of course, made a name for himself as one of the most efficient inverted wingers in Europe during his time at Leicester City, where he scored so many goals by cutting in from the right-hand side on to his favoured left foot.

Sterling has proved his ability to score goals in either wide position for City and the addition of Mendy on the left-flank has allowed him to cut inside and get into goalscoring positions. In recent years, the England man has become so, so good at those direct runs infield.

This, then, has been a game-changer for City. It basically all means that Pep’s side are even more unpredictable and even more difficult to stop in the forward areas. A scary prospect, eh? And also part of the reason Sane was given less playing time earlier on during the campaign.

The silky Silva’s… Who needs Kevin De Bruyne?

When it was revealed Kevin De Bruyne had sustained a training injury that would keep him out for a couple of months in August, Liverpool fans’ heads started to turn. How big a blow would this be for City? Their first game without De Bruyne saw them drop points in an underwhelming 1-1 draw away at Wolves. A sign of things to come?

Nope. Not at all. In fact, the injury to City’s most impressive midfield player has shown us just how good Guardiola’s side can still be without him. They have won six of their seven Premier League matches since that draw at Molineux, with the other match seeing them earn a deserved point at Anfield.

Though benched for much of the start of the season, Bernardo Silva played a massive part in City’s success. He is a classy player capable of opening up the opposition defence at his will. He was mainly used on the right side of City’s front three last season, but De Bruyne’s injury gave him a big opportunity this term.

The Portugal star has played most of his football alongside his namesake, David Silva, in the centre of the park for Guardiola’s side this term and boy oh boy has it been good to watch.

David Silva is magic, we knew that already. After a tough previous campaign for him off the pitch, Silva has been terrific for Pep Guardiola’s side this season.

The days of the Spaniard playing a lot of his football out wide are long-gone. David Silva has taken to the central midfield position in which Pep has deployed him since his arrival like a duck to water. He is such an important cog of that City side. Some would argue he’s more important than De Bruyne, too, and his influence during the Belgian’s absence supports such a stance.

After Silva scored the winner in City’s Champions League victory over Hoffenheim earlier in October, Pep had this to say about City’s No. 21: “He’s one of the best players I’ve trained. I’ve had a lot at Barca and Bayern but he’s on that list. I love players who make a step forward in the bad moments and say ‘OK I’m here guys’.”

The former Valencia man has made a real habit of that and has stepped up in the absence of De Bruyne. If City are to get close to what they achieved last season, David Silva will have a crucial part to play.

Sergio Aguero: City’s go-to striker

Gabriel Jesus didn’t take long to settle at City following his arrival from Palmeiras in January of last year. He scored seven goals in his first 10 league appearances for City, which lead many to into assuming it wouldn’t be long before he became Guardiola’s first-choice striker.

But how dare you write off Sergio Aguero at Manchester City? The Argentine has an incredible 208 goals in 305 appearances for the current Premier League champions and there’s no way he was ever going to give up that first-choice spot at the top of City’s front three without a fight. In fact, the 30-year-old has established himself as Pep’s first-choice striker this term.

Last season, there was a lot of rotation between him and Jesus. Sometimes one played, sometimes the other played, sometimes they played together. But this season, Pep seems to have decided that Aguero is too good to leave out.

He has started each of City’s 10 Premier League matches so far, scoring six goals, and despite his age, he looks better than ever.

One of the advantages Aguero has over Jesus this season is the fact that, for whatever reason, the former Atletico man has not been named in any of Argentina’s recent squads.

That means no trips to the other side of the globe and back every four weeks, no trying to adapt to a totally different system to City’s, no playing out of position and no annoying injuries. The same can’t be said of Jesus, who continues to start most matches for Brazil under the management of Tite.

Aguero is fresh and has had lots of time on the training pitch to impress Guardiola and perfect his role as the lone striker in Pep’s system. There is not a lot that opposing defenders can do to stop an in-form Sergio Aguero.

 

The post How Pep Guardiola made Man City’s 100-point title winners even better appeared first on Squawka News.



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