When mentioning Manchester City, everyone will surely mention the beautiful attacking style under Pep Guardiola, mention the great treble last season. But to achieve such great results, what they rely on is the solidity of their defense.
When talking about Pep Guardiola, everyone will surely think of a beautiful attacking style of play at any club he has ever coached. Whether it is at Barcelona, Bayern Munich, or Manchester City, the style of ball control, imposing the game, attacking combined with team spirit and the brilliance of the stars of a tactical genius, always helps Pep Guardiola reach the top in La Liga, Bundesliga and Premier League. But in the top arena like Champions League, it is a very different matter.
In the Champions League arena, except for the 2 times he won the title with Barcelona, with a squad of superior quality compared to the rest of Europe at that time, a squad that could be considered the golden generation of Barcelona with names like Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, David Villarreal... But then Pep Guardiola showed quite a struggle in the Champions League when leading Bayern Munich and then Manchester City. In 3 seasons leading Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola could only reach the semi-finals, in 6 seasons leading Manchester City, he was still unlucky with the Champions League title despite reaching the final.
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| A very good defense is the foundation for Manchester City won the great treble in the 2022 - 2023 season. |
It can be said that in the 3 seasons from 2019 to 2022, Pep Guardiola has shaped the style of Manchester City, creating for this club an extremely attractive ball-controlling attacking style of play as he wanted, along with a squad of extremely high-quality star players. But they still proved to be unlucky in the Champions League arena when they were successively eliminated by Lyon, Chelsea and Real Madrid, extinguishing their dreams.
It is not difficult to see the common point of these 3 eliminations: coach Pep Guardiola and his team were all eliminated by clubs with solid playing styles, even lurking defensive counter-attacks, and then won without caring about whether the game was beautiful or not. It is clear that modern football increasingly emphasizes efficiency, and the Champions League is not a place for dreamers who love beautiful football, but an extremely fierce arena, often deciding matches with just a few decisive moves. And to aim for the Champions League, Pep Guardiola will certainly have to change.
It is clear that Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have changed in the 2022-2023 season. Although they still use a style of play that focuses on ball control and beautiful attacks, the emphasis on tactics is on solidity and security on the defensive front rather than focusing on the offensive front as before. This can be clearly seen through the fact that Pep Guardiola often uses a defensive system with more "pure" defensive players, ensuring good defense is always the top priority. Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Kyle Walker... are all players with good physical strength and defensive skills, used regularly by Pep Guardiola, forming an extremely solid defensive belt in front of goalkeeper Ederson's goal.
Above the central defenders, Pep Guardiola even used two central midfielders, Rodri and John Stones, to ensure the ability to compete for the ball, as well as escape pressing. Not only that, Pep Guardiola also often asked Jack Grealish, Bernardo Silva, even Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne... to retreat to support the defense. With such a solid defense system, Manchester City was the team that conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League last season, conceding only 3 goals in the knockout matches of the Champions League last season. It even helped Manchester City stand firm against Inter Milan in the 2022-2023 Champions League final, despite many of Manchester City's forward players playing below their potential due to psychological pressure in the first half.
Obviously, the defensive ability and the practical tightness in decisive matches are the indispensable conditions that helped the blue half of Manchester win the treble this season, with the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. And certainly that will also be the focus that Pep Guardiola wants to strengthen in the summer transfer window of 2023, to protect and aim for higher achievements next season.
Cao Duy
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