“In three months it is impossible to get to the level [of Barcelona]. Not just here but anywhere in the world. I would love to be closer but we need time” – Pep Guardiola, October 31.
It was the defeat against Barcelona in Spain a fortnight ago that drew the most vitriolic criticism of Guardiola’s alleged underperformance. In a column for the Daily Mirror, Stan Collymore could not hide his outrage at Manchester City’s form.
‘In demanding this ‘play-at-all-costs’ mentality, he’s making fools out of those who hailed him as the messiah,’ Collymore wrote, barely bothering to hide his disgust. ‘There really has been a lot of a*se-kissing nonsense spouted by people who should know better. According to these aficionados who want to worship at the altar of Pep, the Spaniard is a tactical wizard.’
Three months in, and knives were being sharpened. Ninety days to complete a project; there are GCSE students who get longer.
A fortnight later, and Manchester City made those and plenty of other words look utterly foolish. If they were outclassed for the last third of their 4-0 defeat, Guardiola’s team repaid the favour in Manchester. City did not just go toe to toe __with arguably the best team in Europe, they left them on the canvas, bleeding profusely.
For the first 20 minutes, Guardiola’s game plan was effective, pressing two players on Sergio Busquets in a bid to suffocate his passes from deep midfield and asking Raheem Sterling to better Lucas Digne. The left-back should have been booked for his early foul, and City should have had a penalty when Sterling’s foot was stood on by Samuel Umtiti. You need a bit of luck to beat Barcelona, but you need refereeing competence too.
But that’s the problem about facing a team as good as Barcelona: comfort is only ever an illusion. As City pressed forward in search of the opening goal, Barcelona hit back __with a counter-attack of such incredible speed that Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva were two of City’s three players closest to their own goal. As Lionel Messi danced through and scored his 90th Champions League goal, the attacking midfielders looked as comfortable in their surroundings as an elderly couple at an all-night rave.
Yet from the moment Sterling seized upon Sergi Roberto’s mistake – aided by Sergio Aguero – and fed Ilkay Gundogan, City were astonishing. They harried and hassled Barcelona higher up the pitch than we previously thought possible, and forced more mistakes in possession than Luis Enrique’s side usually commit in a month. The second-half display felt definitive, as if City were climbing another rung on their ladder.
City now have control of their Champions League qualification. The likelihood is that they will still finish second but, having beaten the pre-match tournament favourites, there is no reason to fear anyone. Not when you’ve flustered Busquets and subdued Luis Suarez. Not when you’ve beaten Barcelona at their own game.
Change of positions of KDB & Silva just before the equaliser & going 442, pressing & playing CA has changed this game. One dimensional Pep!!
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) November 1, 2016
There is a wider point to make here, too, referring back to Collymore’s column and the thousands of words accusing Guardiola of disappointment (yes, and fraud) in his early months in England. Whatever happened to wait and see?
We all know the answer, of course. In a media that is increasingly pressured to garner clicks, he who shouts loudest wins, so the middle ground becomes the natural habitat of the unsuccessful. Reason is shunned in favour of outrage, and patience ignored completely. We have lost (or are at least losing) our ability to judge or enjoy even 90-minute matches in isolation. And people blame football clubs for sacking managers too quickly?
The wider public too share the guilt. We have become so mollycoddled by a world in which everything is on demand and at our fingertips that we cannot bear to play the long game, to wait and see what happens. Just like their food, the majority of the audience wants their takes fast and hot. Snap judgements are the new norm.
As Kevin de Bruyne’s free-kick hit the back of the net, the Etihad Stadium jumped as one entity of pulsating joy; well, almost one. Amid a sea of thrashing bodies, Guardiola stayed resolute, slowly moving his hands down his cheeks in his seat as if contemplating his next move. It’s at moments like those that you realise you couldn’t be a manager; blood pressure would rise above medically safe with every corner won and lost. Moments like De Bruyne’s would reduce you to a pool on the floor.
Guardiola’s calmness in such situations makes him appear robotic, but it’s the only way to thrive amid the tidal wave of hyperbole that greets each result.
So well done Pep Guardiola, well done indeed. Congratulations on proving that, after six league titles and two Champions League wins, you might not be a fraud after all. At least until the next time you lose.
Daniel Storey