CITY-FICATION 101, BY PEP GAURDIOLA

As you might see from the title, our love affair with Josep continues. The long-sought dream of Sheikh Mansour to bring Pep as the manager of his extravagant project that Manchester City is, finally saw light last season, but didn’t come to much fruition. All it highlighted was the short-comings of an aged, tiring and the dearth of not so Pep-esque players. What he brings on the table, is not just tactics, it’s an ideology; a way not just to play football, but to live it, week in-week out.

As the 2016-17 season came to an end, the shrewd brilliance of Pep came to foray. Offloading players who were not cut out for his liking – Nasri, Clichy, Kolarov, Zabaleta and even fan-favorite Joe Hart, he made a statement. Huge money signings were made – Ederson, Bernardo, Danilo, Mendy and Walker, taking the summer spending spree to £211.4m. But, Pep got what he desired and the results are evident.

Let’s start from the utmost backline – the goalkeeper, or so to say, the sweeper keeper Pep has always wanted. He unearthed a gem in Ederson. The Brazillian has certainly proven why he’s the number one(metaphorically, at least) at City. The calm headedness, the early judgment of the game, the nimble footwork, the brilliant shot-stopping ability, the ability to play from the back (Sounds similar? Guess who else has all these? Yes, the very best Manuel Neuer). His ball distribution isn’t bad either – completing a staggering 88% of his passes.

Playing the sweeper-keeper role to perfection.

Credits: Squawka

Spending £123.5m on full-backs sounds ridiculous, right? Well not for Pep. “One man’s crazy is another man’s genius”, and how so.  The arrival of Walker and Mendy gave him the intelligent full-backs he’s always functioned with. Kyle Walker is arguably the best right back in the Premier League right now, if not the world. His consistency in attack, with brilliant ball control and defensive acumen has made him the team’s mainstay.  Another resurgent character to be seen is John Stones, having a staggering 97% pass accuracy. Prone to mistakes last season, Stones and Otamendi have formed a strong defensive duo between them, making sure the ever-lying dependency on Kompany has been lifted, and for good. In the process of playing attacking football, they've faced the least shots (14) on target in Europe's top 5 leagues. Forming a 4-1-4-1  when facing a counter attack, the quantitative as well as the qualitative advantage in the mid-field gives City the upper hand.

"Attack is the best form of defense."

A tactic well used by Pep during his time at Bayern, the 2-3-5 formation has been applied to tremendous effect at City as well. Utilizing a box-to-box mid-fielder, Fabian Delph at left-back in absence of injured Mendy, Pep has tweaked into another masterstroke. The drifting in of the two full backs – Walker and Delph to the centre circle, or at times, only one of them, along with the omnipresent Fernandhino gives City the upper hand in the mid-field, every time they have the possession. Creating an overload in the centre of the field opens up avenues for Sterling, Sane and Walker. This allows Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva to exploit the spaces, be it wide for the above mentioned players or central for Gabriel Jesus. Kevin seems to revel in the extra responsibility Pep has thwarted on him – the deep lying play-maker role. The credit is part Pep and part the genius of De Bruyne.

The centre-circle movement of both Walker and Delph.

Another player to benefit from this remodelling of Man City is Raheem Sterling. From an unfinished youth product, to menacing threat on the right touchline, the growth is evident. His biggest liabilities, decision making and finishing, both seem to have improved, given his 7 goals in the PL till now. With him and Sane running riot on the touchlines, the freedom to Silva and KDB is immense as the full backs are all occupied, so are the midfielders  of the opponent. As is evident from the figures, the constant movement of the opposition mid along with the central three, Fernandinho, Walker and Delph allows space to open up for KDB and Silva and weave their magic.

The extensive space on the wings for either Sane or Sterling.

Below we can see two pass-maps, the left one of FC Barcelona and the right of Manchester City. The drastic differences are apparent, even if someone does not follow football. The entire focus in City is on the mid-field, with Kevin and Silva running the show. The involvement of Walker in every move the team makes is evident, with Fernandinho forming the lynch-pin. The positional interchanges are fluid-like, the crux of total football. On the other hand, Barca pass-map looks an awful mess, given the fact it was them who started this style of play. No mid-field whatsoever, centre-mids playing on the wings, highest passing between two defenders, this is certainly what Pep didn't leave behind. 

Credits: OPTA

It might be early to judge, but Pep has certainly silenced all his haters, critiques and all those who remarked, “Can Pep do it in EPL?”, “EPL is not for Pep” with his beautiful positional and total football.  As the great Dutch Johan Cruijff said, “Playing football is simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is”, Pep has re-invented and molded himself in the EPL flavour, the taste of which is very sweet indeed.