Pep’s legacy in England depends on Champions League
A manager who changed the sport
At the end of every European season, only one m anager gets to hold the UEFA Cham pions League trophy aloft. Last tim e out, it was Carlo Ancelotti celebrating with his Real Madrid players following a 1-0 win over Liverpool at the Stade de France. The Italian boss enjoyed a m em orable 2021/22 cam paign that culm inated in the 63-year-old winning the com petition a fourth tim e with two different clubs – AC Milan being the club where he won his first two. His trium phs with the Rossoneri were rem arkable, success he was able to replicate as he sought new experiences in the Spanish capital. Pep Guardiola hasn’t found the sam e joy since his departure from the club at which he becam e a European cham pion, having so far battled to m atch his historic achievem ents at Barcelona between 2008 and 2012. Guardiola, a m an well aware of the narratives that float around online, will often give credit to the players he had at his disposal for the success he had at the Blaugrana, particularly Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez, players he has been accused of not being able to win without, but it is difficult to im agine that he believes his current Manchester City squad is not capable of reaching those sam e heights.
Guardiola is an extraordinary coach, one who has alm ost totally revolutionised football with his ideas of how it should be played. His far-reaching influence is such that it has becom e m ore com m on for English clubs to produce technically gifted young players, as opposed to the “fast and strong” profile once associated with the sport in England, likely due to their interest in football being shaped by Guardiola’s great Barcelona team .
Coaches in the country, enam oured by the possession-based style and philosophy, have aim ed to reproduce his teachings. But it is a com plicated sport, and the best don’t always win. Guardiola’s tim e at Bayern Munich between 2013 and 2016 is looked back on with disappointm ent by the footballing world, m ainly as there was an expectation that the Spanish tactician would continue on an upward trajectory and enjoy the sam e am ount of dom inance with the Germ an giants as he did with his boyhood club. Perhaps it was unfair to hold him to such a high standard, m aybe those who deem ed him a failure in Germ any underestim ated the significance and coincidence of tim ing, and how his alm ost-perfect four-year spell at the Blaugrana m ight have been one of those rare m om ents where the stars align.
Analysing Pep’s decision to sign Haaland
The heartbreak of last season’s Cham pions League sem i-final defeat will still be fresh in the m ind of Guardiola, who would have undoubtedly believed the eventual winners, Real, were there to be beaten. The Citizens went into the second leg with a 4-3 aggregate lead and had their advantage stretched when Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring in the 73rd m inute in the return fixture, a goal that should have booked their place in the final of the com petition. City lost against Chelsea in the final in 2021, a m atch that is rem em bered for Guardiola’s decision to start without a defensive m idfielder, and their lead over Ancelotti’s Los Blancos was convincing until the unthinkable happened. Two late goals from Rodrygo sent the m atch into extra-tim e, before Karim Benzem a converted a penalty to knock City out.
At this point in Guardiola’s tim e at the Etihad, he’d already achieved it all. Multiple league titles, countless dom estic trophies and a brand of football never quite seen before in the English gam e, but questions were again set to be asked over his failure to build on his legacy as one of the best high-level football m anagers in history. His response? Signing thenBorussia Dortm und forward Erling Haaland, who, before joining City, had scored an im pressive 23 goals in 19 m atches in the Cham pions
League. However, despite the relative ease with which he found scoring in Europe’s biggest club com petition, Haaland’s profile was very different from the forwards Guardiola has previously had joy working with. It was alm ost as if the Spanish tactician was willing to throw the kitchen sink at being successful in Europe once m ore, even if it was to com e at the expense of his usual dom estic reign. So far, Haaland has found the back of the net five tim es in four European gam es for City. In the Prem ier League, the Norway international has am assed an incredible 25 goals in just 19 m atches, but his scintillating individual form hasn’t yet brought about the desired results as a collective. The Citizens are currently trailing league leaders Arsenal, who have a gam e in hand, by five points and have already lost as m any tim es
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ike the monkey that was on Lionel Messi’s back before he won the FIFA World Cup last year, Pep Guardiola knows his time in England will ultimately be judged on whether or not he wins the UEFA Champions League with Manchester City. Despite a slight dropoff in form this season, the Spaniard still boasts one of the best squads assembled in Premier League history and will, perhaps now more than ever, be under pressure to deliver European club football’s biggest trophy after years of domestic dominance. Soccer Laduma’s international team believes the pressure is piling on the charismatic manager, particularly after his decision to bring in Erling Haaland at the start of the season.
this season as they did in all of the previous cam paign.
Knockout football is about big m om ents, as Guardiola has com e to experience m any tim es over the course of his coaching career and as was best displayed last season. Tiny m argins separated City and Real Madrid, random coincidences that ultim ately decided how history will be written. Perhaps Guardiola has begun to accept that m om ents decide football m atches, particularly at the highest level, and no am ount of tactical prowess or control his team s enjoy in gam es will change that. With Haaland up front, Guardiola seem s to be welcom ing of the idea that those fine m argins are unpredictable, and that the 22-year-old’s instinctive box m ovem ent and unrelenting selfconfidence could give his side that erratic edge.