CITY Guardiola has to be ready for a Terrier-like fight
HAVING been asked a variation on the question in almost every interview since winning the title, Pep Guardiola has had plenty of practise in answering how City can improve on last season.
The most common response has been that they can’t, if they are to be judged by any identifiable metric. The aim of every team is, of course, to do better and better every year but when you’ve hit heights never previously reached, there isn’t much room left to keep going.
When pressed or when the mood has taken him, though, the City manager has expanded on some specifics of what the coaching staff and players can do to take their game up a notch.
“The fundamentals will be the same but we found a lot of problems attacking [in a] 5-4-1,” he said of the team’s approach for the year.
“In the ‘1’ the striker is with the holding midfielder and 10 players [are] defending so, so deep. We are thinking about how to attack in that system.”
The team that gave City the most trouble using this shape last season were undoubtedly Huddersfield Town. David Wagner instructed frontman Laurent Depoitre to sit on holding midfielder Fernandinho when the teams met at the John Smith’s Stadium in November, gifting possession to the visitors but making it difficult for anyone but their centre-backs to travel with the ball.
The second in three consecutive late winners from Raheem Sterling ensured a nervy win for the Blues, but Huddersfield became only the second team to stop City from scoring when they left the Etihad with a point in May.
It is unlikely to see the Terriers, coming across the M62 on the back of a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea on the opening weekend, offering anything wildly different to their approach last season - particularly given it served them so well against the champions.
That leaves the emphasis on Guardiola and his team to do something different - or better at least.
A couple of significant tweaks against Arsenal were too much for Unai Emery’s side, and if City can crack the Huddersfield enigma, it sets them up well for the first spell of the season.
Newcastle, Fulham and Brighton follow at the Etihad, while even if Wolves attack City at Molineux with the same verve they did against Everton, it is unlikely Neil Warnock’s Cardiff will do the same. The quicker Guardiola’s side can overcome what they see as potential obstacles, the more confidence that will build within the gated fortress around the Etihad and, as last season proved, that will be hard to dent.