Muller warns of the power of randomness

BAYERN Munich star Thomas Muller believes that the randomness of Champions League knockout ties can cause City and Pep Guardiola problems.

City are still searching for their maiden Champions League title, with Guardiola having not won the competition since his last victory with Barcelona in 2010/11.

Last season, they crashed out in a single-leg quarter-final tie with Lyon, with Guardiola being accused post-match of overthinking his opponents.

Bayern forward Muller argued that the reason Guardiola is more successful in domestic competitions than the Champions League is because of the fact it is harder to control things in a two-legged tie.

He said: “A team with Pep Guardiola is always in shape to win it but the problem is in the Champions League, in the knockout stage, you have only two games and many crazy things can happen.

“And last year in the tournament, there was only one game against Lyon.

“That’s the problem when you have only one chance or only two games, there is more ‘random’ than in 38 games like in the Premier League.

“In the last two years, Liverpool was amazing. But normally a good team with Pep Guardiola wins the league, for sure.

“The continuation, how he prepares his teams. His team against smaller teams, he is the best. But when two top teams play against each other, the difference is not big enough to put away the ‘random’.”

Reflecting on the Premier League as a whole, Muller said that he enjoys the competitiveness of the competition, but does not feel any English side is at their peak.

He said: “I think it’s the biggest league in the world, for sure. But that doesn’t mean that the top five of the Premier League are winning everything in their international competitions, or when you compare the fourth of the Premier League and the fourth of the German league.

“When they play a knockout game against each other, any team can win.”