Pep’s way can work in England

LONDON. - During Pep Guardiola’s first season in England there were plenty of pundits wondering if the Spaniard could translate his success in Spain and Germany to the more physical demands of the English Premier League without diluting his football philosophy.

On Sunday, Guardiola’s Manchester City won the English Premier League title with five games remaining, having built up a 16-point lead and scored 93 goals but the numbers tell only part of the story.

City may be different to his Barcelona and his Bayern Munich but the style with which they won the title was the proof that Guardiola could indeed do it his way in England.

His first season at City ended with the club finishing 15 points behind champions Chelsea and with a number of question marks over his team. But his success in turning his team into the best in the country was not purely down to some astute moves in the transfer market, generously backed by the clubs Abu Dhabi owners.

Guardiola’s commitment to a style of play based not only on exceptional ball-retention but also a sophisticated understanding of space and timing took time to embed in the habits of the players.

An approach to the game which has a lineage back to the Dutch ‘total football’ of the early 1970s, taken to Barcelona by Johann Cruyff and which Guardiola has adapted and evolved, requires not only a top skillset from the players but a change of mentality.

Guardiola believes that top-quality footballers can play anywhere on the field, whatever their formal role, and expects his defenders to be comfortable on the ball and his forwards to be able to work hard off it in order to be in the right places for an eventual transition.

This season, the Spaniard has gone beyond encouraging defenders to pass the ball out of defence rather than launch long balls by bringing his goalkeeper Ederson into the passing game, transforming City into an 11-man passing machine, playing with precision over the full length of the pitch. - Reuters.