GUARDIOLA NEEDS TO GO SHOPPING

MANCHESTER CITY owners are convinced that Pep Guardiola is the missing piece of the jigsaw as they attempt to build a club to challenge Europe’s best. Everything is in place for a coach with Guardiola’s reputation and philosophy who can justify the billions they are prepared to spend to win the Champions League.

The club built a structure around his ideas and he was the missing link was guaranteed to bring success. But City are way off the standards Guardiola is used to and, for the first time in his career, he is out of the Champions League before the semifinals and in danger of finishing his first season pot-less.

The FA Cup is now his only hope of success and he must take the blame for their CL exit this week. He was convinced his system would work against Monaco on Wednesday, but he was wrong.

Why couldn’t they go and do a professional job and see the tie through? They just had to keep their two-goal lead intact. Admittedly, it was 5-3 and Monaco had the away goals advantage, but they just had to kill the game.

They didn’t have to defend for the entire 90 minutes. Guardiola didn’t have to stick to his principles. What’s wrong with different systems for different games?

City could have used a narrow back four, with a midfielder sitting in front. Instead they played into the hands of one of the paciest teams in Europe. Why give them that chance? I could not believe the way they set up for it. It was nonsensical and crazy.

Guardiola believes his system will work, no matter what, and while it may have done so at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the fact is City’s players are not good enough to implement it.

Those sides were dominant in their leagues and had the players to open teams up, without really having to care about defence.

The City job was always going to be different and it looks like it has caught up with him. You get the impression that he underestimated the size of the task.

With Pep it is about his system, not the players, but ultimately they have not been good enough.

City are challenging for a top four place in the Premier League and have never looked like sustaining a challenge for Chelsea.

There were five in the starting line-up the other night who need to go so Guardiola can compete at the level he is used to: keeper, three of the back four and at least one midfielder must go. The rest of the squad is even worse.

City’s owners will back Guardiola with the resources. But, as Manchester United have discovered, spending big is not guaranteed to win the title, or even CL qualification.

They have smashed transfer record after transfer record, brought star players in, and one of the best coaches in the world, and are still way off the title pace and Champions League level.

City also have a very good youth system. I was at the Youth Cup semi-final first leg against Stoke last week. They won 6-0 and it could have been 10. They have some incredibly talented players in the Under-23 side.

Guardiola has said he is prepared to help these players develop but it is a big ask to step up into the Premier League, especially at a club like City. But they do have the talent.