Power of Pep

Under their amazing manager, City are finally the team that Sheik Mansour has wanted

IT has taken them almost 10 years but Sheik Mansour, the owner of Manchester City, must feel that the club are finally where he wanted them to be. Of course they have had their past successes and those two Premier League titles. But what they didn’t have under Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini was a team that you felt was ready for the European challenge.

It feels different now. The level of domination they are achieving in the Premier League would put them among Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain as favourites for the Champions League.

In fact, they have a squad capable of winning four trophies. Obviously, the Champions League will be the hardest but it’s not beyond them. They are now equipped in terms of both the squad and the understanding of Pep Guardiola’s tactics to go all the way, which is what the owners always wanted: a global presence.

By February, they could be so far ahead that they decide to rest players in the Premier League and focus on the Champions League, or ahead of the FA Cup fixtures to see whether they can go one better than Manchester United’s Treble in 1999.

SO WHERE DOES ALL THIS LEAVE JOSE?

I ALMOST feel sorry for Jose Mourinho. Clearly, however, you can’t feel that way for such an accomplished manager with such a big budget to spend. But Manchester United are way behind their neighbours. What a time to be United manager when you’re so much in the shadow of a club you’ve historically been expected to dominate.

It is going to be tough to close that gap however much they spend. Guardiola has simply drilled his players better in a more creative system. Mourinho has won trophies and has his style of doing that but I’m fascinated to see whether he can come up with something to match City.

When they took on City at Old Trafford on December 10, I’ve never seen a United side play so long. I was with some former United players who said they had never seen a United team play that way. It was like watching English football from the Seventies or Eighties.

It’s true they don’t have players at the back who are really comfortable on the ball and they were forced into playing that way. But long ball isn’t a long-term strategy for a club like United.

What is certain is that United will be spending a huge amount in the summer to close the gap. But even if Mourinho were to have the summer of his dreams and end up with Antoine Griezmann, Paulo Dybala, Danny Rose and Raphael Varane, he would still have considerable work to do to find a system which outguns City. He was set a similar problem at Real Madrid in 2010 when Guardiola’s Barcelona were in full flow. Maybe he thinks that he has done it once and can do it again. But he needs a new answer to a new problem.

£34 MILLON FOR CITY KEEPER WAS A STEAL

MANCHESTER CITY have spent the best part of £1billion on players since Sheik Mansour took over in 2008. But there has to be an argument that the best spent money is the £34million they paid for Ederson.

He is a decent goalkeeper with a lovely frame and a capable shot stopper. But he has attributes with his feet that no other keeper has. I’ve never seen a goalkeeper ping a ball so far. We’re seeing things we’ve not seen before on a football pitch. Against Spurs on December 16, the City strikers went 40 yards into the Tottenham half from goal kicks, because you can’t be offside from a goal kick. He can ping it that far. Spurs had to go back and mark them and suddenly they were playing on a pitch 90 yards long. A pitch is about 120 yards long but normally you would only play in a condensed space of about 40-50 yards. Back when I was playing with people pushing for offside, it was 30x30 at times. The game stretched out like that is exactly what City want and allows them to play their expansive game. Ederson has given them that dimension. He has eliminated the Claudio Bravo mistakes.

In turn, that has given John Stones confidence and allowed Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala to improve. And that is the big difference to last season.

FORGET THE CASH, IT’S ABOUT THE COACHING

THERE has been a persistent line of argument when assessing Guardiola’s career that he has only succeeded because he has the best players. Of course, it helps to have Lionel Messi, Arjen Robben, Xavi and Philipp Lahm.

Of course, you couldn’t play the way Guardiola wants to at Sheffield United or Aston Villa because you wouldn’t have sufficient quality. Even the talented but more limited squad Guardiola had last season showed that.

But with top players his ideas do provide a synergy which brings out the best in them. It looks like a free-flowing team but it’s so well drilled. I’ve not seen a team in the Premier League move off the ball like them into areas they’re meant to be going.

People talk about the passing moves but it’s the movement off the ball which creates that. They all know where they need to be. The football we’re seeing is akin to the Barcelona team of 2009-12, Arsenal 2003-04 or Manchester United from 1999. You can go all the way back to Tottenham’s push-and-run teams of Arthur Rowe and Bill Nicholson.

It isn’t just money that does this. Other teams had money to spend. One example of his coaching: look at the goals Raheem Sterling has scored from inside the box. That’s not about great skill or technique, both of which Sterling has. That’s about timing your run off the ball and footballing intelligence — and it has been coached by Guardiola into Sterling.

Previously he was a player who would get the ball to feet and sometimes he would do some good things and sometimes you’d think: ‘Get your head up! Play a one-two!’ But he’s a different player now.

TO BEAT CITY YOU MUST TAKE RISKS

EVERTON under Ronald Koeman against 10 men have come the closest to upsetting City in the Premier League. I don’t envy the managers having to make a plan against them. But if you were to try to beat them, you’d have to take a slight risk.

I don’t buy into pressing them high. You can press them and press hard and fast, but not high. They want to open up the pitch to its maximum length, so pressing them high means you’re walking into that trap. You have to tighten up the pitch, as even a bad player can play in space — and certainly City players can.

Against Spurs in the first half, Tottenham left two strikers up, Harry Kane and usually Son Heungmin and City were left two on two because their full-backs don’t take on traditional positions. In those moments, City can look vulnerable and that’s the key. If Spurs could have won the ball, pinched it in the middle third and dispossessed them, they could have been in business. But that’s a risk you might have to take.

THE ONLY HURDLE TO CITY IS THEMSELVES

IT IS hard to see any tension left in the Premier League title race. It’s like when a real class racehorse gets a furlong ahead and everyone has to catch him. But he’s the best, so he’s not going to come back to the field. And it’s not a steeplechase, it’s the Flat. So there’s nothing unexpected there to trip them up.

They’ve only lost twice in the Premier League in 2017, so they’re not going to lose five games in four months — which is what it needs for another team to make up the 15 points.

Even when they lose a player — say David Silva or Stones — then Ilkay Gundogan has come in and done just as well. Or Mangala has come in and been hugely improved by Guardiola’s coaching. Only complacency can hold them back now.