GUARDIOLA CLOSES IN ON RECORDS SET BY VAN GAAL AND CRUYFF
▶ City have now won 21 games on trot and Catalonian has achievements of his coaching mentors in his sights
For the manager of Manchester City, an exhilarating tunnel of successive wins is about to turn into a hall of mirrors.
If City keep extending the run of 21 victories, the latest 4-1 defeat of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Pep Guardiola will glimpse reflections of his past at every milestone.
Win Sunday’s Manchester derby and Guardiola will inflict a decisive wound on United’s dwindling title hopes and dent the pride of an eternal rival.
Real Madrid’s string of 22 triumphs, set in 2014-15, represented the best run of a club in the top five European leagues until last year. Anything that eclipses a Madrid achievement has a special resonance for a born-and-bred Barcelonista like Guardiola.
Should City claim a double with United and Southampton, the former Bayern Munich manager Guardiola will draw level with a Bayern milestone – the 23 wins compiled by the German treble-winners last season. Also on the horizon are longer-standing records associated with two major influences on Guardiola’s career, Louis Van Gaal and Johan Cruyff.
Guardiola says he pays little attention to records that do not come accompanied with trophies, but, speaking ahead of the victory over Wolves, he namechecked Madrid’s famous run. It was built by a Real who then held the European Cup, having brushed aside Guardiola’s Bayern brutally – 5-0 on aggregate in the semi-final – on the way to that prize.
The following season the Madrid machine, guided by Carlo Ancelotti, began the defence of their European prize with a 5-1 win against Basel; 22 victories later, they were lifting the Club World Cup.
There are points of comparison with City’s current dominance. Madrid had actually made a very poor start to 201415, winning just one and losing three of their first five domestic matches.
Surreal though it now seems, Guardiola’s English champions-elect are bouncing back from City’s worst start to a league season for 12 years.
Like Madrid six years ago, City are confronting a condensed calendar. As European champions and Copa del Rey holders, Ancelotti’s squad had the extra commitment of two Super Cups and the Club World Cup. City, still in both domestic cups and the Champions League, are tackling a packed fixture list because the pandemic delayed the season start.
Ancelotti’s Madrid, like City’s, had enviable options in attacking and creative positions. Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez, stars of the 2014 World Cup, had just joined. There was the so-called ‘BBC’ – [Gareth] Bale, [Karim] Benzema, and Cristiano [Ronaldo].
But here is the striking distinction between the two sides – the role of the spearhead striker. Ronaldo scored 28 times in those 22 matches, “a huge advantage for us,” Ancelotti acknowledged.
The most potent goalscorer in City’s squad, Sergio Aguero, has scarcely featured because of injury and illness since City drew against West Bromwich Albion in December. He has no goals in the 21-match sequence in which 15 different City players have registered on the scoresheet.
Bayern’s win rush of last season, had a top-of-his-form Robert Lewadowski leading the line. The Pole struck 21 goals in the 23 victories. City’s leading scorer in the last 21 matches? Ilkay Gundogan, with 10, a midfielder who has spent much of his career at the club as the deepest-lying player of the front six.
City will be in action four times in 10 days. If they win all those fixtures, they will match Ajax’s 25-game chain of victories in 1995. Van Gaal’s celebrated young Ajax won the Champions League within that run. The eventual reward for the Dutch coach was a move to Barcelona, where Guardiola was captain.
Van Gaal’s 25 wins fell one shot of establishing an Ajax record, set by the European champions of 1971-72, their figurehead the brilliant Cruyff.
If City overtake it, it will resonate with City’s manager because of Cruyff, who as a coach launched Guardiola’s senior playing career at Barcelona and schooled him in many of his core principles.
Guardiola’s English champions-elect are bouncing back from City’s worst start to a season for 12 years