Crunching challenge as good as a goal
IT CONCERNS me if Pep Guardiola does not respect tackling. It is one of the joys of the game and if he wants to win the Premier League, tackling is something he must embrace. The Premier League is better for having Guardiola in it but he must realise that tackling is a key part of the game. How else are you going to win back the ball? I could not have played for Guardiola if this is what he really believes. I played in an aggressive way with a desire and will to win. Making a great tackle is like smashing your fist on the table. It is a wake-up call for both your opponents and team-mates and signals how you are going to play. It also gets the crowd out of their seats — everyone feels your determination to win. I remember being told at Aston Villa that I would win plenty of player-of-the-year awards because flying tackles are exactly what supporters love to see! For a defender, tackling has to be the equivalent of scoring a goal. I would sometimes punch the air if I made an important block. I remember putting in a challenge on Gianluca Vialli in one of his first games for Chelsea against Arsenal and the commentator saying: ‘He had no right to make that tackle.’ It feels so sweet when you make a perfectly timed tackle. There is no room for error and it is part of your skill as a defender. Every team has to have players who have that determination to win the ball back. Look at Roy Keane and the tackles he made, Stuart Pearce at Nottingham Forest or, going further back, Tommy Smith’s thunderous challenges at Liverpool. It’s not as if tackling is banned — if you do it in an honest fashion and with skill, there is no reason why a footballer cannot make a crunching tackle. Bacary Sagna is the only player from the City team that started at Leicester who I feel gets a similar satisfaction from tackling but it is difficult to be a tackling player in isolation. You hunt in packs and need continuity around you but Guardiola has changed his back line for every Premier League match. He needs to go back to the basics and give City’s defenders a steady platform to build upon from the back. Guardiola only sees the game in one way — when his team are in possession. To be Premier League champions you need to be as good without the ball as you are with it — and that includes winning the ball back. At Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Guardiola had players who allowed his side to be better on the ball than virtually every other team but he also had those who could win the ball back, such as Sergio Busquets and Javi Martinez. You need the balance. Guardiola must be careful. If City become a team without tacklers, opponents will start to question their toughness. I still think City can win the Premier League but if Guardiola doesn’t see tackling as an important ingredient then it is going to take him longer to be a champion in England.