Blues really have had super subs this season
WHILE the cost of City’s bench is raised on an all-too frequent basis, what goes on among the substitutes during matches hasn’t had anywhere near the same focus.
If the Everton match showed the value of having expensive replacements to bring on, the help that the players have been giving without stepping foot on the pitch has not only been important to the team’s success, but has also been absolutely free.
As well as finding the right football to play in a pandemic season adjusting their approach in possession to preserve energy - Pep Guardiola and his squad have found a way to take advantage of games being played behind closed doors in a way that has made them even more formidable.
When football returned after lockdown, this didn’t appear to be the case.
More often than not, City were quieter than their opponents as they sleepwalked to the end of a weird Premier League campaign. On the evening when they officially surrendered their title in a defeat to Stamford Bridge, when Fernandinho handled on the line to prevent a goal, Chelsea substitutes were slamming chairs and shouting at the fourth official while the away dugout was far more subdued.
At Southampton, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s booming instructions to his players carried across the stadium for the whole 90 minutes as City slipped to consecutive away league defeats.
There were some staff capable of making their voices heard such as sports therapist Mark Sertori and analyst Carles Planchart, but with Guardiola silently gesticulating to communicate with stars as often as he was shouting to them, there was usually a void of noise from the Blue corner.
Real Madrid at home was a turning point. Perhaps it can be partly explained by it being such a big game in the context of the season, but the specific opponents were significant.
There was an extra edge for all the Catalans on staff at City, and when Sergio Ramos - suspended for the game but allowed to sit in the stands - began to lead the shouting at his team-mates and the referee it produced a response from the home end and soon both benches were competing with each other as much as those on the pitch were.
It was as rowdy when Porto came to town in October this season.
Guardiola had warned before the game that the visitors were ‘alive with the referees, with staff on the bench’ and so it proved. The Portuguese side were the loudest City have had to contend with this season, heatedly and theatrically disputing every decision to the point where they were almost believable.
“It’s a penalty, I’ve seen it on TV,” screamed one staff member at the referee after defender Pepe had thrown himself to the floor, as if it would convince the officials to change their mind.
Porto’s theatrics saw Fernandinho lose it with them all. City’s captain went completely over the top at every decision - in the same way one set of fans would when the others had appealed for a handball, for instance. As he was preparing to go onto the pitch, the midfielder appeared to be breaking up a row between the managers...only to pick the argument up himself and tell
Sergio Conceicao to sit down and be quiet (or words to that effect).
As he looked to unite the squad amid indifferent results and a global pandemic that limited interaction outside of their bubble, Guardiola saw that the power of the bench and the dressing room could be harnessed.
If Fernandinho’s snarling ripostes highlighted his importance as club captain, more playing and nonplaying staff began making a din as they responded to those around them doing it and the noise levels grew and grew.
Asked about the controversial inclusion of Benjamin Mendy at Chelsea in January days after he had breached coronavirus regulations, part of Guardiola’s response was that: “He’s part of the group, he’s one of the good guys, he’s beloved in our group, he was one of the most active players in the stands. He’s a special guy for all of us.”
And while many saw the sight of Sergio Aguero as an unused substitute as a slight on the record scorer when he returned in February, it can instead be seen as a mark of the impact he could have in the dressing room and the stands even when not fully fit. Within minutes of the match against Tottenham kicking off, his voice was one of the loudest in the stadium.
Chasing the Quadruple has never been possible with just 11 players and the importance of the squad has been heightened this year with the restrictions brought on by the pandemic - not only because of the punishing schedule but on a human level.
A player’s team-mates make up a higher percentage of the people they see on a daily and weekly basis than they ever did before, and while many Blues have their loved ones in Manchester, others do not.
“I have not seen my family for a long time,” Ilkay Gundogan said recently. “My family at the moment are the people I see every day on the training ground.”
Adapting and adjusting to a new, strange situation has been difficult for all teams, and City’s squad have found a way to pull together in a variety of ways on top of supporting the players on the pitch.
After the substitutes were criticised for not wearing face masks at a time when the politicians of the country were trying to lay the blame for the pandemic on goal celebrations, an impromptu system of yellow and red cards were developed on the bench whereby players were singled out and ridiculed if they were caught without a mask on.
These little things all add up to amplify the strength of the squad.
It has been a bedrock of the City manager’s principles that his players must show a good reaction to not being in the team, with Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Aleks Zinchenko previously earning praise for having a smile on their face and being a good influence on the squad regardless of whether they are in the XI or not.
Being able to more clearly see and hear how his substitutes are behaving with no fans in stadiums has made Guardiola’s life easier as far as selections go. It isn’t a case of the loudest players get to come on, but ultimately this is one more piece of a picture that was much harder to get when it was drowned out by the roar of a 54,000-strong crowd every week. With the contact Guardiola would normally have with his players being cut down through the week because of Covid restrictions, matchdays have become even more important this season for him to assess the general feel of the squad. When the reactions on the bench to the match action are as enthusiastic as Ruben Dias responding to a blocked shot, there can be no concerns over the morale of the group.
It sounds incredibly basic to say that shouting from the sidelines helps a team. None of the messages or instructions have directly led to a goal or caused a referee to change his decision, and this isn’t trying to say that City have done anything better than any other team in the league.
Nor is it about one or two individuals.
The fact that the move to increase matchday squads from 18 to 20 coincided with the start of the 21-match winning run that transformed City’s season can safely be put down to coincidence.
But surviving and thriving in the exceptional circumstances of this season has been about finding new solutions, and learning to be more vocal and united as a group has been one of the many significant ways in which the Blues have built their success on this season.
All players feel the strong support of their team-mates and staff twice a week in a stadium, and Guardiola is able to see more clearly how much everyone is pulling in the same direction.
While it may not have worked as well before the pandemic and may not when football returns to normal, it has done the job needed for the here and now.
For all the talk about the cost of City’s bench, it is far more interesting to observe what has been happening on it this season.
My family at the moment are the people I see every day on the training ground
Ilkay Gundogan