BACK TO THE FUTURE
Guardiola’s tightened defence the key in City’s turnaround
ALMOST a year ago, Manchester City suffered a 4-2 defeat at Leicester that led to misgivings about manager Pep Guardiola’s suitability for the Premier League. And even he remarked: ‘I’m not a coach for the tackles.’
He need not have worried. Guardio la takes his City slickers to Huddersfield today threatening to rewrite the record books. They have won every away game this season and the last 10 in the Premier League. Their overall unbeaten run stretches back 25 matches to last April.
While Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane have been getting all the plaudits — scoring at more than three goals a game and on course to break the league record of 103 — Guardiola’s most important work has been at the other end.
City have conceded just seven goals in 12 league games and German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, Guardiola’s first signing for the club, has pinpointed that as a key factor in their runaway success.
‘We’ve developed our game and are even more dominant on the ball,’ he said. ‘But the big change is not doing any mistakes, at the back especially. We conceded a lot last season from stupid mistakes.
‘We’re defending great, not conceding a lot of chances and have continued playing good football at the front. We’ve always played to score.’
The transformation has not c o me about by chance. Guardiola’s reputation from Barcelona and Bayern Munich as an intensely thorough coach is well-earned.
‘Maybe we understand more what he [ Guardiola] wants,’ said Gundogan, whose fluid passing is a hallmark of City’s team. ‘ It feels like we have changed our game a little bit from last year, especially with our build up and the short passes we make.
‘We always have the game in front of us. We don’t turn blind with our back to an opponent, j ust give t he pass t o our team-mate in a better position. It starts from our goalkeeper, Eddie [ Ederson] through to t he centre- backs, hol di ng midfielders, central midfielders and strikers.
‘ The third man is always there to set the ball, to make it as easy as possible for our team-mate to pass. Everyone is doing a really good job at the moment and that is why y we are so successful.
‘At the moment we e are just enjoying. We deserve all the praise we are getting. We have pl a yed a lot of beautiful football and of course we are e going to try and play ay every game like that.’ t.’
Guardiola is keen to point out that the only additions to his current regular XI have been at the back. ‘We work on the principles of what we believe and play mostly with only two new players from last season — Ederson and Kyle Walker,’ he said. ‘Most of the others were there last season. ‘It was a question of time and more energy as well. Energy from Kyle, from many players. It is so important.’ Of c o u r s e , t h e Pr e mier League g is too competitive for City C not to face ser serious challenges at so some point. And centre- half John Stones being out for at least a m month with a h hamstring injury is un unfortunate timing give given City are entering their b busiest spell so far, with 12 games in 38 days. There is also the conundrum of how to keep two world-class strikers in Aguero and Jesus happy when Guardiola often only starts with one of them. ‘I assure you we are going to lose games and the debate will happen again about whether the way we play is acceptable for the league or not,’ said Guardiola.
‘ Jesus and Sergio have an amazing relationship. But of course they want to play and I know they are really sad when they can’t. I decide to play more with specific wingers and one striker but we can play with two strikers in the middle, for example we did in the last 10 minutes against Feyenoord [on Tuesday].’
There is also the hype of City being called the best team in Europe. ‘It feels game-to-game it becomes even harder to fulfil all t he expectations,’ said Gundogan.
‘ In a few days, everything can change. Imagine we start to lose two or three games, or don’t win, it is going to turn around.’