ONLY PEP REMAINS TRUE TO CRUYFF’S RELIGION

THERE were two disciples of Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona dream team at The Etihad yesterday.

Pep Guardiola used to share a room with Ronald Koeman, when one was the big-money foreign signing and the other a scrawny Catalan teenager straight out of the third team. ‘Teach him what you know,’ the late Cruyff told Koeman.

And so began an education, Guardiola peppering Koeman with questions about Ajax, Total Football and the Cruyff way.

Twenty-five years on, one of the disciples has kept to the straight and narrow. The other seems to have gone somewhat heretical.

At times yesterday, especially in the first half, it seemed Guardiola’s Manchester City might bust the possession statistics and somehow go beyond 100 per cent. They were that dominant; or rather, Koeman was that confident in his Everton team’s ability to withstand City’s passing that his players made next to no attempt to circumnavigate it.

How smooth City looked, how delightful were their passes, and how magisterial did those possession statistics look.

It counted for nothing when their back three, conceding space aplenty, crumbled when faced with a long ball from defence, which was flicked on by Yannick Bolasie to leave Romelu Lukaku bearing down on goal with Gael Clichy to beat in the 64th minute. When Clichy was brushed aside and Lukaku finished decisively in the far corner it was the equivalent of a Richard Dawkins tract being read aloud at Westminster Abbey: an open attack on Cruyff and Guardiola.

‘World class,’ said Koeman. Yet Guardiola was undeterred. It was almost as if he could not quite bring himself to say what he thought of Koeman’s tactics: ‘I have all respect for Ronald. He’s a real friend of mine.

‘I never gave an opinion about my colleagues, the managers, because they know the reality of what they are, they know their players better than me, they know the possibility of their players.

‘The way we tried to play, we created enough chances to win the game. They had one chance in 90 minutes. And we did everything. Football is like this. All my career I faced these type of teams.’

Never will Guardiola imitate the tactics; not even on Wednesday when he returns to the cathedral of the faith, his and Koeman’s former home at Nou Camp. ‘I love the way Barcelona play,’ he insisted. ‘I’m going to accept to win or to lose but, I’m sorry guys, never am I ever going to change the way I play football. It’s the only thing I have.’

Late in the first half, the exceptional Maarten Stekelenburg had stopped Kevin De Bruyne’s penalty kick, awarded after Phil Jagileka ended David Silva’s mazy run inside the box.

Jagielka also hacked at Sergio Aguero in the area on 69 minutes. This time the Argentine stepped up to take the spot-kick, but the result was the same, Stekenlenburg diving to his left to parry away.

Nolito had only just arrived on the pitch when he met a Silva cross to head home the equaliser on 72 minutes. De Bruyne might have won the argument on 82 minutes, his deflected shot heading in until Stekelenburg brilliantly plucked it from the air and tipped it wide.

As it was, points were shared and the meaning of football life remained unresolved.