Since arriving in England and taking over as Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has never stopped developing and delivering comprehensive and beautiful football until he finally reached a truly terrifying team.
Under Guardiola, Manchester City dreams of achieving the historic treble, as it is separated from that victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League final for the 2022-2023 season, after winning the Premier League and FA Cup.
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The Spanish newspaper "Marca" confirms that since the summer of 2016, Guardiola has not stopped growing and developing as if in the game (SimCity) dedicated to building and developing cities, and the team has become terrifying for everyone who faces him from the continent's teams, big before small.
The Spanish newspaper highlighted the way Guardiola worked in the "Citizens" since then, which led him to build this team and reach with him to this image and even achieve a lot of titles locally waiting to crown his efforts with the glory of the European Cups, which lack the treasury of the team "heavenly".
Changes his style to surprise competitors
Earlier, Portuguese Bernardo Silva admitted that his coach Guardiola has contributed significantly to changing his outlook and way of playing football.
"He's the coach I've worked with the most (since 2017), and every day he's different from the one before," Silva said.
Pep Guardiolađź—Ł:
"Bernardo Silva's future? I hope he will not leave, but I don't know." pic.twitter.com/KHlEO11tTT
— Players Sayings (@PlayersSayings) June 7, 2023
"We won three titles in one season and we thought we would play the same way the following season, but no. He's constantly evolving, he's changing his style all the time so that no team gets used to the way we play."
"He changed my way of playing with Monaco I tended to dribble more, but now I play with one or two touches and that's the most important thing for Guardiola, either you do it or you won't play."
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Intolerance of his ideas
After an experience that lasted 3 seasons with Bayern Munich and another 7 with Manchester City, it can be said that Guardiola has become a better coach before for a number of reasons, the most important of which is that he has become "less fanatic" to his ideas, according to "Marca".
Spanish writer Marty Perarnao, who wrote the lines of Guardiola's first season with Bayern Munich, said that "if I had to talk briefly about Pep I would say that the transformation continues."
"Working in the Bundesliga introduced new concepts for Pep and it continued in England, football is a changing science and Pep every season offers something new."
"None of the seven seasons at Manchester City has been the same as the previous season, because the rivals are not always the same, they change, for example there was Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp and now Arsenal with Mikel Arteta."
Signing players who serve the system
No one denies how much Guardiola has spent on deals after his team paid €240 million on player transfers since the summer of 2016 until now.
Interestingly, most of these deals were not for the sake of top players or first-class stars in Europe and the world, but all came to serve the team system.
The newspaper gave the example of this with Manchester City signing John Stones from Everton, Jack Gerilish from Aston Villa and Ruben Diaz from Benfica.
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The ability to convince players that what he tells them will happen
Pep has a surprising ability to influence his players in terms of the implementation of his plans, the way he manages matches and his future reading of the events.
This information was confirmed by Ivorian Yaya Toure, who played under his supervision in Barcelona and Manchester City, where he said in previous statements, that "during his conversation with you convinces you that everything he tells you before the game will happen."
Brazilian Fernandinho, who left Manchester City last summer, spoke about the requirements for a team coached by Guardiola: "There are two things you need to play with, speaking at least 3 languages and being able to play in 3 different positions."
The arrival of Haaland
Haaland's arrival helped Manchester City translate their dominance of opponents into goals often being scored, which the English team had lacked in past seasons.
In the eyes of many, Haaland's presence as an outspoken striker prompted Pep to change some of his ideas, and he believed in the phantom striker more than the outspoken.
Dominic Torrent, who worked with Pep at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, said: "Haaland's arrival did not change much at the level of results because the team achieved without him a lot of titles and reached the Champions League final, but when you sign a monster who scores more than 50 goals a season like him, this forces you to find new ways of playing and create appropriate solutions for that."
Learning from his mistakes
In the past, Guardiola made many mistakes and even insisted on them, such as playing with an offensive rush against all teams, no matter how strong they are, but the situation has changed with the Spaniard this season 2022-2023.
Bernardo Silva admits that "it took a while but in the end we learned from our mistakes and changed the way we played."
"We learned that controlling the ball for 90 minutes doesn't always help, and that in some games against teams like Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid or Barcelona you have to defend and in return take advantage of the opportunities that come to you, that's what we're working on now because in the past we lived frustrating nights."
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Is Barcelona better or Manchester City?
The door of a new controversy will be opened by Guardiola if he succeeds with Manchester City in winning the six-way (Premier League - FA Cup - Champions League - European Super Cup - Charity Shield Cup "English Super" - Club World Cup).
That would spark a debate about the best team Guardiola has coached between Barcelona 2009 who achieved the same feat or the current Manchester City.
Marca believes that Manchester City will play with the style and ideas of Johan Cruyff, but they have not yet reached the "dreams" team coached by Guardiola in Barcelona.