Before anyone jumps the gun hear me out, like many others I admittedly bought in to the Pep Guardiola is the best Coach in the world like many of world Footballs fandom but. I can see where I'm wrong to believe that and I'll explain by saying the following. I believe Pep's up there as one of the best coaches in world Football, to brand him the best Coach though is a step too far, he still has a lot to learn about English football for a start and I'm sure he would agree. This season has been nothing but magical as well as surprising in more ways than one, but to repeat our 16 point haul feat would be nothing short of miraculously historical. A handful of clubs have worked us out and it's only a matter of time before the rest follow suit, thus making it more difficult for us prompting for us to adapt our game further.
Against Liverpool and United recently, Pep Guardiola exposed his weakness. He came out to the Media and explained that his players don't need him in his technical area. So lets do away with technical area's then shall we? I'm personally pro technical area and pro animated and passionate Coach operating his so, to claim that our players have it in them to win matches without their Coach on the sidelines was ludicrous, any opposing Coach or Manager will always take advantage of their opponent being sent to the stand.
We can't control match officials or their actions so we have to learn to treat them as our twelfth opponent, our enemy if you will. Its' blatantly obvious that Uefa have an agenda against us and this isn't the first and won't be the last time we are robbed blind by a Uefa Referee, take a gander back to when we were robbed against Barcelona over two legs or against Real Madrid. You're not alone in your contempt for Uefa my fellow City fans, I totally understand why our fans are not so big on the European Competition and I'd be quite happy seeing us win the English Premier League every season.
Before the Tottenham match last night I was fearing the worst, that Pep was falling in to the same trap Bobby Mancini and Pellegrini did so dramatically. Trusting their players to go out and stick to their game plan and get it done all by themselves, lambs to the slaughter.
After the first leg of the Champions League match against Liverpool, Pep should have learnt from the mistakes made. After all he and his coaching team pride themselves on their analysis and preparation as much as their ethic and brand of football. To then allow Man United to copy Liverpool and inflict the same on us was Criminal, to then allow Liverpool to once again inflict the same on us all in the space of two weeks was unforgivable to say the least.
As previously mentioned I feared the worst against Tottenham, so I sent a message to to Vincent Kompany via his Facebook account.
"Vinny, I don't care what anyone says, since Zabaleta has left Manchester City, you have all grown soft. You need to all be teaching Pep that you can't just win in England with fancy tippy toe football, you've all lost your gonads and need to toughen up. You were made utter embarrassments by Liverpool and United, you embarrassed our fans who deserve better. You ask any dyed in the wool Manchester City fan including me, I'd give up the trophies just to go back and put it right against Liverpool and United. Wake up the lot of you and start dishing out as good as you get."
Now I'm not suggesting Vinny read my comment, or that his representatives relayed the message to him but, the answer I got against Tottenham Hotspur was exactly what I demanded from Pep and our players for our fans. I was hoping Pep would see the error of his ways and thankfully he did, our players took a more cautious approach only retaining 53% possession, as well as closing down our opponents quicker. He brought about tactical change once Tottenham started to press us as did Liverpool and United, by taking off Sane, Jesus and De Bruyne and replacing them with Bernardo Silva to give us fresh legs in midfield, Yaya Toure to give us some defencive cover and height in our own box and Otamendi to tighten up our back line. Exactly what we should have done against Liverpool and United. As I said in my prior Article, Pep Guardiola was solely to blame for making Liverpool and United look far better than they actually are.
All Liverpool are are a bully team, now I'm not saying that's a bad thing, quite the reverse. I want Manchester City to add that to our game more often as a few tactical yellow cards are welcome, it's exactly what we lack at time as the only City players to really show it are Fernandinho and Otamendi. Boy will I be glad to see Mendy back in the side, of course Aguero is as tough as they come but it's not his job to defend and dominate in defence and midfield. We certainly could do with a few more defencive and midfield aquisitions in the Summer with Yaya Toure at the end of his City career, Fernandinho not getting any younger and having no cover for Mendy aside Delph.
Tottenham, United and Liverpool have always been bully teams, it's why they've dominated the top English league for so long. They've never been a great team like Real Madrid of old led by the Brazilian Ronaldo or Barcelona of old led by Messi, they just got the job done, be it only briefly in European football. Even Chelsea for instance only beat Barcelona in the Champions League because of the English way they played, defensively and on the counter.
It's not brain science after all, we're a possession based side so if our opponents are having more of the possession and we're struggling to regain possession, then change it up, make a tactical change and play on the counter. We also have some of the fastest players out there, exploit it and go for the throat.
I can only hope for my fellow fans that Pep and our players have learnt from this almighty mistake and we move forward from here having learnt our lesson. If we are to become a truly great European side then we need to mix it up and get our hands dirty.
Well done to our players and coaching team for turning over Tottenham Hotspur and the forever always playing for penalties and over rated Dele Alli.
