Two of the Premier League’s most tactically astute managers each had spells of superiority but Manchester City and Liverpool had to settle for a drawIn a season featuring the best managerial lineup in Premier League history this felt like the type of match we were promised. Two high‑tempo, dynamic sides with different attacking philosophies produced an enthralling end-to-end contest featuring mesmeric passing moves, incredible bursts of pace – and some quite dreadful misses. Related: Sergio Agüero pegs back Liverpool to rescue point for Manchester City Related: Pep Guardiola: Manchester City draw with Liverpool ‘one of my happiest days’ Continue reading...
Champions League exit leaves City and manager vulnerable to danger of missing another target when facing Guardiola’s old foe Jürgen KloppJosé Mourinho is of the opinion that the five teams above Manchester United in the table are going to have it easier than his own for the rest of the season now that every single one is out of Europe. He might have a point yet, in the short term at least, Manchester City can still go two ways.Pep Guardiola’s side would not be the first English club to suffer a hangover on the domestic front on the back of a major disappointment in Europe and few English clubs have invested as much as Manchester City in becoming established in the...
The Barcelona and Bayern Munich players were already familiar with Guardiola’s complex juego de posición theory – at City he was virtually starting from scratchThe fashion these days is to knife a manager at the first sign of trouble. Nobody is allowed to build, nobody is allowed to learn from a mistake. Move to a new country, take over a new team, try to adapt to a new environment and if you’re not winning titles six months later you’re a fraud. Neither Jürgen Klopp nor Pep Guardiola are under pressure as such heading into Sunday’s game at the Etihad, but both are facing grumblings of discontent.When Steve McClaren was sacked by Derby last week it meant that a quarter of...
Pep Guardiola saw his side score six and concede six across two legs of the Champions League last 16 but blamed his high-scoring attack, not his high-conceding defence, for failurePep Guardiola was hired to win the Champions League for Manchester City and on Wednesday night they crashed out in the last 16 at the hands of Monaco. This is the unpalatable truth Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the chairman, and the chief executive-sporting director axis of Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain have to digest with year one of their Get Guardiola master plan in tatters.If the Catalan was not required to win the competition in his first season the absolute minimum was to elevate style and offer clear evidence City are only fractions...
The Foxes see off Sevilla to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals but Manchester City come unstuck. Plus: Aitor Karanka is sacked by Middlesbrough, and what happened when AFC Wimbledon hosted MK DonsSubscribe and review: iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast & Stitcher. And join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterOn today’s Football Weekly Extra, AC Jimbo is joined by James Horncastle, Jacob Steinberg and Simon Burnton to look back on the conclusion of an extraordinary round of 16 in the Champions League. Manchester City, despite a two-goal advantage from the first leg, managed to mess things up in Monaco. We hear from Julien Laurens about the goaltastic Monégasques – and wonder what it says about the Best League in the...