As the latest campaign ends, we nominate some manager of the season contenders – and invite you to have your sayJürgen Klopp is happy to call his rival the world’s best coach, and few would deny that Guardiola has revolutionised the game in Spain, Germany and now England. With Erling Haaland signed up for next season, this may be recalled as the season Guardiola captured the Premier League title without a recognised striker, often using the only one within his squad, Gabriel Jesus, as a shuttler down the flanks. Continue reading...
Signing offers the ruthless unpredictability needed to break better rivals but Manchester City have still taken a riskOnce upon a time, many years ago, there were two warriors named Alf and Roy who fought for rival clans. Alf accused Roy of feigning injury after he had collapsed with ruptured knee ligaments and for the next four years, whenever they met on the battlefield, their fighting was fierce. But then Alf joined the local rivals of Roy’s team. In the derby, Roy hit Alf on the knee, hard, and Alf conceived a terrible revenge.Alf had a young son, less than a year old, and he raised him to be a great warrior. His son had extraordinary physical gifts. He was tall...
As four pre-final defeats highlight, City’s mechanism is so complex that when it misfires it cannot easily be put rightAt what point does just one of those things become more than just one of those things? If Manchester City’s defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday night were a one-off, it could be written off. What can you do about luck like that? If you have nine shots on target to the opposition’s none in the first 90 minutes and still lose 2-1 what, really, have you done wrong? Especially when you’ve dominated the first leg as City had done.But this keeps happening. Season after season, Pep Guardiola finds his teams dominating Champions League ties and losing. Bad luck follows him:...
Manchester City were the more coherent team but the white noise and white light of the Bernabéu was decisive in semi-finalWhen the moment came it seemed to strike Daniele Orsato like a surge of static energy. The referee had been phlegmatic at the Bernabéu. He shrugged. He jogged. But this place does something to you. As Karim Benzema fell, ankle tapped by a lunge from Rúben Dias, even before his body hit the turf Orsato’s arm was springing out from his side, ramrod straight, possessed with the voodoo of another of these absurd electrical storms, these nights of white noise, white light, where nothing is ever done until it’s done.Benzema stepped up and rolled the penalty kick into the empty...
The role of Phil Foden, the space afforded to Trent Alexander-Arnold and the struggle to control the wings could all be vitalNo manager has beaten Pep Guardiola as often as Jürgen Klopp, although the balance is swinging the Manchester City manager’s way, with one defeat in nine meetings since the Champions League quarter-finals of April 2018. Theirs is one of the great rivalries, a meeting of two coaches who have done more than anybody else to shape the tactical landscape of modern football. But how might they set up on Sunday and where is the game between Liverpool and their Premier League title rivals likely to be won and lost? Continue reading...