Has Pep Guardiola Lost The Magic Touch?

There is nothing wrong with a manager sticking to his guns. In fact, it’s something I admire about all the best managers in the world – Sir Alex Ferguson, Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Didier Deschamps have all been magical with their formulas. But Pep Guardiola is not on that list.

He is far too stubborn and sometimes even insane in his attempts to prove that his way works! I don’t know why you would turn up to Monaco with a 2-0 lead playing six starting attackers for a match where you could just cruise into the Champions League Quarter Finals.

Park the Bus, for God’s sake

Whether people like it or not, we all know Jose Mourinho would have comfortably parked his big bus in front of that Monaco attack and walked away with a sneaky 1-0. Yes it would have been boring, yes it would have killed the game and YES they would have been in the Champions League Quarter Finals, which is the only one of those fact that matters. Instead, Pep refused to bend for the occasion.

Sometimes you cannot just play the game. You have to play the occasion, as Sir Alex often said. You have to know when you need to amend your team and your mind-set. Those who don’t adapt are often left behind so why is Guardiola still in the limelight? Pep Guardiola still hasn’t grasped the intensity of the Premier League which is why you see Manchester City regularly drop points. He hasn’t accepted that he does not have a Messi in his side to save him game after game; heck, Messi is still doing it for Barcelona now.

Instead of adapting, Pep lives off his past success at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, where he was given unlimited funds and probably the two best squads of all time. They did not even need to be managed. Pep was just the face for the media – a puppet, one might argue.

Many said he would be tested at a lesser club (although Man City are hardly Sutton United), and now we are seeing the results. Tactically, he can’t hack it; Man City were outplayed and overrun by Liverpool and if not for some expected shabby defending from the Reds it would have been another defeat in a big game.

Baffling Decisions

Some of Pep’s decisions are frankly astounding. At Monaco, Yaya Toure spent 30 minutes of the second half warming up. Sane got the goal that brought them back into the tie, so why would you not bring on Yaya then and put an extra midfielder in the middle of the park to hold and control the ball. Nope – Pep was instead asking his team to attack more. You have to admire his desire to crush the opposition with goals. But on the other hand, you have to question the intelligence of a man who has tasted League and European glory. Why would you not approach the game differently rather than playing into the opposition’s hands?

Because you’re stubborn. Because you’re Pep Guardiola and you care about nothing but your own ego. He doesn’t care if Man City don’t make it through, he doesn’t care if others don’t like his approach. He cares if Fernandinho playing right back, ahead of two fully fit right backs (both of whom were available), grabs a winning assist so he can say; “I told you so”.

Pep only has one way, and one idea – keep the ball and score more goals. When that doesn’t work, he has no other plan. His arrogance is baffling but give him £200 million and he’ll win you the league… Nubaid Haroon – Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCtMg-fWm7awR41vM1GhVOkA  Twitter: twitter.com/rambofyi

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