Manchester City played out a dour and uninspiring match at Old Trafford last night.
The opponent? Manchester United. The score? A 1-0 loss. Expected? Yes. Performance? Dreadful. Expected? Not at all.
That was the problem.
Even with a heavily rotated team, Manchester City fans were still expecting to see the performance of a Pep Guardiola team but, instead, saw that of one that lacked direction.
Opposed to the slick, accurate passing that City supporters have become accustomed to, players lacked composure in possession and failed to create any major chances. The best chance for the visitors came in the opening minute when Kelechi Iheanacho headed a Jesus Navas cross wide. A run down the wing and a powerful cross. Hardly the first thing that you think of when you think of a Guardiola team, is it?
The performances in the other five matches that have formed City’s winless run still looked like you were watching a team managed by Guardiola, so what went wrong against United?
There are two plausible explanations: Guardiola is struggling to motivate his players enough for them to fully comply with his practices or the Spaniard wasn’t that concerned about the match on Wednesday night and gave few instructions to them before the match.
When the teams were announced around an hour prior to kick-off, it was clear that one manager was taking the match more seriously than the other. Jose Mourinho’s starting XI featured the likes of world-record signing Paul Pogba and Swedish frontman Zlatan Ibrahimovic, while Guardiola opted to hand starts to emerging talents Pablo Maffeo and Aleix Garcia.
Ironically, Maffeo and Garcia were probably the two best players on the pitch for City last night, but Guardiola could not have been certain that they would play that well before the match. The weakening of team was a sign that the man at the helm of the Sky Blues still has full confidence in his own abilities and proved that he has the full backing of the City hierarchy.
The changes that Guardiola made were undoubtedly a sign of his intentions to focus on other tournaments. Lots of people thought that, because of his winless run, the ex-Barcelona manager would field a strong side, but I thought the opposite. His winless run has made him realise that all of the focus needs to be on the Premier League and the Champions League, so there was no need to risk their most vital players to progress in what is, ultimately, a worthless competition for City.
However, making changes to the line-up does not mean that the style of football needs to change. Not being worried about the match and not caring about it are two completely different things. Guardiola said earlier in the week that he his upbringing was based on how you needed to win every match regardless of the stature. That didn’t show at Old Trafford.
The lack of identity was a huge concern. If a Pep Guardiola team doesn’t turn up at the Hawthorns on Saturday, then there could be increasing speculation that the dressing room are not adopting Guardiola’s practices – especially after he held them hostage following Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton.
In modern football, the players turning against you means that you are nearing the end of your reign. This, of course, would be very surprising to see considering Guardiola’s past achievements and the efforts that the City board went to in order to secure his services, and I’m not saying that it will happen. All I am saying is that it is a very rare occurrence (once in a blue moon, perhaps) that you can watch a team managed by Guardiola and not recognise that he is the manager. Like the winless run, it is merely an obstacle rather than a dead end. It can be repaired but the quicker, the better – before things get out of hand.
