PEP
Premier League managers will be rubbing their hands
together! There is apparently a way to beat Manchester City and expose Pep
Guardiola for the fraud that he is.
According to plenty of pundits and fans alike,
City's two most recent results - a draw and a defeat - are a portent of
things to come.
The thrilling 3-3 draw at Celtic and the comprehensive 2-0
defeat at Tottenham certainly contained too many individual errors by City
players and, particularly at White Hart Lane, plenty of times
when Guardiola's system broke down.
But it is as if what went before - a marvellous run of 10
consecutive victories - has been scoured from the records books, and that the
bruising encounters in Glasgow and London will now be the norm for Guardiola
and his men.
If only it were as simple as that for the rest of the
Premier League. Sadly for them it is not.
How many other English teams can play with the intensity
Spurs maintained over 90 minutes? Few, if any.
Mauricio Pochettino is a fine manager and is getting the
credit he deserves, and in his third season at the club his players are playing
exactly how he wants them to - or at least they did against City.
They are the only one of City's seven Premier League
opponents to have covered more ground than the Blues during the course of 90
minutes, and their 666 sprints were more than any team has produced in any
match so far this season (the league average is 506). Think about how much
effort that required for a moment.
But running around a lot means little without proper
application and there was clear evidence on that Sunday that Pochettino not
only has an high-energy game plan but the players to put it into practice and
make it devastatingly effective.
The Argentine has put together a youthful group that has the
mentality and the talent to ensure they will be title challengers. They are an
excellent side.
It would do Pochettino's work a disservice to blithely
suggest any old club can now turn up for games against City and do what Spurs
did.
It is an interpretation of how football should be played,
not a tactic that can be coached in a week leading up to a game. Whether you're
Tony Pulis, Eddie Howe or Arsene Wenger, if you don't have the players, you
can't produce that type of performance even if you wanted to.
Only perhaps Liverpool have the ability to do what Spurs
did, but theirs is a more unorganised brand of fast and furious football. And
given the game at Anfield this season falls on New Year's Eve, the energy
levels may not be as high as Jurgen Klopp would like anyway.
There are no other Premier League teams with the desire or
ability to play that way. There are very good teams, but none that can play the
way that has troubled City.
So what about Celtic? It's true that, on paper, City should
have had no problem beating the Scottish side. Not one Celtic player would make
City's first choice squad but they gave Guardiola more headaches than any of
his previous 10 opponents.
Their performance has been used to back up the argument that
City are fallible to good old fashioned British 'get in their faces' football.
But the atmosphere at Celtic Park that night cannot be
overstated. It is one of few grounds in the world where even the best players -
and coaches - can be rendered almost useless by the rabid home support.
Celtic have beaten Barcelona and AC Milan - when they were
Champions League holders - in the not too distant past.
It was a truly remarkable atmosphere when City came to town and it left many fans of Premier League clubs wondering what they can do to replicate such noise south of the border.
No doubt many managers will be hoping for a solution too,
because that incredible display of passion from the Celtic support undeniably
influenced the result.
Without exploring the various reasons why English football
won't see anything like that too soon - whether it's the lack of safe standing
areas or the slightly wealthier demographic that the English game has geared
itself towards - it is safe to say City won't run into too many similar
situations again in the coming months and years.
It should also be pointed out that despite conceding goals
at the very start of each half - one that was offside and one from an
individual error - City still came back into the game on three occasions and
probably should have won it.
But, Premier League managers, the template for beating City
has apparently been set. All you need to do is get your players to run farther,
faster and harder than they have ever done in their lives, come up with a
system which ensures they don't leave any gaps behind them, take your chances
in front of goal and, if possible, play the game in front of 55,000 passionate
Scots.
Easy.
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