Champions League failures a stain on Pep Guardiola's legacy and a challenge to his status as world's greatest manager

Aditya Devavrat 10:10 06/04/2018
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  • For a man declared as football’s leading genius, Pep Guardiola gets caught out by the same tactics far too often and far too easily.

    That’s seven wins in 13 games for Jurgen Klopp against the Spaniard, in a rivalry started in Germany when Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund were the thrilling underdogs to Pep’s monied Bayern Munich machine, and the dynamic is the same in England. Liverpool, though not exactly lacking in resources, cannot compete with Manchester City off the pitch, but they just soundly beat them on it.

    That’s twice this season that Liverpool’s attack has ripped City to shreds, with a late wobble providing gloss to the scoreline during the Reds’ 4-3 win at Anfield in the Premier League in January before Wednesday night’s 3-0 thrashing in the Champions League.

    Yes, of course, the tie is far from over. City are capable of scoring goals for fun and they did beat Klopp’s side 5-0 at home in the league this season – a result impacted to great effect by the early and controversial sending off of Liverpool’s Sadio Mane. And if the Citizens do effect a turnaround, Guardiola will take the plaudits and praise yet again.

    But until that happens, it’s worth pointing out that the City manager has a glaring weakness. And it’s not as simple as his teams being vulnerable to a high-tempo, aggressive, pressing style of play that Klopp has used to great effect against him, as has Mauricio Pochettino with Tottenham.

    No, Pep’s weakness is the same trait that has made him a great manager – his blind faith, his tactical rigidity, his unshakeable belief that he does not need a Plan B.

    He will have you believe that he is not an ideologue manically obsessed with tiki-taka football, that he actually is flexible, but it’s not an argument he can get away with. Not when his most recent loss is actually the latest in a long line of results that have shown him up.

    Jose Mourinho‘s Inter Milan knocking out Guardiola’s Barcelona in the 2010 Champions League semi-final, Chelsea beating Barcelona in the 2012 semi-final, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid knocking Bayern out in consecutive Champions League semi-finals, City inexplicably losing to Monaco in last year’s Round of 16, and now this.

    Some of those results came down to an active press, some of them came down to organised defending, but all of them came down to Pep being Pep. Wedded to possession football with quick passing that is simply brilliant at its best, but with no other recourse on the few occasions it doesn’t work.

    It’s not that different to the way Mourinho, Guardiola’s opponent on Saturday when City take on Manchester United, is devoted to defensive football – although media coverage is far more forgiving of Guardiola’s inflexibility and shortcomings than Mourinho’s. And it could be that on this occasion, Guardiola wins out, and City get their grand coronation by sealing the Premier League title with a win over their biggest rivals.

    But what, really, would he have accomplished? City may break the record for points and goals in a Premier League season and biggest title-winning margin – admirable achievements – but at the end of the day, Champions League success is what matters to City now; winning the league is a minimum condition, as it was for Bayern under Guardiola. Five straight failures in Europe – six if you count his final season at Barcelona – is a stain on the legacy of a manager who has spent over £1 billion in the transfer market during his career to build sides perfectly in his image.

    Another way to look at it: for all the spending and the brilliant football he’s produced, Guardiola has never won the Champions League when he hasn’t had Lionel Messi in his side. Mourinho, Klopp, Pochettino, Diego Simeone, and Antonio Conte – among others – all made their reputations for achieving more with less. Guardiola, considered by many to be the best manager of his era, has needed a player who could go down as the greatest of all time in order to seal his most noteworthy successes.

    So is he really that much better than his peers?

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