Over a billion euros gone and the Champions League still nowhere. Why can’t Guardiola lead City to the dream trophy?

It’s a big question every year. Can Pep Guardiola finally lead Manchester City to their dream Champions League trophy? And every year the same answer – no, he can’t. The rich sheikhs have already spent more than a billion euros on transfers, but even that is not enough. Why?

Pep Guardiola is undoubtedly one of the best coaches of the modern football era. He created the unstoppable Barcelona, conquered Germany with Bayern Munich, and now he is conquering England with Manchester City. But there’s something missing from his career.

He won two Champions League titles with Barcelona, but those are dusty, the last one coming in 2011. Since then, Guardiola has only reached the final once, and he hasn’t won a gold medal. And he will extend his wait for at least another year.

Yet when he arrived at Manchester City in the summer of 2016, he was given a clear task by the wealthy sheikhs – to finally win the coveted Champions League. The Queen of all competitions and football’s most valuable trophy. And he was given an almost unlimited budget to do it.

Since Guardiola’s arrival, the Citizens have already spent €1,091,923,186 on transfers. Last year, for example, he came for €100m, and the money raised for the defence would not put any army to shame (Dias €68m, Cancelo €65m, Laporte €65m, Mendy €57m, Stones €55m, Walker €52m).

There have been several other mega transfers in the Guardiola era – De Bruyne €76m, Mahrez €67m, Sterling €63m, Rodri €62m, Sané €52m, Bernardo Silva €50m, Aké €45m, Ederson €40m. So the Citizens eleven is made up of transfers for unbelievable sums.

But even that won’t help their Champions League success. While the Premier League has been conquered by the Citizens in recent years, the Eared Cup has not and cannot be won. Why is that?

The difference between the league and the LM

Why have the Citizens dominated 3 out of the last 4 editions of the Premier League and have their sights set on another? Because Pep Guardiola is probably the best tactician in the world. He has a sophisticated system of play, he tailors the style of play needed for each opponent and then Citizens crush their opponents.

The players are not under that much pressure as the season is long and once they lose points, nothing much happens. It’s just a complete difference from the Champions League, where even one tiny mistake can cost you promotion. The pressure, especially in rematches, is so immense and Citizens repeatedly fail to stand up to it.

In the key moments of the Champions League, quality no longer plays a part, whether the right-back runs into the middle of the park, whether the midfield rotates properly or whether the stopper is deputising for his teammate. In the moments when it breaks down, personalities are needed to do something unexpected and take charge. It’s just that City tend to have system players who, if the game plan breaks down, don’t know what to do next.

Lack of personality

And that leads seamlessly to the next point. The Citizens lack leaders. Kevin De Bruyne is a leader in terms of play, but we are thinking of warriors like Sergio Ramos or Gennaro Gattuso who energize their team with a word, a sharper slide or an intervention. The Citizens don’t have anyone like that in their squad, all the players look like “good guys”.

To concede two goals in the set-up against Real Madrid and have to go to extra time is a horrendous situation for the head. But all the Citizens players had their heads down, there was no one to pull it off. And then they also lost. When you compare that to how Real Madrid handled losing the lead to Chelsea and the 0-3 situation, that’s how titles are won.

Love and sacrifice for the club

Not infrequently, when a player moves to a big club, he will state that it has been his dream since he was young. Have you ever heard anything like that from a City player? No, nor could you, Manchester City is an artificial club based on the money of Arab sheikhs. It’s not an innuendo, just an explanation of the situation.

Why do players go to City? For the big payday and the prospect of winning trophies. There’s no pride in playing for Manchester City. That’s a huge difference in transfers to Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool or Bayern Munich. To put on the jersey of these clubs is sacred and you have to lay down your life for it or the fans will count you out. What kind of relationship can players have with a club who 15 years ago didn’t even know there was a second club in Manchester?

Now compare that to Real Madrid again. Dani Carvajal, Nacho, Lucas Vazquez are all offspring of the club. Benzema has been at the club for 13 years, Modric 10, Kroos 8, Marcelo even 15. Casemiro, Valverde, Vinícius, Rodrygo arrived in their teens and started in Real’s youth to learn the club’s values. These players will subsequently have a diametrically different relationship with the club than the stars bought for €100 million.

The re-tacticisation of Guardiola

As we have already mentioned, Guardiola is undoubtedly the best tactician in the world. It’s just that too much of everything is sometimes detrimental. With Olympique Lyon in the Champions League the season before last, he dropped out completely unnecessarily when he incomprehensibly and unexpectedly changed the formation to a 3-4-3. Citizens were not prepared for this defensively and lost 1: 3.

Last year, in the LM final, the Spaniard wanted to surprise Chelsea by playing without a defensive midfielder and without a top striker. However, he failed in this experiment as well and took only the silver medal. Against Real Madrid, on the other hand, no one understood the early substitutions of Kevin De Bruyne and Ryad Mahrez, City’s two best players on the pitch.

At key moments in the Champions League it’s very much about intuition, sometimes you have to let go of what works. It’s just that Guardiola often tries so hard to outwit the opposition that he ends up outwitting himself.

Teamwork

An absolutely crucial aspect to winning the Champions League title. Look at the recent winners of the millionaire competition. Chelsea, Bayern, Liverpool, Real Madrid. All of them exuded total team spirit, outwardly there was a fantastic atmosphere in the cabin, which then pushed the team to success in moments of crisis.

On the one hand, City certainly don’t look like a fractious and pretentious PSG full of stars, but don’t look for any great bonding between the players either. Allow me one more comparison from the Champions League semi-final.

The Citizens players just sat absent-mindedly on the bench for the entire second leg, watching the action. Even when they got a goal in the 90th minute to make it 1-1, there was no support from their teammates, they all stayed seated.

Cut, let’s move a few meters further to the Real Madrid bench. Substituted Kroos, Modric and Benzema, with captain Marcelo still with them, all standing on their feet at the touchline, jumping up, giving instructions, celebrating every kick-off for their team and cheering on their younger teammates. They all have four Champions League titles to their name, but they can still bite their nails.

A few metres away, all the Citizens players are sitting with their heads down in a warm armchair. That too says a lot about the atmosphere in both booths and why Manchester City have failed to rise to the top of Europe so far.

Source: UEFA, Transfermarkt