What is the problem with Manchester City?
I have a theory, although it is not popular with the team owners of the team. The problem could be the coach, which the club recently signed for an extension of two years which, on the basis of the value of its previous contract, is probably worth more than $ 50 million.
And PEP Guodiola won this. In nine seasons at Manchester City, he led the team to 15 major trophies, including six of the last seven English Premier League titles and a hat-trick in 2022-2010. His teams broke the Records of the EPL for the consecutive titles earned, most of the points of a season, most of the victories of a season, most of the goals of a season, the biggest title margin and the best goal differential, among others.
Before that, Guardiola won two Champions League titles and a hat -trick in Barcelona and three crowns of Bundesliga in as many seasons in Bayern Munich. He is, without a doubt, one of the biggest club coaches in the history of football.
But he could have exceeded his welcome in Manchester.
Guardiola, 53, has already trained more than twice as many games in Manchester than to one of his previous stops. If he remains until the end of his extension – and he apparently has more than 50 million reasons why he should spend 11 seasons at the club in a league where the average mandate of a manager is only 787 days, according to The Athletic.
Guardiola has already been with a city longer than most Americans remain in their first marriage. And just like with a faultless divorce, it is not necessary to blame when relations become outdated. However, it is necessary to move on.
This is where City finds herself after having won only once in her last 11 games in complete competition, the worst shift in the career of Guardiola coach. The last defeat occurred on Sunday, at home, in the Manchester derby, with City conceding twice in the last two minutes of the regulatory time in a 2-1 defeat which dropped it in fifth of the EPL table.
City has not finished outside the top four since 2010 and only once, a team created in Guardiola finished lower than the second in the league anywhere. The team abandons goals at a higher pace (1.68 per match throughout the competition) than in any previous season under Guardiola, with the 42 City scores conceded in 25 games this year corresponding to the number he abandoned in 61 games in 2020-21.
City clearly lost its boastful. In the past, it was arrogant and confident; Now he is shaken and disarray.
So why is it going?
It is certainly not because Guardiola suddenly forgot how to train; Despite the city's difficulties, he remains one of the first game tactics. Wounds, however, were a factor, especially on the defensive.
John Stones only played 11 times this season, two more than Nathan Ake. And Kyle Walker, Phil Foden, Jack Grenish, Kyle Walker and Kevin de Bruyne have all lost time because of injuries or illness. However, no one was more than Rodri, the anchor of the team midfielder and the recent Ballon d'Or midfielder who has been released since the end of September due to an LCA injury.
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola, on the right, leaves the field with Matheus Nunes after a match against Manchester United on December 15.
(Dave Thompson / Associated Press)
City was undefeated in eight games before Rodri was injured; He has only won seven times in 17 games since.
However, injuries – even devastating like Rodri – are part of the game and the city has already overcome them. What is more likely at the center of the sudden collapse of the team this season is the fact that the relationship between Guardiola and his players, like a poor first marriage, has become expired.
Six of the main players of the team are over 30 years old, and the six – in addition to Foden – have been there since the second season of Guardiola in Manchester. They have been together for more than 440 games and thousands of practices, team meetings and half-time speeches.
There is a good chance that everything that Guardiola says is something they have heard before. So, even if they did not settle it – consciously or unconsciously – the message does not resonate as it did before.
This is not a new phenomenon. This is why many managers of national teams last only one World Cup cycle and why the average stay of a club coach in Europe is only 402 days, according to the International Center for Sports Studies based in Switzerland. In South America, it's 99 less.
Guardiola's mandate with Manchester City, on the other hand, is already the second longer in the history of the club and more than two years more than that of any other current director of Premier League.
Familiarity could be a force in certain professions, but coaching is not among them.
Consider Bob Bradley's time with Lafc. During his first season, which ended with an appearance in the MLS qualifiers, the players delighted his attention to the smallest details, which included the way they made their tables in the team's cafeteria. In its fourth season, the team had a losing record and the players complained that Bradley was too demanding. The team therefore replaced it with the most relaxed Steve Cherundolo And won a shield of supporters and an MLS Cup in the first year of Cherundolo.
“Different influence, different voice. I think that is part of the process,” said Ante Razov, deputy coach of the two managers.
I remember a similar lesson from decades ago. The day before The late John Robinson was to train USC In her third pink Bowl in four years, I was sent to cover the final practice of the Trojans. Just before the end of training, the doors of the field opened and the USC group, led by the Song Girls, walked to play the school's fighting song.
While some of the great of the past teams of the USC suddenly emerged from the crowd of rallies to give exciting speeches, it was obvious that the new players of the team were whipped in a fervor. But behind them, several juniors and seniors sat on their helmets and discussed between them, completely ignoring Pep talks. When I asked why a bored line player said, “We heard all of this before.”
Robinson never won another Bowl pink and three years later, he left for the NFL. The problem was not the coach or the message, it was the fact that the players had heard everything before.
The same could now be true on the eastern side of Manchester.
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