Beyond a historic league-cup-Champions League treble, a victory for Manchester City against Inter Milan in the final on Saturday in Istanbul would definitely silence Pep Guardiola’s rare critics. Even more than two years ago against Chelsea (0-1), City will be favorites against the 3rd in Serie A after having outclassed Bayern Munich in the quarter then Real Madrid, defending champion, in the half.
With his 11 league titles in 14 seasons with Barcelona, Bayern and then the Citizens, the Catalan technician is widely considered to be one of the best coaches of his generation, if not of all time. But the 12 years since his second and last European title are an embarrassing shadow on the board, especially as his tactical choices have sometimes been singled out in his three consecutive failures with Bayern in the last four, then the five years that he started the quarter-finals with City.
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Ability to innovate
If he has sometimes “gamberged” in the Champions League, his ability to innovate, surprise, adapt is nevertheless undoubtedly one of the secrets of his incredible longevity at the highest level. During the seven years under his command, the Sky Blues showed very different faces: the team with the wisps Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling on the wings and the “killer” Sergio Agüero in the axis, then that with Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, even Ilkay Gündogan in “false-nine”, when Agüero’s injuries and the failure to recruit Harry Kane in the summer of 2021 left him without a center forward.
And if Erling Haaland, who filled this gap last summer, was a player at odds with what Guardiola usually looks for on paper, his 52 goals in his first season is further proof that the Catalan’s “football IQ” remains. unsurpassable. “Pep makes you understand that football is easier than you think,” Fernandinho, the emblematic former captain of the Citizens, recently explained in an interview with Alan Shearer for the site The Athletic.
“I knew him when I was 30, I worked with him for 7 years and he helped me to progress technically, tactically, physically. The way I see football today, I don’t had never seen like that before meeting him”. We could, however, speak of change in continuity, as the principles are so clear and the statistics immutable: City have always been the team with the strongest possession of the ball, which makes the fewest long passes, takes the fewest shots and has always been, or almost, the best attack at the same time as the best defense.
Winning the C1 is “essential”
“Fundamentally, nothing” has changed over the years, even claimed Guardiola last week. “I can’t remember a game where I didn’t tell my players not to rush when the opponent has the ball, and I can’t remember a day when we didn’t try to build our actions as best as possible. The fundamentals have always been rigorously the same from day one to today,” he insisted.
All these trophies, all these certainties will however not weigh heavily at kick-off on Saturday. Only victory will be beautiful “Even if I don’t agree with that, I understand that everything we have done over the years (which has been a lot and very good), will not really make sense for the others only if we win this competition”, he had admitted on the UEFA website. “We must also accept that if we want to take a decisive step towards being a great club (…) we must win the Champions League, it is unavoidable”.