After a quick glance at Pep Guardiola’s trophy cabinet you would be forgiven for thinking it belonged to a veteran coach who’s been around for decades.
Six league titles, five national cups and two Champions League titles among others is a collection almost any coach past and present would be envious of.
At Barcelona he replaced Frank Rijkaard and brought Barcelona a fresh change in players and tactics to bring them widespread success after a winless two year period for the Catalan club.
At Bayern Munich he was unable to win the UEFA Champions League, but brought Bayern Munich their best run of results in the club’s history.
However at Manchester City, Guardiola faces his greatest managerial test yet.
Guardiola’s arrival in Manchester brought much excitement and ambition with many expecting City to bounce back from a poor second half of the 2015-2016 season and challenge for the Premier League title and Champions League.
With that optimism and heavy weight of expectation Guardiola lead City to ten wins in a row to begin the season, leading the league at the first international break. Since then though a collection of issues have plagued Manchester City’s season. Poor performances, poor tactics, injuries, and suspensions have all influenced the blue half of Manchester.
Stupid suspensions like that of Sergio Aguero’s against Chelsea, poor squad choices like Pablo Zabaleta playing in midfield and failures in the transfer market have created a poor run of form for Manchester City and created speculation that Guardiola may not be in England for long.
With poor defending at the heart of it all, most of the heat has been directed at Guardiola’s decision to replace long time Manchester City and England goalkeeper Joe Hart with former Barcelona keeper Claudio Bravo.
Brought in to satisfy Pep’s need for a goalkeeper who can begin the play by sending the ball out to players with his feet, Bravo has been nothing short of a disaster at City letting in howlers and often creating trouble with his poor passing.
City’s other recent signings have also been disappointing with John Stones not living up to the considerable hype of being the next John Terry, and German starlet Leroy Sane having only made nine appearances this season.
Guardiola has not made a habit of coaching at one club for very long and recent comments to the media have raised speculation he may not remain at the Etihad Stadium for too long. Having conceded that City are already out of the title race he has also refused to comment on his future at the club saying only that the team’s performances will be reviewed at the end of the season.
Facing the stiffest league competition available in world football, Guardiola now faces somewhat of an uphill battle to turn City’s season around and solidify a top-four spot. Failure to qualify for the Champions League will surely mean the end for the Spaniard at mega-rich Manchester City.
An almost unthinkable notion at the start of the season is now a real possibility with City sitting fifth in the standings only two points behind resurgent Manchester United and still only an outsider to win the Champions League this season.
Urgent signings to bolster the defence and midfield in the January transfer window will be vital to ensure a top-four spot. Guardiola appears unlikely to abandon the possession-centric tactics that served him well at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but he also does not currently have anywhere near the level of players he had at those two clubs to implement such a gameplan.
In the three losses City have had in their last seven games, they have conceded nine goals and will next face a rampant Tottenham who have scored nineteen goals in their last six league game.
City are capable of outscoring any team in the Premier League, but will need a major change in personnel to keep the goals out as it is more likely Guardiola will fall on his proverbial ‘tika-taka’ sword than change his tactics to suit the components he has at his disposal.
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