Manchester City’s New Definition of Failure: Anything Short of Three Trophies
By Joshua Robinson May 2, 2023 9:37 am ET MANCHESTER, England—From the moment Manchester City introduced Pep Guardiola as manager in the summer of 2016, the club knew it was guaranteed trophies. City was combining one of the most innovative coaches in the game with the brute force of unparalleled spending on talent. Seven gilded years later, Guardiola’s team is proving yet again how irresistible that mix can be. As the season enters its final month, Man City is just a handful of victories away from a sweep of three major trophies: the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the first Champions League in the club’s history. The only surprise is that it took this long. “I know that i
MANCHESTER, England—From the moment Manchester City introduced Pep Guardiola as manager in the summer of 2016, the club knew it was guaranteed trophies. City was combining one of the most innovative coaches in the game with the brute force of unparalleled spending on talent.
Seven gilded years later, Guardiola’s team is proving yet again how irresistible that mix can be. As the season enters its final month, Man City is just a handful of victories away from a sweep of three major trophies: the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the first Champions League in the club’s history.
The only surprise is that it took this long.
“I know that if we don’t win the treble, I know that if we don’t win the Premier League, the season will be a failure,” Guardiola said, referring to the pressure on his performance. Getting knocked out of the NBA playoffs may not be a failure to Giannis Antetokounmpo, but Guardiola feels the heat to win several titles in the same season.
By beating Fulham last weekend, the club leapfrogged Arsenal in the league standings and now sits one point ahead in first place, having played one fewer match. City is also looking forward to an FA Cup final against Manchester United, and is gearing up for a home-and-away semifinal in Europe against Real Madrid. For the first time all year, City’s entire destiny is within its control.
“It’s in our hands,” Guardiola said after beating Arsenal 4-1 at home last Wednesday. “This is the best way to approach the last six, seven games of the season.”
Ever since the club was acquired by a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family in 2008, campaigns like this one have been the ultimate target. There have been major titles before under the current owners—two FA Cups and a staggering six league titles, to be precise—but the top prize in European soccer has so far eluded them in the added randomness of knockout tournaments. The closest City came was the 2021 Champions League final, which it lost 1-0 to Chelsea.
’I know that if we don’t win the treble, I know that if we don’t win the Premier League, the season will be a failure,’ said Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
Photo: PETER CZIBORRA/Action Images via Reuters
But Guardiola in 2023 is far from the same coach he was in 2016. He was hired at the time to link up with a pair of Catalan executives he knew from his widely successful stint in charge of Barcelona between 2008 and 2012. The remit was to play beautiful soccer again and reproduce that success.
Two factors soon forced Guardiola to adapt his approach. The first was the nature of the Premier League—the speed and power of English soccer meant he needed to speed up the way his teams played. The second arrived last summer in the form of a 6-foot-4 Norwegian named Erling Haaland.
Signed from Borussia Dortmund, Haaland was undoubtedly one of the most prolific strikers in Europe. Yet his style also represented one of Guardiola’s greatest conundrums. The strapping, explosive Haaland could do many things well, but passing the ball, subtle tactics, and nifty buildup play—the hallmarks of a Guardiola team—weren’t among them. Here was a jackhammer on a tray of surgical instruments.
As it turned out, a jackhammer could do the job too. Haaland now has 50 goals across all competitions.
In order to make the most of Haaland’s strengths, City shortened its passing sequences in the buildup and leaned more on his ability to win the ball in the air or hold on to it in forward areas. Against Arsenal, the approach was especially clear as City responded to the visitors’ man-marking by hitting longer passes to stretch the field and use Haaland as a magnet for coverage.
“The big man brings goals—he attracts players,” City defender Kyle Walker said. “When you’ve got the big man up front you need to utilize him…“Erling is big, he’s tall, strong and he’s quick. We need to use that to our advantage.”
Pulling that off against one of the most disciplined sides in England is easier said than done. And for that, Guardiola credits the most reliable player of Manchester City tenure: Kevin De Bruyne.
“I had more freedom today to go where the space was, depending who was putting pressure from them,” De Bruyne said after the game
His understanding of Haaland’s movement means that he has teed up his teammate for eight league goals this season. Their partnership is just one short of the Premier League’s single-season record. As Guardiola pointed out, Haaland scored goals before playing with De Bruyne and De Bruyne created assists before playing with Haaland. But over the course of the season, they developed the kind of natural understanding that can only be discovered with time on the pitch.
“The game belongs to them,” Guardiola said. “I didn’t teach them how to find each other…When Kevin has the ball, Erling knows he can run and Kevin will give it.”
Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring a goal.
Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
That Haaland is still running so well and De Bruyne is still finding him so sharply in May speaks to Man City’s other crushing advantage. Its expensively assembled squad depth has allowed it to manage players’ minutes like no one else can, particularly in a season that was interrupted for five weeks by the World Cup in November and December.
Sixteen different City players have racked up at least 900 minutes in the Premier League this season, compared with just 12 for Arsenal. The flip side is that only four City players have had to spend at least 2,200 league minutes on the pitch. That number at Arsenal is nine. So it was no surprise last week when Arsenal’s mainstays were caught on the back foot by City’s relentless approach.
“Obviously having the World Cup in between was very challenging, but it was for everyone,” midfielder Ilkay Gundogan said. “I just feel like in one moment it just clicked after the World Cup and since then we have gone on a run. It was exactly the time that we needed it.”
Write to Joshua Robinson at [email protected]
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