Two months ago, Pep Guardiola traveled to Italy to a beautiful past. In Brescia during an international break in October he met Roberto Baggio and Luca Toni, among others, for dinner. There was red wine and stories from when the trio played together in northern Italy more than 20 years ago. Toni later jokingly complained on Instagram that Guardiola had ruined his job as a penalty area striker for a while with his false nine idea. In the short video you could see a very relaxed Manchester City coach laughing, perhaps it was because of the surroundings.
From his time in Brescia, Guardiola retained his outstanding Italian to this day as well as a certain love for calcio and the country, you can tell in the little things. For example, how he commented on the latest defeat in the biggest crisis of his career.
When he sat down at the press conference in Turin on Wednesday evening after a 2-0 defeat against Juventus, the now familiar defense followed. In English, he said the phrases that could now be recorded and played twice a week in response to everything: “I love my team, the way we play, and no one will convince me otherwise.”
Short, defiant answers are a side effect of this crisis in Manchester City and the everyday life of British reporters, who now ask their questions just as briefly and succinctly. It took the polite Italian journalists and their precise formulations to gain more insight. Shortly afterwards, in Italian, Guardiola lost himself in a lengthy explanation about why he would continue to fervently defend his team. It was now about the calcio itself, the game, the passing lanes, the crosses, the missing shots – and at the end of his defense Guardiola came to a conclusion: “Importano le vittorie”, only victories are important in football: “And as long as If we don’t win, my arguments are just excuses.”
:“Maybe I deserve to be fired.”
Manchester City lost the sixth of the last seven games in Liverpool, coach Pep Guardiola was given a swansong by the fans in Anfield – and reacted sensitively.
Manchester City slipped into a somewhat explosive situation on Wednesday evening, during Guardiola’s second trip to Italy this autumn. In 22nd place in the table City are currently in the Champions League and have picked up just eight points in the competition this season, six of which came from wins against Slovan Bratislava and Sparta Prague. The problems against the better opponents can be seen in the results: Inter Milan (0:0), Sporting Lisbon (1:4), Feyenoord Rotterdam (3:3) and now Juventus Turin have contributed to a situation in which only in… Two finals against Paris Saint-Germain and FC Brugge in January will decide whether we advance.
Only the victories are important, and Guardiola is expressly right about that. In the case of his arguments or excuses, however, not always: Of course, it is not just a crisis of results that his team finds itself in. Juventus Turin showed on Wednesday evening that City does not beat itself, but can be brought to its knees using relatively simple methods.
Erling Haaland has 18 ball contacts, he doesn’t find any connection to the offensive
Their coach Thiago Motta is known as a tactician, but he didn’t dare to make any spectacular experiments, instead relying on the basic virtues that currently characterize his team: excellent defensive discipline – and a feel for space when counter-attacking. In the first half, this resulted in a wait-and-see game of chess on the lawn, but in the second, Turin took advantage of its opportunities: a storm run by central defender Federico Gatti, including a side kick, caused confusion in the City defense, at the end of which Dusan Vlahovic scored with a header to take the lead (53. Minute). Twenty minutes later, it was a combination of substitutes that decided the game: former Schalke player Weston McKennie first set up Timothy Weah with an opening pass and then scored from his cross to make it 2-0, this time with a successful side-footed kick.
These goals showed twice that one of the core characteristics of Guardiola’s team is currently no longer effective: Manchester City is still a perhaps somewhat unsettled but still outstanding team in possession – but also an team without the necessary intensity in the backward movement that is in in the past may have been even more crucial than the offensive miracles. But they were also missing in Turin: Erling Haaland’s 18 ball contacts and one shot on goal can be used as arguments for the fact that City is currently not finding a way to include its striker in the offensive actions.
In terms of football, Guardiola now has to find answers to this. Time is of the essence, Manchester United are coming to the derby this weekend. And yet you couldn’t shake the feeling that this second trip to Italy was worth it in a way for Guardiola.
In Italy you could once again observe him not just as a coach, but as a person. He met Luca Toni again in Turin before the game for the broadcaster Prime Video: this time there was no red wine in front of the two of them, but there were cameras there. However, the otherwise often secretive Guardiola seemed to forget this. He reported on his inner life, about his poor sleep rhythm and his equally poor digestion. He seemed honest and open – not defiant and disgruntled.
Toni asked at one point whether he believed that he could still win the Champions League title this season: “I don’t know, Luca,” replied Guardiola: “To be honest, I think it will be a full season great difficulties will remain.”
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