Pep Guardiola Up to the Manchester City Challenge with Tactical Flexibility

For some time towards the end of Manuel Pellegrini’s reign at Manchester City, the fans could look at the Chilean’s team selection and worry about whether their side would be able to take maximum points. The concerns never stemmed from a lack of quality in their own team, but rather the system the manager was using and the tactics that he had in mind for the fixture.

At the beginning of his reign, picking his strongest side and expecting them to wipe the floor with their opposition was a viable option. In 2013-14, nobody really knew how to deal with a quick-breaking City team, which had an impressive strike partnership between two lethal attackers—Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo.

Midway through Pellegrini’s second year in charge, though, he was sussed out. From that point onwards, games became a lot harder for his side to win—opponents seemed far more disciplined and City appeared to find it much harder to break them down.

There’s a sense of irony in the calls for new manager Pep Guardiola to have a so-called “Plan B”—often translated as using a long ball instead of trying to work the openings—because the Catalan has displayed a willingness to deal with his opposition on a game-by-game basis in a manner that Pellegrini often didn’t.

The classic example of the Chilean’s trust in his own players came in 2015. City, through to the Champions League knockout phase by the skin of their teeth, faced Barcelona for a second year running. Pellegrini played 4-4-2 and left so much space in the middle of the pitch it was a miracle that City weren’t further than 2-0 down by the time he changed it.

What made it a strange decision was that, 12 months earlier against the same opposition, Pellegrini had strangled the game and played five in midfield. That had worked until an unfortunate red card for Martin Demichelis.

Towards the end of his reign, Pellegrini continued to make similar mistakes. He seemed oblivious to the idea that Liverpool would press his defenders high up the pitch and did nothing to help them out, resulting in a 4-1 home defeat in 2015. Later that season, Leicester City’s breakaway style ripped his team apart time and again—while he stood on the touchline, watching it happen.

In his first few months in the job, Guardiola has shown how he’s able to adapt his team to his opposition. Of course, it’s not always worked—the idea to draw Tottenham Hotspur out and exploit the gaps behind was a good one, but the home side were just too good on the day.

That style has worked brilliantly in other games—with notable breakaway goals against Bournemouth and …

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