Pep Guardiola’s Ideas Are Significantly Improving Manchester City Already

Manchester City all but confirmed their place in this season’s Champions League after a 5-0 play-off win over Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday. Just two games into his reign, Pep Guardiola has masterminded the club’s biggest-ever away win in Europe.

This was a performance that demonstrated why City officials waited patiently for three years for Guardiola to become available. The inertia and lack of intensity that ruined their last campaign has been stamped out immediately, and City are playing with a freedom and brilliance they’ve rarely managed over the last two seasons. The new manager has had an immediate impact.

Raheem Sterling dazzled again, assisting two goals and using his pace to cause untold problems for the Steaua defence, and Sergio Aguero managed to score a hat-trick and miss two penalties.

The gulf in class was frightening. Steaua huffed and puffed, but City simply toyed with their opponents. It could have been 10.

This was a performance that saw pace, quick incisive passing and an insatiable appetite to attack the opposition. It will take time for Guardiola’s ideas to be fully realised, with City still missing some key recruits that will further transform the side, but the Catalan manager has had an obvious effect already.

Forget the tactics that were pored over after the win over Sunderland, this was about players who feel free to express themselves and play their natural, instinctive game. The movement, the passing, the desire to win the ball back—all the hallmarks of Guardiola sides were there.

Steaua were forgiving opponents. They were disjointed and slower than City—despite their league season being three weeks old already—and enjoyed far less possession. When they did get the ball, they couldn’t match City’s potency, producing very little in the final third.

But that should not detract from City’s display. Some of the football they played was sublime. Their fourth, in particular, saw them cut Steaua apart with a period of sustained possession, working the ball from left to right and bamboozling the Romanians, who just couldn’t get a foot on the ball. Then Nolito and Aguero exchanged a neat one-two, and the Argentinian finished with aplomb.

This was football at its most fluent, and City fans should be excited about the prospect of what Guardiola can achieve.

These @FCSteaua fans are class – clapping #MCFC off, and getting applauded back by the players.

— Stuart Brennan (@StuBrennanMEN) August 16, 2016

Sterling was perhaps the standout player. The 21-year-old was struggling towards the end of last season—out of the starting XI and looking completely shorn of confidence. His time at this summer’s European Championships with …

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