DEFEATS disturb Pep Guardiola. They torment him, burrowing deep into his psyche where they fester and agitate but mostly they confound. How did this happen? This isn’t supposed to happen. In such moments he is a highly qualified engineer unable to find fault with an everyday malfunctioning toaster or perhaps a plumber struggling to make sense of a leaking tap.
It drip, drip, drips through the nights, the background noise to increasingly fevered dreams. It must be something simple. It must be something overlooked. It would drive him mad if he wasn’t already so in the best possible, brilliant way.
Losing to Crystal Palace; well that one can be released into the ether. Five shots faced, three conceded; one of them an absolute worldy. These things happen. Even a perfectionist knows that sustained perfection simply isn’t possible and occasionally life will play its merry pranks. But Liverpool away last January, with the half-hour collapse that was only half self-inflicted.
Pep “I’m scared of Liverpool’s front three, Salah-Firmino-Mane” pic.twitter.com/7wIOObJP2Q
— The Pep (@GuardiolaTweets) August 18, 2018
That one settled and subsequently unsettled. So much so that Guardiola committed the cardinal sin of any driven genius: he doubted; he second-guessed and over-thought and in the corresponding Champions League fixture later that season he positioned players out of their comfort zone and City were dismantled for a second time. It led to him publicly admitting twice-over that Liverpool frightened him and this from someone who values the importance of psychology and plays the media better than almost anyone.
Then there was Wigan in the cup, a surprising loss that fell in between those catastrophes. Granted, like Palace, this was a freak result. City enjoyed 82% of the possession that evening. They manufactured 29 shots and forced 15 corners. Yet there was a worrying aspect to this one. His team got hustled and great teams don’t get hustled especially to opponents two leagues and several universes below them.
We can only imagine to what extent the Wigan defeat niggled away at him, even as City resumed their imperious league form, just as we can only imagine how Pep Guardiola felt this morning as he arrived at the Etihad Campus following a victory over his arch nemesis and then a comprehensive cup battering of a lower league side. Refreshed would be my guess; refreshed from a sound, dreamless sleep with that pesky tap finally silenced.
How it came to be silenced is complicated in the first instance and involves a solution four days later that’s as straightforward as they come. Against Liverpool a combination of bravery and conservatism was committed to on the flanks with City’s full-backs barely venturing beyond the halfway line, a strategy also employed to great effect at Anfield back in October in a goalless stalemate that revealed that this ferocious and relentless Liverpool team can be nullified.
As for Sane and Sterling, they were put toe-to-toe with their opposing full-backs in individual duels that seemed separate from the game going on around them. Sane got the better of Alexander-Arnold, Sterling drew with Robertson, and that’s a meaningful advantage right there. Really though the key was Bernardo Silva. Deployed as a second pivot in the 0-0 thus solving the previous problem of Fernandinho being exposed and targeted here a draw wouldn’t suffice so the Portuguese dervish was asked to be the pivot, creator-in-chief, and first line of press and truly he was everywhere and everything to this impossibly important win.
To run eight and a half miles – equating to nearly a mile every ten minutes time and time again – is impressive enough and that’s before you get to the Liverpool fans’ assertion that it was done Teresa May-style through a field of wheat. Those miles incidentally took him out of David Silva’s shadow forever more.
♂️ Most distance covered in a #PremierLeague game this season
1⃣ Bernardo Silva vs Liverpool – 13.7km
2⃣ Bernardo Silva vs Spurs – 13.65km#MCILIV #MCFC pic.twitter.com/ZuObhEoKP8— Unibet (@unibet) January 4, 2019
A matter of days later came Rotherham and this was a scenario Pep had long been waiting for. It helped, of course, that City were still buzzing from their exorcism of last season’s ghost with a scouse accent and it was extremely beneficial too that the quick one-twos on the edge of the box were back in fashion. But really this one-sided affair all stemmed from the strength in Pep’s line-up. A lesson learned.
Yes, there were eight changes but Walker and De Bruyne were recalled against the Millers – from exile and injury respectively – whereas versus Wigan both were rested. Pertinently too Ederson stayed in nets and a glance in ignorance at the eleven would have you believe Burnley or Brighton stood in City’s way, not a team battling for Championship survival.
Prior to kick-off and carrying on post-game many on social media were taken aback by the familiar selection with some even viewing it as a negative; a missed opportunity to blood talent from the academy. Perhaps they forgot about Wigan, the inky blot on Pep’s perfectly precise coaching manual. Perhaps they forgot also that in quiet, private moments ultra-achieving individuals only think of their failings, and what they’d do differently if given half the chance.
Pep Guardiola will sleep easy tonight, just like he did last time because two rare demons have firmly been put to bed.
