Pep Guardiola Has Turned Manchester City Into The Strongest Team In English Soccer History
Manchester City are now just five – possibly even three – matches from achieving an historic Treble. Not since Sir Alex Ferguson’s legendary Manchester United of 1998/99 has an English team lifted all three major trophies in a single season. This is the history City are chasing.
They are already the strongest team English soccer has ever produced – certainly in the Premier League era. Pep Guardiola’s side have all but retained their Premier League crown following a title race with Arsenal, meaning they will have won three-in-a-row and five of the last championships. Ferguson’s United never achieved that level of dominance.
In the Champions League, Manchester City have swept aside every opponent that has come before them, including defending European champions Real Madrid who were dismantled at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday – Carlo Ancelotti’s team had no answer for City’s brilliance in a comprehensive 4-0 defeat.
Of course, Guardiola has already built one legendary team over the course of his managerial career. His Barcelona side that won two Champions League titles in three seasons between 2009 and 2011 is widely considered the best team to have ever played the sport, but City are setting a new standard in English soccer.
Guardiola has found answers to every question asked of him this season. Erling Haaland’s goal-scoring ability has never been doubted, but the Norwegian’s weakness in possession play meant he required time to be integrated into a structure designed to control the ball. Haaland is now a better player for this process.
Joao Cancelo’s shock departure to Bayern Munich in January left Guardiola short of options in the full back positions, particularly after Oleksandr Zinchenko’s sale to Arsenal in the transfer window before that. But by shifting to a back three and pushing John Stones into central midfield, Guardiola has solved two problems in one, allowing Kevin de Bruyne to Ilkay Gundogan to get closer to Haaland in attack.
As arguably the finest coach of his generation, Guardiola has used Manchester City’s resources to build a team that could stay at the top of the English and European game for a long time to come. Guardiola also has one of the shrewdest front offices in soccer behind him – look at how effectively City have replaced the likes of Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Yaya Toure over the years.
City – who face accusations from the Premier League of financial wrongdoing – still have to cross the line in the Premier League title race and see off Inter and Manchester United in the Champions League and FA Cup finals respectively, but there’s no reason to believe they won’t do to these opponents what they have been doing to teams for the last few months. They are unstoppable.
