The adage goes that you need to have a certain profile to play as a Center Back in a Pep Guardiola team. You just need to look at the kind of Center Backs Pep has worked with over the course of his managerial career to understand the character and courage it takes to defend wide open spaces at the back. Despite having fit backup center backs on the bench, Pep...
Lodi signed for Nottingham Forest….What??…. I just could not believe the information. I had to double check it. It just didn’t make sense that a player who was playing regular Champions League football would join a team that was not even guaranteed top division survival. I know it’s just a loan deal, but again it defies logic to me. He is not even on that high of a wages for...
The matches between Newcastle and Crystal Palace have a lot in common. But the one thing that delivered victory in the Palace game was Pep Guardiola’s change of formation to a back 3 and throwing all of his attackers on to the pitch. This might seem like an obvious move from Pep, specially when we have been chasing the game against a rigid Palace defense. But, when he made those...
This was a match of two contrasting halves. There was frustration on one side and it was followed by great joy at the end. The second half felt like you were taken on a thrilling ride where every moment gave you goosebumps. It was just a wonderful experience that cannot be described in words at all Haaland is here for his footballing education The reason why Haaland chose City is...
As Zaha ran through on goal and put Palace 1-0 up, Pep was looking high and deep into the sky. Hang on, this is not a prediction article of the next match against Palace. This is what has been happening since the last 4 years. Be it under Viera or even Hodgson, the script as well as the chief protagonist have been the same throughout. If someone looked only at...
Even though it was a friendly match, the tactical battle was intense between Xavi and Pep. The objective to create numerical advantage in the midfield was at the core of how both the teams were set up. I thought Barca played in an unusual shape and got the better of us early on. They were able to pass through us easily. But Pep adapted and we looked much more comfortable...
If you glance back at Walker’s career, you will find great defensive battles at every nook and corner of his story. The fantastic part about these battles are that he has rarely lost any one of them. Wingers around the world still fear running at Walker. They don’t dare to attempt 1v1 against him. You don’t have to go much further than Walker’s battle with Vinicius in the Champion’s League...
As the first half was drawing to a close at St James Park, Pep was just not able to withstand the lack of control on the game. After all, Pep prides himself on the ability of his teams to control the vast majority of moments in a game of football. Specially in the last 30 mins of the first half, it seemed as if Newcastle had runners form everywhere. We...
We all know that Pep Guardiola likes to absolutely control everything in a Football match. The amount of detail he puts into the preparation for each match is just out of this world. But, the nature of Football is such that there are moments that you just can’t even predict. Last season’s Champion’s League match against Madrid was an eye-opening example of this. I am not for a moment blaming...
The first game was meant to be all about Haaland announcing himself by tearing up the West Ham defense to bits. It happened exactly according to the script for Haaland. But, the only difference was that he was not the spotlight on the day. In fact, i always believed that Stopping Haaland would be one of the most tiring tactical exercises for managers around the league. But, what Pep did...
