This City team can only be compared to Pep’s Barcelona
The amount of control this City team exhibits in a league known for its physical toughness, extreme competitveness and fixture congestion makes me think that we are even better than Pep’s Barca, which is considered as one of the greatest club teams ever. This statement might infuriate many Barca fans, but the more you think about it, the more you realize that this argument actually makes more sense than you might think at first.
City don’t have a standout superstar like Barca
As soon as you think about that Barca team, a few players like Messi, Iniesta, Xavi and Puyol come to your mind. At the forefront of that Barca team is Messi. Without him, they might not have achieved as much as they did. He was the cutting edge in that relentless Barca machine. The way Mourinho’s Inter knocked Barca out by containing Messi was a prime example of how that Barca team could be stopped by reducing Messi’s influence.
In contrast, this City team is not reliant on a single player, in fact we do not have anyone who can guarantee us more than 15 goals a season. Look at the amount of time KDB has been out due to injuries and we still didn’t miss a heart beat. We went on an incredible run and won the 2018-19 title without KDB. It is quite impossible to think of Barca going on a similar run without Messi or Xavi.
This City team is special in the regard that the super star status goes to the entire team and not a single player. We could win all the trophies that barca won but none of our players could win the Balon d’ or. This is the ultimate compliment you could pay to this team.
City are much more positionally fluid than Barca
Pep’s Barca had a stand out formation in and out of possesion. You knew what they were going to do, but could not stop them due to supremely gifted players like Messi. This City team plays multiple formations, even within a single game. You rarely see a City player take on 3-4 players and score a goal. In fact, Pep hates such kind of Individualistic play. The fact that this City team defeats opponents by pure positional football and intelligence without the dependence on a single player makes me feel that we are already above Barca even without winning the Champions league.
The ability of this City team to march on irrespective of who plays in it, shows us the strength of the entire system than dependence on certain superstars like Barca did. Even at this point of time, i feel that this City team is already at the level of Pep’s Barca
