Maximiliano Uria
05/07/2021 8:29 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 05/07/2021 8:29 AM
If Pep Guardiola is not
the most revolutionary coach in history
, he is undoubtedly the last 20 years. No other coach has invented so much in a football in which it is said that everything is invented. Historians will talk about questions that have already been tried in other times and they will be right. But now
Pep's new revolution is to play without strikers
because the striker is the empty space to be occupied. Thus, Manchester City plays with 11 footballers plus space as an extra player. Perhaps that is why he will play in the Champions League final, on May 29 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, and will stay with the Premier League sooner rather than later.
It is probable that inside Guardiola recognizes the exact moment when the lamp caught on him - or the apple fell on his head - and he decided to play without attackers. He is known for his preference for the good foot ruffles. The story of the night in April 2009 in which the Catalan DT summoned Lionel Messi to his offices in Barcelona to explain that he was going to play a
false 9
against Real Madrid is also known.
"Guardiola changed the system and told Henry to play between central and lateral and Eto'o between central and lateral. Pep had realized that Madrid's central defenders never came out to pressure the number nine of any team," he
later said. Xavi Hernandez.
The duel ended in a 6-2 victory for Barcelona with a double from La
Pulga
.
From the false 9 to the 9 that Guardiola and Messi are not together in the last excursion of the Catalan DT to the final of the Champions League.
Photo: AFP
A decade had to insist Guardiola to reach a new Champions final
since he won it in 2011 with Barcelona against Manchester United.
He couldn't in his three seasons at Bayern Munich and neither in the first four with City.
To achieve it this year, as he recognized, it
took a wallet and work
.
"People believe that it is easy, that I have to reach the final because of what I did in the past. But getting here is incredibly difficult. Of course we invested money when the new leaders arrived 10 years ago, but it is not only that. If you want to see that it is only money, look at it like this, but there is a lot of work behind the scenes. A lot of people working and supporting. In the last 10 years we have won 4 Premier Leagues, that means a lot
, "Pep explained.
But this City differs from that Barcelona of the
false 9
because it plays without pure attackers.
In the culé team, Henry, Eto'o and Messi shared attack, three forwards by nature.
Pep's revolution was to dispense with forwards to populate the field with midfielders and launch them on the attack to occupy the places that previously belonged to the forwards.
The English team usually play with a containment midfielder -Fernandinho or Rodri- and ahead of them with good midfielders, species of hooks with different characteristics, such as De Bruyne, Gundogan, Foden, Mahrez and Silva.
Riyad Mahrez celebrates his first goal against PSG alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva, three creatives who occupy space and often end up as center-forwards.
Photo: REUTERS / Phil Noble
Guardiola changed the attack because the team defended badly
. There is another revolutionary question: to modify a defensive aspect, Pep moves the offensive. Before, City defended with two central markers plus the containment midfielder. And it was unbalanced. The new idea of the Catalan was not to let the attack on side Kyle Walker, of remarkable physical condition, pass the attack. It reaches the middle of the field and Walker stops to stay guarding the centrals. It was not bad for City: in the 13 Champions League games, of which they won 12 and drew 1, they scored just 5 goals and converted 25.
How does City attack?
Mahrez, the only midfielder with a fixed position, plays wide open to the right. The left back can climb the band to widen the team, if it is Oleksandr Zinchenko, or close to generate play, if it is Joao Cancelo. If the starter is the Portuguese, the amplitude in the left sector is generated by Phil Foden, that youthful with an elegant left-hander and who seems to be in the air. Bernardo Silva is a kind of right inside that is associated a lot with Mahrez, while De Bruyne acts as a hook and moves through the center of the attack. From further behind, the German Gundogan appears. All these players are the ones who go on the attack to fill the vacancy of the forwards. Because that is Pep's new revolution: 9 is space.
