The man accumulates 33 titles and between now and June 10 he can add two more, but that may not be the most important thing. The man, Pep Guardiola, was crowned champion of the Premier League this Saturdayand has been revolutionizing football since mid-2008 he began to conduct his first orchestra, the Barcelona of Messi, Iniesta and Xavi, until today, with a Manchester City that painted blue the total football that was once orange and that is two games away from winning the FA Cup and the Champions League (which would be a a treble similar to the one he achieved in 2009 with Barcelona). Or none, which is unlikely.
"Since he won more than anyone else, he convinced the pragmatists; as he plays better than anyone else, he seduced the demanding," wrote Jorge Valdano in one of his recent columns for the newspaper El País. He also pointed out that the coach born 52 years ago in Sampedor is a "unit of measurement of current football" and that "the old is still renewed and is called Guardiola".
He continues to win and continues to revolutionize, but Equal to Guardiola does not lack detractors. There are those who point out that he does not win the Champions League without Messi (it is true) and even those who say that he ruined football because everyone wants to copy him and many do it badly (absurd). Talent irritates, annoys; and Pep Guardiola is an immensely talented coach.
Pep Guardiola won his fifth Premier League with Manchester City. REUTERS/Molly Darlington/File Photo
The last revolution of the coach who put LionelMessi of "false nine", who in Bayern Munich came to play with five strikers (almost a tribute to the 2-3-5 of the forties) and who turned English football accustomed to goalkeepers taking long towards the big nine making the one who wears gloves an active participant in the exit below, the last revolution, we know, is called John Stones.
The central defender who for years carried the weight of the 55 million pounds that his transfer cost is now a defender who drives the 3-2-4-1 that gave an unforgettable exhibition especially in the first half against Real Madrid (4-0) for the semifinal of the Champions League.
Stones and Rodri are the owners of the midfield, they manage the exit and generate the most important thing in the positional game that represents Guardiola: look for the free man and win the back to the opponents who press. Then, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gündogan, Jack Grealish and above Erling Haaland are responsible for billing that superiority in a game of surgical precision of passes and search for internal corridors that disarms any defense.
Pep Guardiola won his fifth Premier League with Manchester City. Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
The exit at the bottom, which Pep confesses to having stolen from Ricardo La Volpe in Mexico, has left its mark on football this century. Almost all teams try to do it, with greater (see Gabriel Milito's Argentinos) or less efficiency (many). What some do not quite understand is that it is not an aesthetic tool: it is the key to positional play, Guardiola's brand. It's not fulbito, it's football at its finest. But it has its risks.
This year the Catalan coach sought to increase the superiority in the midfield and that is why he sought to add one more player. He tried young Rico Lewis, as he had done with Phlipp Lahm at Bayern. A side added to the middle, which also guaranteed a toll in case of rival counterattack. Two games later, against Liverpool, for the date 29, it was Stones' turn. And everything closed.
Another key in Guardiola's style manual is possession. "Someday I will coach a small team with which it will be impossible to win anything because we will not have Messi or have the weight of history, as in Bayern, nor will we have money to sign Sané or Ederson (now it would be Haaland), but that day the ball will remain ours, I swear," he told Pep one day in 2018 to a colleague, tired of certain criticisms.
Pep Guardiola won his fifth Premier League with Manchester City. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
The ball is Pep's and the leagues too. In long championships, Guardiola's teams show implausible supremacy. Of 14 contested, he won 11 (this Saturday he completed the current one with Manchester City). He won three out of four with Barcelona, three out of three with Bayern Munich and five out of seven with City. And their titles are distributed as follows: 14 with Barcelona, 7 with Bayern and 12 in Manchester.
They will say that he directs stars and that he has a checkbook left over, data that are true but that he has shared with Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United, for example. They will say that he has not won the Champions League, since 2011, without Messi. Indisputable, at least until June 10.
But the forms, the game, its author teams, its stamp, are as strong as the numbers. "We play for the fans, for them to be happy," Pep once said. And the City fans, and those who join for pleasure, are happy. City won the third consecutive league title, something that had not happened in the Premier League since neighboring Manchester won it in the 2008/2009 season. Until Guardiola arrived in England, United, Chelsea and even Leicester City took turns with the consecrations. Until Guardiola arrived in England, City had won four Premier Leagues and now has nine.
Pep Guardiola won his fifth Premier League with Manchester City. REUTERS/Molly Darlington
Pep arrived at City and in the first season (2016/17) he made his worst campaign: he finished third. In the next one he broke all records: he was the first to reach 100 points in the history of the Premier League, he took the maximum difference to the second (18, to Manchester United) and converted 106 goals (21 were from Kun Agüero). All this after winning 18 consecutive matches.
In the current one he was almost always behind Arsenal (lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forrest) led by his former field assistant Mikel Arteta. Eleven victories in a row ended up concretizing the change of command. He will not be the champion with the best numbers, at most he will reach 94 points, down from 100 in 20017/18 and 98 in 2018/19.
It is that the team took longer than usual to find its best version, the one we are seeing, the one that makes it the best team in the world, whether or not it wins the two titles it has at its disposal.
