Arsenal lost 0-1 to Nottingham Forest, Manchester City won without a fight, and the Premier League was crowned three rounds earlier. This is the fifth time that Manchester City has won the league title under Guardiola’s leadership in six years. If it is combined with coaching Bayern Munich for three years and three championships, Gua Shuai has led the team to win the league title eight times in the past 10 years.
Compared with Bayern in the Bundesliga, La Liga is mostly a battle between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The Premier League has always been the most competitive and changeable one among the top leagues in Europe-until Guashuai coached Manchester City in the summer of 2016. Everyone can’t help wondering, has Manchester City broken the Premier League?
The 52-year-old Guardiola has only coached three teams: the parent team Barcelona, then Bayern and Manchester City. What they have in common is a strong team with both financial resources and strength. Many people criticize that he only knows how to teach giants. The example of Chelsea this season tells us that you can’t do anything without money, but even if you have a lot of money and don’t make good use of it, it won’t achieve the expected results.
League champions stress the stability of standards. Players and teams always have ups and downs throughout the year. How to control the decline time to the shortest and try to get points under poor conditions is all knowledge. One of the biggest characteristics of Manchester City led by Gua Shuai is that the end of the season is particularly tough. Not counting the game against Chelsea on Sunday (May 21st), Manchester City has won 11 consecutive games in the Premier League recently, scoring 33 points. On the contrary, Arsenal, who topped the list for most of the season, scored only 18 points in the last 11 rounds, which made Manchester City win three consecutive championships easily.
Last season, Manchester City and Liverpool fought for the championship until the last minute, and the Red Army’s record at the end of the season was invincible. Manchester City, like Liverpool, lost 10 wins and 2 losses in the last 12 rounds, making it impossible for opponents to catch up. The situation was similar to that of the two teams in the 2018/19 season. Guardiola is a famous manipulation madman. From training to competition, he has to control all the details of the players in the stadium to achieve the desired effect in his mind. His meticulous preparation has achieved three championships in Barcelona La Liga in four years, three championships in Bayern Bundesliga in three years and five championships in Manchester City in six years.
In other words, during his coaching career, only Real Madrid (2011/12) led by Mourinho and Liverpool (2019/20) led by klopp have won league titles from him.
Manchester City not only has the super "plug-in" of Guashuai, but the Blue Moon has monopolized the Premier League and even the local cup in England in recent years, and most of the outside world will point the finger at the unfair resources. After all, backed by the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, the funds seem to be inexhaustible. With a 1 billion-pound army and all the stars in the team, the trophy is readily available, and it has been repeatedly investigated because of the financial fairness clause (FFP), but it is often gone.
No matter what the verdict is, modern football is a resource game in the final analysis. Not to mention Manchester City, Bayern in the Bundesliga, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in Ligue 1, Real Madrid, Barcelona in La Liga, Juventus in Serie A and so on. There will never be absolute fairness in the world. From this season, it can be seen that Chelsea’s financial resources will not be worse than Manchester City’s. In recent seasons, Manchester United’s total salary of players is on par with Manchester City, which is also more than 300 million pounds. Over the years, it has won the Premier League from Guashuai, but it is Liverpool with second-class financial resources. Accusing Manchester City of being too strong just because of the money is too thin and superficial. In football, there are many stupid examples of money. Don’t believe it, look at how much Everton spent and fell into such a field.
Compared with more money, what makes Manchester City more horrible under Guashuai is their endurance. For the Blue Moon to open a new era, Aguero, the hero who won the Premier League for the first time, david silva, the midfielder’s brain, Kong Pani, the captain and the center of defense, and Fernandinho, the once indispensable panacea in the midfield, retired one by one, and the team did not have a low tide like other teams.
After Aguero left the team, Manchester City couldn’t buy Kane last season. Gua Shuai changed his tactics and arranged for De Braune or Gundogan to win the league championship. This season, when we bought Harland, the two sides hit it off, and the Norwegian striker broke all records. Even if the team took the Champions League as the primary goal, it was still three rounds ahead of schedule. Don’t forget that there is another Alvarez who is the same age as Harland in the squad. Fernandinho left the team, and Rodri took it perfectly; Sterling, who used to be a front-line player, was boldly sold by Manchester City to Chelsea, which should be one of the rivals for the title. Jack Grealish, who is worth 100 million pounds, seems to have not been integrated since he joined last season, and has made a lot of money this season.
In recent seasons, Manchester City has made almost no mistakes in transfer transactions. Apart from the above-mentioned examples, it has not yet sold striker Jesus for half a billion pounds this season, and sold Zincenko to Arsenal at a high price, making another profit. The most horrible example, however, has to mention Cancelo. The Portuguese defender was the most dazzling player in Manchester City’s array last season. Apart from excellent defense, his strong assists were unforgettable, and in many cases it was the starting point for the team to launch an offensive. This season, it was rumored that Guashuai was at odds with him. He was loaned to Bayern in the middle of the season, which had no impact on the team at all. Even kyle walker’s right-back position was once hidden. Guashuai put Akanji, a central defender whose performance in the Bundesliga was only average, on the right-back.
Even the best player of last season can easily give up, and everything is under the control of Gua Shuai. Manchester City’s endurance is really terrible. All teams need to change their blood. Liverpool, which once had a good time with Manchester City, has also fallen into the transition period this season. Manchester City is under Gua Shuai, but there is no such problem at all. Every position is filled by young people. If unfortunately, it is not available for the time being, Guashuai can reliably modify tactics to make up for it, which is a luxury that other teams do not have.
Yes, with more money and Guardiola, the Premier League, which used to have more variables, was really "played badly" by the Blue Moon to a certain extent. The league title is no longer won by which teams, but only how to fall out of Manchester City at most. Of course, water can carry a boat and overturn it. The biggest advantage of Manchester City is not money, but Guardiola.
Manchester City has the opportunity to replicate the achievements of Manchester United in the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup in 1999 this season. As always, Gua Shuai is noncommittal about the future. He led Barcelona for 4 years, Bayern for 3 years, and coached Manchester City for the seventh year this season, which is the longest time in history. I believe it has something to do with his desire to win the Champions League for teams outside Barcelona. If he hopes to beat Inter Milan in the Champions League final and lead Manchester City to the top of Europe for the first time, it is not impossible for him to take a break. Without Guashuai, Manchester City may not collapse by unlimited money alone, but it will certainly not be as invincible as it is now.
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