Manchester City crowned champions: This might be Pep Guardiola’s best trick yet

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. Photo: Adam Davy/PA

Manchester City may have enjoyed more dramatic title victories but this latest one, their seventh, says more about the quality and adaptability of their manager Pep Guardiola than any that have gone before.

Guardiola, who ended his first season in England trophyless, has more than made up for it since, amassing a haul of silverware which has made City — despite last year’s blip in a campaign in which Liverpool ran riot — the Premier League’s best and most consistent side.

This triumph, sealed when rivals Manchester United lost against Leicester City at Old Trafford to end their own slim hopes of finishing top, is the 31st trophy of an incredible managerial career which has spanned three countries.

The list includes two Champions Leagues and two Fifa Club World Cups, not to mention a hat-trick of league titles at every club he has managed — Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and now City, who still have a Champions League final to play this season.

What marks this latest piece of silverware as special, however, is the circumstances in which it was won.

There were few people betting against champions Liverpool defending their title, having finished 18 points above City last season, a campaign in which Guardiola’s wilting team lost nine times.

But, oh, how the tables have turned.

The current standings show City a remarkable 23 points ahead of the Anfield club, and suggestions that Guardiola had lost his tag as the world’s greatest manager to Jurgen Klopp now look fanciful.

We have learned a lot about the man this year, not least that he is far more adaptable and pragmatic than we thought. We assumed that Guardiola only played one way, the all-out attack, slick, short passing, and high line that made City guaranteed box office, with goals at both ends of the pitch.

But City’s style has been garnished with extra nuance this year, with an awareness that the demands of a pandemic season, in which teams were expected to play three games a week, required something different.

Guardiola has tweaked his tactics, bolstered his defence, been willing to score fewer goals, and left big names on the bench when he needed to — including Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero when he opted to go for a false nine.

Even without an out-and-out striker on the pitch they have won games and conserved enough energy to last the campaign, something that Liverpool simply couldn’t do. Years of heavy metal football weighed heavy in the legs of Klopp’s men, and the champions never found a way to adapt and failed to spot the consequences early enough.

Not so Manchester City. They may have scored ‘only’ 72 goals so far this season — compare that to 95 in 2018-19 and 106 the year before — but in many ways, they have been a better side for it.

Who could possibly have predicted that at this stage of the season Manchester City’s top league scorer would be Ilkay Gundogan with only 12? Or that Sterling would be the only other player in the entire squad to make double figures?

However, there have been other heroes in a title that was won as a team, not through individuals — and that’s a special achievement.

Riyad Mahrez, with nine goals, has become far more influential, finally realising the potential we always knew he had. Phil Foden has emerged as a worthy successor to the departed David Silva, while defenders John Stones and Ruben Dias have been outstanding, with the latter hotly tipped to win Footballer of the Year. Midfielder Rodri has grown in stature and of course Kevin de Bruyne and goalkeeper Ederson have been as good as ever.

Manchester United won’t like to hear it, but the title was won thanks to the kind of managerial nous and precise planning that made Alex Ferguson the best in the world. The Old Trafford legend, over time, learned the knack of carefully planning out an entire season to ensure his players were fit and firing when it really mattered, no matter how many injuries they had endured or how many appearances they had made.

Guardiola has taken on that mantle and it’s no exaggeration to say this latest achievement is right up there with anything he has achieved, ending Liverpool’s hopes that their first title in 30 years would start a dynasty.

“You have to give credit where credit’s due,” admitted former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand who played under Ferguson and watched his former side put out a below-strength side against Leicester to hand the title to their noisy neighbours again.

“After what happened last season Pep went back to the drawing board and fixed things up and they came out flying. They deserve the title no doubt about it.

“Tactically the way he changed things to thicken up the midfield, get more bodies in there and slow things down, not letting it be a basketball match and playing with a false striker, was impressive. It was about possession and strangling the life out of other sides, and there’s no doubt they were the best side.”

There will be more successes ahead for Guardiola, you can be sure of that. But this latest one may well be seen, once the history books are written, as a very special achievement.