Pep Guardiola must win Champions League with Manchester City to show he did not peak at Barcelona

Pep Guardiola has yet to win the Champions League with any club other than Barcelona, and while he will always be remembered as a great, he may have already peaked. The early stuff is usually the best. When it comes to albums, everything Amnesiac onwards has been nothing but diminishing returns where Radiohead are concerned.

The Shield was wonderful, but Kurt Sutter’s efforts with Sons of Anarchy were dreadful. Wes Anderson has written himself into a single, bloodless, emotionless conceit, less a director than a vehicle for a font and a tracking shot. All of these people are clearly far more talented than your average football blogger wondering about the potential flawed genius of Guardiola, but the point holds.

Ad/> Guardiola arrived on the pitch, and we were relentlessly told that he had redefined football. He got defensive midfielders to stand slightly closer to central defenders than usual. He decided that full-backs should be attacking.

He made sure his teams tried to keep possession. And he made sure that his goalkeepers could contribute with the ball at their feet. Premier League'Excellent from first minute' — Guardiola praises City approach in derby win over United06/03/2022 AT 19:55 Perhaps it is fairest to say that Guardiola was the man who was able to put some exceptional players together to get exceptional results.

Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Thierry Henry and David Villa is the basis of an excellent team but their manager got them to commit to relentless physical effort, tactical awareness that would mentally drain most players, and the steel and nerves to trust their ability above everything else. And, it worked brilliantly. Three Ligas, two Champions League, hundreds of