Real Madrid defeat hands Pep Guardiola a rare opportunity with Man City squad

Since the Manchester City squad was overhauled for the 2017/18 season, there have only been five first-team players signed across the last four summer transfer windows, meaning that it has been essentially the same squad working under the manager.

That has worked to their advantage in subsequent seasons, meaning Pep Guardiola has been through nearly every situation with his players at least once.

It helped in the pandemic season for instance when training was limited, with the coach being able to trust the group to pull through and carry out his instructions to win the league again. And as Liverpool, Arsenal, Thomas Tuchel and Ralf Rangnick (albeit not yet Chelsea or Manchester United) have also concluded, stability is the best platform for progress.

Also read: Guardiola has already shown Man City how to overcome Champions League heartbreak

The last few days have been a shock though, circumstances in which Guardiola has almost never been in before at the club. How do you recover from the emotional and physical drain from their Champions League heartbreak when they cannot afford any slips in their Premier League title fight?

It has happened once in the previous five seasons, in 2019 when the Blues suffered that cruel knockout against Tottenham and had to raise themselves at the weekend to play the same opponents knowing that Liverpool were only a point behnd them. Given City won the title, they were obviously able to do it - but Guardiola will be in unknown territory if he tries to adopt the same strategy to bounce back.

It wasn't exactly that the manager gave his squad the silent treatment, he did have words of encouragement in his own challenging way. However, not Guardiola does not like to intrude too much on the