Ian Cheeseman: Forever Blue

Pep Guardiola’s style of football is to dominate possession, when things are going the way he wants, his Manchester City team have up to 80% of the ball.

The philosophy is that if the opposition don’t have much possession, they’ll have very few chances to score and will snatch at those opportunities if they come along.

City pass the ball around constantly, often with the first touch, but for most of the time they prioritise possession over risk. Kevin De Bruyne is given licence to try the defence splitting passes when he sees the chance and of course he’s the best in the World at that.

When Pep’s team loses the ball they swarm all over their opponents to try to win it back as quickly as possible, which is why you often see teams trying to bypass midfield with balls over the top to try and catch City on the counterattack. Tottenham have proved quite successful with Son as their lightning quick front man.

Against the Premier League’s weaker teams, City’s domination of possession means that it can feel like attack against defence, with most teams sitting deep and City passing around the edge of their box waiting for a chance to crack it open. Ilkay Gundogan and David Silva have been the masters of creation in those tight areas, but of course they’ve moved on.

City’s striking phenomena, Erling Haaland, is best suited to running onto through balls and in recent Premier League games he’s not been as prolific as last season, probably because the more intricate style that is needed isn’t where his talent lies. At Luton, in the FA Cup, on Tuesday evening, the home side played with a high defensive line, meaning De Bruyne and Haaland could exploit that space. The Norwegian scored five with KDB the assist king!

It’s the Manchester derby on Sunday and City are at home. United will be content to sit back and try and catch the Blues on the break. They seem to suit that style, which means it’ll be fascinating to watch and the outcome might not be the foregone conclusion that the Premier League table suggests. With City’s trip to Liverpool coming just a week later we have reached the decisive part of the season. I know it’s only the beginning of March but recent history suggests that City, Liverpool and probably Arsenal, this season, won’t drop many points against their weaker opponents.

I’ve heard some City fans suggest that Pep’s possession obsessed style of football can be boring. I think former Man United player turned pundit Gary Neville subscribes to that view. I’ve loved watching Pep’s team, but I can understand that neutrals might not enjoy it as much as us Blues.

I was watching the Carabao Cup Final on Sunday afternoon and I’d argue is was mistake ridden. There was little control, by either side, which resulted in a hectic game that could have gone either way. I’ve watched football all my life and for the majority of that time that could easily sum up English football. It’s been the influx of top class foreign players that has massively improved top flight football in this country. It feels like a combination of Pep Guardiola and the introduction of VAR, which has reduced tackling and changed football to more of a non-contact game, dominated by a short passing, possession based game.

It’ll be interesting to see what City will produce in the coming weeks against United, Liverpool and then Arsenal. Last weekend the Blues scraped a 1-0 win at Bournemouth and then on Tuesday it was an emphatic win at Luton, so the Blues are coming into form nicely. Bring on the Derby, there’s nothing quite like it and of course, It’s Great to be a Blue!