@aguero93:20 wrote:
“That's exactly the reason. Guardiola didn't use it when we had Aguero available (even when playing Jesus or Sterling) as our default was playing with a striker. He only used it at Bayern when Lewandowski was unavailable. It's a system he's used to get the best out of the likes of Messi, Muller, Bernardo, Foden, Mahrez etc as the central attacker, not a core principle. You should look at what Ancelotti said about us the other day, it's very accurate, we don't have a set identity, shape or way of playing, we've a number of different approaches with the same set of core principles underlying them all. False 9 is one of those approaches, not a core principle.”
In most games, we play multiple systems and configurations during the game, unless the opening gambit pays off very quickly.
The more difficult part for opponents is that players like to know which man and which space are they responsible for. With City, that’s impossible to achieve. One minute your man is right midfield, the next he is on the left wing. You try to pass him off, but then you’re never quite sure who is marking whom, and therein lies the space to exploit via ball movement.
The fluidity and intelligence of the players within the system is what creates the confusion, and thus the opportunities.
Pep says it, as people don’t believe it because they think he is being coy, but it is ALL about the quality (technical and football intellect) of the players!
Established players will openly tell you that Pep taught them how to play football. They’ll regale you with how he improved their reading of, and movement within, the game.
THAT is the genius he was displaying in that first season, where the world thought “He can’t adapt to English football!”
It wasn’t that he couldn’t adapt to English football, it was that players playing in England were taking time to adapt to the way Pep KNEW football could, and should, be played...even in kick and run England!
Once he had done key players in place, playing the basic style he wanted to play, it allowed him to start painting bigger, more intricate paintings on the green canvas.
Today, even though he is credited with being a Spanish Master, and a German Impressionist, he has been exalted to being the best British landscape artist of all time.
While some people still see his work as Pollock, the people who understand the game know he is Da Vinci...or, in English terms, Turner, with total control over light and shade, with a complete understanding of the landscape in which he is painting.
He is a Master, but even he could only squeeze a few brushstrokes out of the oil left in Kane’s tube!
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