Guardiola makes everyone better - even Haaland
Suggestions that the manager merely buys success now look laughable, says Martin Samuel
Martin Samuel
In seven previous meetings, Erling Haaland has never won a game against Bayern Munich. It's fair to say he has now. What a victory this was, what a performance by Manchester City.
For Haaland it was a milestone: City's third goal was his 45th in all competitions, a record in the Premier League era. Mohamed Salah and Ruud van Nistelrooy have previously got all the fours, but nobody has surpassed that. And there's still a month to go, remember, with City in three competitions. This could be truly exceptional. And because Haaland arrived fully formed as the best young striker in Europe, his salary the stuff of legend, it will be said again that Pep Guardiola merely buys his successes. But that's not true, and never has been.
He makes everyone better. That's what he does. Haaland is a better player for working under him. Even if he one day realises an ambition to play for Real Madrid, the striker will arrive there a superior goalscorer for the time spent with Guardiola in Manchester. There have been many great strikers in the Premier League, but none has scored 45 goals for two reasons. They are not Haaland, and they are not in a Guardiola team.
So, as City took apart Bayern Munich, Guardiola hopped around on the touchline, overthinking it as usual. Overthinking the capabilities of not just Haaland, but of John Stones, of Nathan Aké, of Jack Grealish, of Rodri. He takes players and imagines them better, the best version of themselves. That is his greatness, as a leader. It's why it is so wrong when people think it's all about the money.
So you'd like to see him do it at Bournemouth, would you? Well, you're watching it. Aké was Bournemouth's centre half. He wasn't cheap, at £41 million, but he didn't look like this.
Grealish played for Aston Villa. He was a lovely player, and City paid through the nose, but he didn't use the ball as he does now. He rarely gives it away these days, Grealish. As for Stones, he's always been a neat footballer, and he's been through a lot of clubs, and a lot of coaches; but only Guardiola has looked at him and seen a hybrid centre-half-central midfielder-right-back.
So what would Guardiola do at Bournemouth or Everton or Villa: he'd make them better. Not champions, because modern football isn't set up that way, but Guardiola never sleepwalks, never drifts through a season. There is always a twist, a sting, a tale of the unexpected. The exile of Kyle Walker and conversion of Stones is this season's episode. Maybe it provides a happy ending, who knows?
City were lovely last night but
Bayern are worthy opponents and
Thomas Tuchel a smart coach. Had he stayed patient for a few more weeks he could even have been back at Chelsea, who knows?
There are suggestions Todd Boehly, the co-owner, believes he may have been a little impetuous earlier in the season and might have been open to a reconciliation. Sadly, James Corden never suggested it, so Tuchel went to Munich instead. And he has happy memories of overcoming Guardiola in the Champions League; but not last night.
It was a cracking, open game, but City were the better side. Yann Sommer, in Bayern's goal, made one of the saves of the season from Ilkay Gundogan, got fortunate when caught in possession by Haaland, and generally had a splendid game. City missed more chances than was healthy and may live to regret it. Yet this was a performance that justified why they are the tournament favourites, despite a fixture list that will, in all likelihood, throw up two matches against Real.
It's a fabulous tournament this year. Real are Champions League specialists and a team of enormous resolve, as Liverpool discovered at Anfield. Napoli, in the other side of the draw, are arguably the best Italian team in roughly 20 years. Yet City are a match for them all.
This is the part of the campaign when they come into their own too. Look at their runs in April and May. It is utterly mystifying that they have been unable to turn their Premier League consistency into a European win. They are as adept at winning the crucial games as Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United once were. He didn't think the season truly began until spring; Guardiola isn't dissimilar.
Given a sniff of a chance by Arsenal's draw away to Liverpool on Sunday, it is close to presumed that City will win every game between now and the end of the season to clinch the Premier League title. Yet no such certainty surrounds their European campaign, even after the second goal went in with 20 minutes remaining. City find ways to lose in the Champions League, it seems. Maybe not this year.
There has been a joke doing the rounds since that fateful defeat by Lyon in 2020. One day Guardiola will overthink his XI so much that he'll pick the right team by accident and win the Champions League. Maybe this was one of those matches, Bernardo Silva being absolutely the right choice to play on the right, and the scorer of the all-important second goal. By the time the third went in, Haaland's record-breaker, City were as good as home. Bayern don't look to have a four-goal comeback in them.
Yet it was a vignette from Rodri, for the opening goal, that summed up the night. As the supposed defensive midfielder turned inside, Gundogan, who had made a lovely run outside, threw up his arms in frustration. Rodri then curled the ball sweetly into the net from 30 yards out.
That is what Guardiola does. He makes players see their best selves. Not everybody gets it. Last night, not even Gundogan.
