I wonder if Pep's recent treatment of Aguero lends some credence to Zlatan's claims that he is someone who is afraid of being challenged by big personalities and wants to work with "schoolboys" rather than treat his players like adults. The body of evidence is growing: in addition to the bitter falling-out with Zlatan, Pep forced out Yaya Toure from Barca (and now has him firmly in a "doghouse" in Man City) and when he took charge of Bayern he initially tried to marginalize their star striker – Robert Lewandowski. He kept leaving him on the bench in favor of the various shades of "false 9" set-ups which soon led to the speculation that Lewandowski will leave Bayern next summer. Only in his 2nd season in charge, particularly after that game when Lewandowski scored 5 goals in 9 minutes, Guardiola accepted that he is someone worth building the team around.
Fast forward to Man City and once again, unquestionably the best striker in the league finds himself on the bench, while Guardiola is trying to flood the pitch with midfielders in as many positions as possible. Even when Aguero does play, he doesn't look himself in recent weeks – the days of the team playing to his strengths are gone, now he's just a cog in the machine. When you look at the likes of Sterling, De Bruyne, Stones, Sane, Iheanacho (and Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus who will arrive in January, etc), you kind of start to understand what Zlatan meant by "school," where the only role Guardiola is comfortable with is that of the ultimate authority, the professor among the kids.
Now it would not be entirely fair to reduce all of Guardiola's coaching career to this simplistic narrative. There certainly were plenty of big personalities and experienced star players he did not clash with or undermine – Xavi at Barcelona, Xabi Alonso at Bayern, Fernandinho at Man City. However even there one could see a pattern of trusting players who are similar to Guardiola in his playing days. As an expression goes, our weaknesses are a continuation of our strengths. Guardiola has the clearest, the most "pure" vision and tactical philosophy of any high-profile manager today – but this also means he is less willing to compromise his vision with reality when one clashes with the other. Man City looked invincible in the first 10 games of the season, perhaps because they did not fully absorb Guardiola's ideas yet, so it was a nice balance between the old and the new. Now Guardiola is pushing his ideas further and deeper and if that means destroying what was good about Man City in the seasons past, so be it – it's his team and he wants to win only on his terms.
Fast forward to Man City and once again, unquestionably the best striker in the league finds himself on the bench, while Guardiola is trying to flood the pitch with midfielders in as many positions as possible. Even when Aguero does play, he doesn't look himself in recent weeks – the days of the team playing to his strengths are gone, now he's just a cog in the machine. When you look at the likes of Sterling, De Bruyne, Stones, Sane, Iheanacho (and Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus who will arrive in January, etc), you kind of start to understand what Zlatan meant by "school," where the only role Guardiola is comfortable with is that of the ultimate authority, the professor among the kids.
Now it would not be entirely fair to reduce all of Guardiola's coaching career to this simplistic narrative. There certainly were plenty of big personalities and experienced star players he did not clash with or undermine – Xavi at Barcelona, Xabi Alonso at Bayern, Fernandinho at Man City. However even there one could see a pattern of trusting players who are similar to Guardiola in his playing days. As an expression goes, our weaknesses are a continuation of our strengths. Guardiola has the clearest, the most "pure" vision and tactical philosophy of any high-profile manager today – but this also means he is less willing to compromise his vision with reality when one clashes with the other. Man City looked invincible in the first 10 games of the season, perhaps because they did not fully absorb Guardiola's ideas yet, so it was a nice balance between the old and the new. Now Guardiola is pushing his ideas further and deeper and if that means destroying what was good about Man City in the seasons past, so be it – it's his team and he wants to win only on his terms.
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