PEP GUARDIOLA MANCHESTER CITY TACTIC
Pep Guardiola has created many squads and invented player roles during his career (so far).
This tactic is based on the Manchester City – Arsenal (2-2).
Beware – differences with your tactic interpretation may occur.
Josep Guardiola Sala, commonly known as Pep Guardiola, is a Catalan professional football manager and former player from Spain, who is currently the manager of Premier League club Manchester City.
He is the only manager to win the continental treble twice, the youngest manager to win the UEFA Champions League, and he holds the record for the most consecutive league games won in La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. He is considered to be one of the greatest managers of all time.
His playing style focuses on keeping possession of the ball, passing it around until an opening appears and his team attacks it. One more aim of keeping possession of the ball is tiring and frustrating the opposition, which can lead to them making mistakes.
His playing style was and possible still is referred as “tiki-taka”. However, Pep Guardiola rejects this notion, saying that tiki-taka means passing them ball around aimlessly, which is not what his team is supposed to do. – ("I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It's so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition's goal. It's not about passing for the sake of it." – Pep Guardiola, 2014).
Pep Guardiola was a defensive midfielder who usually played in a deep-lying playmaker's role. He spent the majority of his career at FC Barcelona, forming a part of Johan Cruyff's Dream Team that won the club's first European Cup in 1992, and four successive Spanish league titles from 1991 to 1994.
He then moved to Brescia and Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar and Dorados in Mexico.
He was capped 47 times for the Spanish national team and appeared in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, as well as in UEFA Euro 2000. He also played friendly matches for Catalonia.
After retiring, Pep Guardiola started his managerial career at FC Barcelona B, the Camp Nou giant’s second team. They were playing in Tercera Division at the time. This detail is important as Pep Guardiola led the B team to winning the league title in their division, managing some of the young players he will then promote to FC Barcelona’s first team.
He took over FC Barcelona’s first team in 2008 and in his first season he led the club to the continental treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League, becoming the youngest manager to win the latter competition.
The style of play he implemented at FC Barcelona took their opponents by storm.
After leading the club to another La Liga and Champions League in 2011, Pep Guardiola ended his four-year Barcelona period in 2012 with 14 honours - a club record.
He managed world-class players at FC Barcelona and even though Jose Mourinho managed to nudge his team off the top spot for a short period of time, what Pep Guardiola achieved with FC Barcelona remains an historical feat.
After a sabbatical period, Pep Guardiola joined Bayern Munich in 2013 and won the Bundesliga in each of the three seasons, including two domestic doubles.
In Germany, his rival (if we can call him like that) was Juergen Klopp – a manager he will later face again in the Premier League.
He left the German club for Manchester City in 2016 and guided them to the Premier League title in his second season in charge, breaking numerous domestic records as the team became the first to attain 100 points in a single season.
He led Manchester City to a domestic treble in 2018–19, their first Champions League final in 2020–21, and their first Champions League title as part of another continental treble in 2022–23.
Even though Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool interrupted and nagged Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City along the years, Pep Guardiola did and still does find ways to combat it.
Although much emphasis is placed on retaining possession of the ball and dictating play, with the intent to have the opposing side's defence chase the ball for extended periods of play, Pep Guardiola's teams are recognized for pressing off the ball also. This collective press is only conducted in the starting third of the opposition's pitch where less space exists and defenders and/or the goalkeeper may not be as good at dribbling or passing the ball as a midfielder.
Pep Guardiola has stated he tries to constantly evolve his tactics. After learning the total football playing style under Johan Cruyff, he was particularly influenced by his time as a player in Mexico under his friend and manager at Dorados, Juan Manuel Lillo. Pep Guardiola also sought help of Marcelo Bielsa to learn from him.
Tactics employed by him have been likened to Gegenpressing invented by Ralf Rangnick and used to great effect by Jürgen Klopp. His tactics have influenced approaches of managers such as Maurizio Sarri, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, and Luis Enrique.
Pep Guardiola has been praised by pundits for his flexibility as a coach, and has used several formations throughout his career. At Barcelona, he often used a 4–3–3 formation with inverted wingers and attacking full-backs who would overlap and provide width to the team, as well as a 3–4–3 formation on occasion; he also later used these formations at Bayern Munich and Manchester City. In the 3–4–3 formation, defensive midfielders Sergio Busquets at Barcelona and Xabi Alonso at Bayern Münich would occasionally drop back into the back-line to act as an additional defender.
Pep Guardiola also began to use a false 9 during his time at Barcelona, fielding Lionel Messi in the centre of the team's attacking line, who would drop deep into midfield to give the team a numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch.
At Manchester City, after experimenting with several formations, he used a modern version of the 3–2–2–3 formation during the 2022–23 treble–winning season, which was likened to the past WM formation.
He deployed centre-back John Stones in a libero role and he used inverted wing-backs who moved inside to occupy central areas of the pitch, while he also played in a more physical and direct style than in previous seasons, utilising Erling Haaland as a traditional striker.
Against Arsenal, the team setup in a 4-3-3 formation. But as established by now, the on-paper formation has nothing to do with how the team actually plays on the pitch.
There were times when Manchester City played in a 4-2-3-1 formation, depending on Arsenal’s positioning.
The same way, the roles of some of the players are very flexible. The goalkeeper, the central defenders, the wingers and the striker seem to be fixed. However, the wing backs and the midfield players roam around trying to find and exploit space depending on the opposition’s positioning.
In the game against Arsenal, Josko Gvardiol has been both a traditional wing back and an inverted wing back, depending on movement of his teammates and their opponents.
Bernardo Silva was supposed to be a central midfielder or attacking playmaker, but he moved into deep lying playmaker positions at times.
As expected, the goalkeeper is a sweeper on attack duty. He is expected to participate in the possession game and to sweep up any loose balls. A role Ederson interprets very well.
The back four is made of an inverted full back, a ball playing defender on defend duty, a libero on support and an inverted wing back on support.
Kyle Walker was not always an inverted full back. There were times when Pep Guardiola used him as an inverted wing back. But, at least in the game against Arsenal, Kyle Walker helped making up the back three when the team was defending.
The libero role was implemented in Football Manager 2024 using elements present in Pep Guardiola’s tactic. According to the game creators.
It has to be noted that the libero joins the midfield area only if an inverted full back is played, to ensure enough defenders remain for cover.
Neither Ruben Dias nor Manuel Akanji played as a libero against Arsenal, but this role had to be here.
And Josko Gvardiol had times when he joined the midfield from his wing back position, pushing Ilkay Gundogan further up the pitch and Jeremy Doku wide.
A defensive midfielder and a roaming playmaker on support make up the central midfield area.
You do need the defensive midfielder to be a screen in front of the defence, but when you manage a team like Manchester City, you afford to ask this player to get further forward if the situation calls for it.
I don’t like playing with a roaming playmaker role as the role seems not calibrated enough, in my opinion. But in a setup, such as this one, this role is perfect. As it comes deep to get the ball, goes up in attack when possible and wide if the play calls for it.
Move into channels is used for this role, to complement it.
The wingers are a winger on support and an inverted winger on support. Savio seemed to play wide, while Jeremy Doku cut inside when possible.
Both are told to mark tighter.
The attacking midfielder is an advanced playmaker, however you can use this role in the central midfield area also.
Again, we go a bit off the script against Arsenal with this role, but I had to implement somehow Kevin De Bruyne’s recent role and playing style into the tactic.
At times, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva or Phil Foden play like a second striker, this is the rationale behind choosing this role.
As player instructions we have roam from position and move into channels.
And a complete forward makes up the formation. Erling Haaland interprets many roles in the Manchester City formation. Lately, he seems to be a complete forward.
He is also asked to mark tighter.
As mentality I chose attacking as this is Manchester City. However, you can lower it to positive if you need to.
In possession, fairly wide attacking width and play out of defence. Shorter passing direction and slightly lower tempo. You can also use a standard tempo as Manchester City employ it, depending on the opposition.
Work the ball into the box and be more disciplined. The be more disciplined option is used as even though the formation is fluid and players roam around, they do it in a system. Pep Guardiola is a manager who seems to like order, so if the players roam, they do it as they were asked by him to do so.
In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the defence through short kicks.
And out of possession, high press and a higher defensive line. Trigger press more often and prevent the goalkeeper short distribution. And trap outside.
In my save, we were not as successful as I would have liked, but we won the Bundesliga title and the DFL Supercup with Bayer Leverkusen.
As much as I don’t like Pep Guardiola’s playing style, but not because of him, only because I like the counterattack more – this tactic is very fun and rewarding to play with, if you have the right players for it.
It should not be forgotten that Pep Guardiola has always tweaked his teams until they reach the peak he was looking for. And even then, he kept tweaking as otherwise, the opponents would catch on.
Pep Guardiola is a brilliant football manager. One that started with an idea and reached as far as he did. He is a winner and any football team would be lucky to have him as their manager.
