Jose Mourinho may have his mind on ‘the Einsteins’ again, but across the Manchester divide it may be wise of Pep Guardiola to cast his thoughts to Albert’s old adage that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.
Because it appears to be Pep’s ploy to prove ‘the Einsteins’ wrong when it comes to constantly playing from the back.
That it was a defensive player, Gerard Pique, who spoke with such reverence prior to Manchester City’s comprehensive defeat at Camp Nou of what Guardiola achieved at Barcelona is interesting in itself, considering Pep’s current dilemmas.
Guardiola revolutionised the club, Pique said, eulogising that his impact at Barcelona was as great as Before Pep and After Pep.
Oh how Guardiola crammed the words down the back of critics’ throats who dared have the temerity to suggest at the start of the season that England was a different ball game to Spain and Germany. But ten out of ten wins doesn’t look so perfect when it’s now four out of four without one.
Guardiola, who produced arguably the greatest team of all time, is absolutely right to refuse to change his style of playing from the back — to an extent. Bravo to him indeed though. He is right to try and change the culture of English football. It is admirable, entirely necessary and true to his beliefs.
But … but England is different. It still is the land of the tackle. The land of the ‘proper’ centre-half. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Refuse to temper and budge your beliefs and you end up with Arsene Wenger. A manager who has presided over some of the best-playing teams England has ever seen but has won just two FA Cups and two Community Shields in more than a decade because of his sheer stubborn refusal to accept what everybody can see in front of them. That every player doesn’t need to be ‘a footballer’. That the main purpose of being a defender is being able to defend. And likewise a goalkeeper’s is to keep the ball out of the net.
Oh, what Arsenal would have achieved if only Wenger had planted two proper centre-backs in the John Terry mould in any of his sides over the past decade.
High-pressing from the front is the aim of progressive modern sides — but sometimes City’s line is so high at the back that a simple ball through the middle is enough to take every one of them out. The simple style being of course how Leicester City won the league last season.
There have been signs that Guardiola is prepared to budge on his philosophies — throwing on Vincent Kompany as a late auxiliary centre-forward in the draw at home with Everton for instance was ‘very English’.
There is no doubt that Guardiola’s defence will be vastly different come this time next season. Two new full-backs, possibly Hector Bellerin of Arsenal and his former player at Bayern Munich David Alaba, will be added to a new centre-half partner for John Stones. It would help greatly if the new man cannot only play like Pique, but also defend like him.
In the meantime, just keeping it simple at the back would go a long way to ensuring the creatives at the front can keep the Citizens happy — and entertained.
And finally …
Bless little Louis Kayes, the five-year-old Celtic fan who ahead of last Saturday’s match at Celtic Park versus Motherwell called the club to apologise for missing the game — because he had to go to a friend’s birthday party.
His mum Lisa told the Daily Record that the young season ticket holder was worried manager Brendan Rodgers and captain Scott Brown would notice he wasn’t in attendance among the 54,000 crowd.
