Watch football at any level and you will see coaches and players, young and old, mimicking what Guardiola has brought to the game. It is, admittedly, employed with varying degrees of success, but it is a Guardiola template.
In its simplest form, Guardiola’s football is based on possession. The style formed a glorious contrast with the full-on explosive attacking approach utilised by his great, and greatly respected, rival Jurgen Klopp – manager of a Liverpool side with which City contested domestic and European honours.
Guardiola has said of his approach: “I need my team to have possession. You can lose with possession, but more likely you will lose with less possession. We must do what we believe. I believe in possession. I know everyone wants to copy the winner – but in football and sport no-one wins for ever.”
From that foundation, using a “six-second rule” to regain lost possession, Guardiola has produced brushstrokes of tactical brilliance that his peers accept were ingenious and revolutionary.
He has used them to improve teams and players, once again leaving an imprint and leading for others to follow.
Guardiola was the orchestrator of the ‘false nine’ – using a forward to drop deep and drag defenders out of position with Lionel Messi in the role at Barcelona. His sides have also featured ‘inverted full-backs’ coming inside to exert control in midfield rather than overlapping in orthodox fashion.
Guardiola has also demonstrated how coaches and managers can remove high-class players from their orthodox positions to use them in roles no-one would have regarded as natural.
It is another strategy he will leave behind.
Guardiola utilised diminutive Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano as a central defender at Barcelona, then transformed Bayern Munich’s outstanding right-back Philipp Lahm into an equally effective holding midfield player.
At Manchester City, his prime example has been the use of a world-class central defender in John Stones as a hybrid figure, stepping out of defence into a holding midfield role within games, as and when the situation demanded.
Guardiola used Stones in a ‘number eight’ role, which he had never played before, when City won the Champions League final against Inter Milan in 2023 in their historic Treble season when they also won the Premier League and FA Cup.
Stones enjoyed the challenge.
“From the start. It goes back to learning,” Stones said. “Playing in there you appreciate other people’s roles and see their positions from a different perspective.”
