The arrival of both Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola in the English Premier league has brought so much transformation to both Liverpool and Manchester City. For me, both of them are currently in the top three of World Best Coaches. However, for the purpose of this article, I will be restricting my analysis to only the Spaniard. After Guardiola's awesome adventure in Spain(Barcelona) and Germany (Bayern), people thought he would stand little chance in England, but the Spanish born has proven his mettle and has cleared all doubts about his ability to transform any team.
After arriving at the Etihad from Bayern, Pep Guardiola has injected a special pill into the City team. The Citizens' football philosophy is that which one can easily trace its root, of course you wouldn't find it tasking to uncover where their current game style is coming from. The alacrity at which City possesses the ball points fingers to the "tiki-taka" style introduced to them by Guardiola.
When Pep introduced his playing style earlier, Many doubted the possibility of it being fruitful in the premier league, considering the conventional style of play in England, but as weeks turned into months, Guardiola transformed Manchester City into a football fortress, and their dominance in the Premier league grew afterwards. Thanks to Klopp's Liverpool, who have also proven to be a force to reckon with, if not, Guardiola would have made the premier league look like Seria A.
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Manchester City's quest to defend their Premier league title has met so much resistance from other teams and from the look of things, only Liverpool have been consistent enough to slow down their drive. The beginning of the season had seen city struck fear in minds of fans, as they devoured every team that crossed their path. However, thanks to Sarri and his boys, who found a way of deflating City's true, sure, it went a long way to blow up the league.
City have been in an impressive form this season and Sundays goals against Huddersfield meant they have scored a whooping twenty-two goals in just four games. Now can you beat that! The citizens may not be at the number one spot on the league table, but we just can't sweep their consistent goal scoring instinct under the carpet. It's been an auspicious year already for the Citizens, and only the gods can tell what they have in stock for the remaining half of the season.
It was the first half jaw breaking strike from the former Madrid defender Danilo, that made Guardiola's side the first team in Europe to his 100 goals across all competitions this season in a game that saw City beat Huddersfield 3-0 on sunday. It may not have been one of those sterling outings by City, but they found their path to victory. They had no choice, especially after Liverpool painstakingly won Crystal Palace to keep maintain the four points gap.
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City's Victory Against Huddersfield
Despite City's form so far, I wouldn't say I was impressed by their first half performance against Huddersfield on Sunday. In my mind, I was like, "have city forgotten that Liverpool grabbed all three points against Crystal Palace?" Why were they so below standard against Huddersfield, maybe other fans shared my fear too, I can't tell. Deep inside, I knew if there was anything more important to the Citizens now, it is keeping up the pressure on the League leaders and dropping of points in not part of the options.
Though City went one goal up at half time, thanks to Danilo's deflected shot. Apart from the first goal, despite City's possession of the ball, they pulled no much threat and appeared a bit sluggish in their build up. Obviously not the kind of standard they are know for, or is fatigue beginning to set in? That's a question Pep provided the answer after the break. Though City should have been awarded a penalty when kongolo brought down Sterling, but how the referees came to agree that it wasn't a penalty still baffles me. And at that point, I wished for VAR!
All the same, the Citizens were far from their best. De Bruyne will need more games to get back to his best as his impact in the game especially during the first half was questionable. Apart from the pass he gave to Raheem that almost resulted in a penalty, I couldn't pinpoint any other spectacular involvement of the Belgian. With no David Silva to help Sane, he was always lost with the right moves to take against the defenders. For me, I was already doubting the possibility of City extending their lead in the game. However I was wrong, because Pep Guardiola had other plans.
The break was enough for Pep to prove he is the master in what he does. He had given them a verbal pill to wake them up to reality. And the impact didn't take long to play out in the Second half. Just less than 15 minutes after the whistle for the second half was blown, City were already 3-0 up. Even though Sane's goal remains a topic of debate, but that will matter less now. The fact that they killed off the game and maintained their chase on Liverpool is more important.
"The way we played we didn't deserve more than three goals. We will improve in the future. We have to demand more from ourselves in every game and do our best, but sometimes it's difficult." Guardiola said after the game. Whatever happened, City survived. For Coach like Pep coming against a team like Huddersfield, City didn't need to be at their best to take all three points, a half time reminder of who they are from the coach was all they needed.
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