ALAN SHEARER, who is nowhere near as miserable in person as he appears on screen, says this season’s Manchester City are taking football to a new level.
But I wonder whether the man who put in shots from every angle has his triangulation in a bit of a twist. Or, more probably, jumping the gun.
Plenty of less-knowledgeable voices claiming this “could be the best team, ever,” kind of thing have joined him.
I am not one of them — I remain sceptical.
Not through envy at City’s developing style of play — although, God knows, I am utterly mesmerised at the speed and athleticism employed to bring Pep Guardiola’s ideas to reality.
In him, there are shades of Napoleon — and even of late US chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer. So I bow to the Lord Pep but every player of the game will do that and at the same time know that City can and will be beaten.
How often, and whether by sheer defiance or clever defensive strategy, we are going to find out. No team in England appear yet to have much of a clue — although in sheer attacking flair, Liverpool are a match.
Typically, Jurgen Klopp’s team tried to fight fire with fire at the Etihad in September only for the experiment to blow up in smoke and stars in wizard Klopp’s face. He will say the 5-0 embarrassment was largely the result of Sadio Mane’s first-half sending off.
Regardless it has already proved to be a defining point of the season.
Pep waltzed away after that. City’s record is unequalled — 17 wins and one draw in a league as challenging as the Premier must incline only the most optimistic manager to do all but write an ‘L’ against future fixtures with City.
Watching Guardiola at Leicester on Tuesday night was a revelation. For a man who has managed major club teams to the brightest trophies, his engagement with every second of play — every touch of the ball — by what amounted to a City Lads XI was total. He loved the competitiveness, the battle.
For him, this wasn’t a big night in Barcelona or Munich, this was a giant night at the King Power Stadium, right down to a penalty shootout. Won. Of course. So where is the tripwire?
No matter how complete a squad, there are always holes left by injuries to the most influential players.
Let’s pretend a hamstring epidemic was to strike David Silva, Fernandinho and Kevin De Bruyne — or two of these three. City would be critically weakened. And while it is probably too late to stop City winning the title, there is still the Champions’ League very much to consider.
This is the bauble at the heart of City owner Sheikh Mansour’s dream of Abu Dhabi countering the desert upstart Qatar’s World Cup heist by becoming a major football power broker himself.
I doubt if Guardiola cares much for this. But he knows, as Shearer should, that the great sides have consistently great results over a number of seasons, not half of one.
Yes, Guardiola’s genius is surely to have drawn the right conclusions from a backroom study of why last season was such a disappointment. The transformation is art into reality and the bright new team to emerge is as quick and slippery, full of pace, energy and the stamina to snatch three straight, late 2-1s.
Truly thrilling. But Guardiola’s cautious. No way we can win all four titles was his reaction this week.
So let’s just enjoy what he’s brought to us and build on it.
From The Sun
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