EPL

Man City win Premier League 2020-21: Guardiola's team of midfielders has perfect captain in Fernandinho

By Sports Desk May 11, 2021

Pep Guardiola's management of Manchester City has never felt quite as fraught as it did midway through his first season in charge, as the English winter of 2016-17 bit hard for a team in transition.

City collapsed to a 3-1 defeat to Chelsea in a top-of-the-table clash, a setback that preceded a humbling 4-2 loss at Leicester City.

After that game, Guardiola infamously remarked, "I am not a coach for the tackles", and a 4-0 thumping at Everton the following month further fuelled suspicions in some quarters that 'The Barclays' was bringing the most celebrated coach of his generation to heel in its inimitable fashion.

As City bask in a third Premier League title in the past four years, it is striking how Guardiola's commitment to his principles has not wavered at all. If anything, times of high stress have only served to deepen his convictions.

Speaking before that 2016 ordeal, when Jamie Vardy ran riot with a hat-trick, Guardiola discussed the make-up of his ideal team, with tongue planted only partially in cheek.

"I love midfield players," he said. "Always I said, many times, if I could play with 11 midfield players, I would."

Fast forward four-and-a-half seasons, and City are into their maiden Champions League final having driven Paris Saint-Germain to furious distraction over the course of a 4-1 aggregate victory.

They got there without a recognised striker – playmakers Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan taking various turns at the point of the attack and winger Riyad Mahrez scoring three of the four goals. Oleksandr Zinchenko, a midfielder by trade, replaced Joao Cancelo at left-back midway through the second half in Paris and was a stand-out performer in Manchester.

Consider John Stones' resurgence as a ball-playing central defender and Ederson's own silky footwork between the posts and Guardiola really isn't too far away from his ideal.

"I have to admit it, I like the players that have the ability to keep the ball, don't lose the ball," he said before last Saturday's 2-0 win at Crystal Palace that brought City to the brink of glory.

"It's one of the principal things I am looking for. If they keep the ball, it is the best way to defend. The players have to keep the ball in difficult circumstances.

"In all my career I played with a lot of midfield players. I have the feeling you can play better with these kind of players."

Let's ignore the fact Guardiola picked a bizarre line-up featuring Rodri as his only specialist midfielder in Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Chelsea and dig into this theme a little more...

Pausa for thought

At City, "Don't lose the ball" is a non-negotiable update on Guardiola's Barcelona template of "Take the ball, pass the ball". As they have in the three previous completed campaigns, they boast a passing accuracy of 89 per cent.

There is an increased calmness and control to their play, as shown in their data over the course of the season.

City are taking fewer shots than at any other period in the Guardiola era. They average 15.9 attempts per game in the Premier League, down from 19.6 last season and lower even than the 16.6 from their manager's fitful first season.

Their figure of 2.1 goals per game is in line with their 2016-17 average and some way below what followed. The 100-point campaign of 2017-18 yielded 2.8 goals per game.

Sergio Aguero's thumping strike against Palace showed the killer finishing instinct Guardiola's battery of midfielders lack, which partially explains this drop-off.

But it has been absorbed because the overly frantic feel to City's play when Liverpool won the league last year is all but gone. An average possession figure of 64.2 per cent in the Premier League is actually their lowest under Guardiola, but their average open play sequence lasts 15.1 seconds and this has never lasted longer.

Another metric that hints towards control and the idea of City taking their time is their direct speed – put simply, how quickly the team progresses the ball upfield. This season, their attacks have advanced at 1.1 metres per second, which is their slowest or least direct under Guardiola.

If this means they do not quicken the pulse as much around the opposition penalty area, there are obvious benefits when it comes to protecting their own.

According to Opta, City have conceded 25 'big chances' in the Premier League in 2020-21, an average of 0.71 per game. This more than halves their 1.47 'big chances' faced from last season.

Along with some more refined work in possession, the talismanic influence of record signing Ruben Dias at centre-back should not be understated.

Of the 245 shots City have faced this season, 67 were blocked. That amounts to 27.3 per cent and the highest ratio of blocks under Guardiola. Anyone who watched Dias practically turn taking PSG shots in the face into an artform last week will not be overly surprised.

Conceding from 10.6 per cent of shots faced is City's second-best return of the past five years, following 9.7 per cent in 2018-19, while 35 per cent of shots faced being on target is another welcome low under their current manager.

In his first 30 league outings, Dias contributed to 14 clean sheets and saw just 18 goals conceded. They would be impressive numbers in any circumstances, but especially so when you then remember he walked into something resembling a train wreck.

"This isn't a team I can recognise"

"We started to think we were playing bad when we were not playing bad," a shellshocked Guardiola said. Leicester again. Vardy again. 5-2 this time, having led their opening home game of the season last September.

Whatever they thought as anxiety crept in when they were unable to build upon Mahrez opening the scoring against his former club, City ended up playing very badly indeed. Three of Leicester's goals were penalties. It was all impossibly error-strewn.

"The start of this season was so messy, for everyone," captain Fernandinho told The Players' Tribute.

"The way we had to come back [for Project Restart] after three months of inactivity, then we had practically no pre-season. Nothing like that had ever happened in our careers."

A month prior to their Leicester humiliation, City collapsed to a wretched 3-1 defeat to Lyon in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. That disappointment cloaked a listless start to 2020-21, as the surreal darkness of pandemic football became a numbing reality.

Guardiola was trying to pick up the pieces professionally having lost his mother to coronavirus five months earlier. The strain was understandable and visible.

Dias completed his move from Benfica two days after the Leicester defeat and was thrust into a Bielsaball baptism in a chaotic 1-1 draw against Leeds United. Far from a team of midfielders, it was hard to spot any functioning midfield at all in Guardiola's side at Elland Road.

The Portugal centre-back's leadership qualities were soon apparent and the seeds of an imperious partnership with John Stones were sown. That defensive alliance only truly flowered after a 2-0 defeat at Tottenham, which saw Aymeric Laporte lose his first-choice status.

That loss meant City had taken 12 of the first 24 points on offer, leaving them marooned in mid-table after their worst start to a Premier League season since 2008-09. Six consecutive clean sheets followed in all competitions, although a torpid 0-0 draw at Manchester United did not suggest a team in good health.

In their next game, City were eventually breached – ironically by a Dias own goal – and struggling West Brom left the Etihad Stadium with a 1-1 draw.

"After that game, I had a feeling this isn't a team I can recognise. I didn't like what I saw," Guardiola said, who convened talks with his assistants Juanma Lillo and Rodolfo Borrell, head of player support Manel Estiarte and City's director of football Txiki Begiristain.

"I said we have to come back to our first principle. We started to rebuild and reconstruct the team from that point. We had success in the past and [we had to] come back on our positional play, move the ball quicker, do more passes, stay more in position, run less with the ball."

New Year's resolution

A battling 1-0 win at Southampton got things back on track and ultimately launched a 21-match winning run across all competitions, while Guardiola hailed a 2-0 Boxing Day win over Newcastle United as the best performance of the campaign.

Still, all was not well. The scheduled December 28 trip to Everton was postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak within City's squad and, on New Year's Eve, Guardiola did not like what he saw on the training ground.

"It was not a good session," Fernandinho recalled. "The attitude, the body language, the effort from some players, it was just obvious. Misplaced passes, players not tracking back, not running, not looking interested.

"After that session, Pep came and spoke to me as captain, as the leader of the team. He was blunt. He told me that not everyone was at 100 per cent. And, in this team, when you come to train, you do it at 100 per cent, or you stay home.

"He was right. And he made it clear that the responsibility for keeping those standards rested with me."

At 7am on New Years' Day, Fernandinho sent out messages to convene a team meeting. Home truths were spoken and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge were up next, with 14 senior outfield players fit and available.

"Before the match, I thought to myself, 'If these guys don't run here, that’s it, I'm done!'," Fernandinho said. He need not have worried.

City tore Chelsea to pieces before half-time, running out 3-1 winners and hastening Frank Lampard's move towards the exit door. Gundogan, Foden and De Bruyne got the goals and the team of midfielders were off and running.

A month later, that same configuration demolished Liverpool 4-1 at Anfield and what felt like a long shot back at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium had quickly become a formality. They are the first team to have been as low as eighth on Christmas Day and win the Premier League title.

"A real guy, a real player"

Fernandinho served as back-up to Rodri during that rampaging run, but his influence behind the scenes should not be underplayed. For all his majestic qualities on the field, David Silva lacked the capacity to rally his colleagues in the same manner last season, having inherited the armband from Vincent Kompany for his final year at the Etihad Stadium.

Dias has filled Kompany's considerable void as a defensive leader, with Fernandinho doing likewise as a squad figurehead.

There have still been memorable performances, with the Brazilian veteran somewhere close to his snapping and crackling best in a 1-0 February win at Arsenal. He started the EFL Cup final as City made it four successes in a row last month and then, on his 36th birthday, he gritted his teeth defiantly in the face of PSG's challenge, perhaps irritating Angel Di Maria in the process.

Like Aguero, Fernandinho is out of contract in June and could be set to follow Kompany, Silva, Yaya Toure and Pablo Zabaleta out of the exit door, closing the book on their transformative era.

Since joining from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013, he has won more games (170) and completed more passes (13,821) than any other Premier League player. And yes, fans of the dark arts, no player has committed as many fouls (344) or received more yellow cards (51).

"I feel very good. The first time lifting the trophy at City, it's an amazing sensation," he told Sky Sports after his record-breaking sixth EFL Cup success and first as captain.

The sensations will be even more enjoyable when he gets his hands on the Premier League, with another more elusive prize maybe still to come.

"He's so important. He's a real guy, a real player who can play in several positions," Guardiola said, back at that pre-Leicester press conference in 2016 when he was asked how City might cope without a suspended Fernandinho. Not too well, as it turned out.

When presented with any plaudits for the successful refinement of his team's style this season, Guardiola has batted them away to insist the triumph "belongs to the players". That is certainly true in the case of Fernandinho, a midfield general and the perfect captain for this team of midfielders.

Related items

  • Celtic will not risk Callum McGregor ahead of Rangers showdown Celtic will not risk Callum McGregor ahead of Rangers showdown

    Celtic captain Callum McGregor has a “very good chance” of facing Rangers but will not be risked on Livingston’s artificial surface.

    Manager Brendan Rodgers will delay McGregor’s comeback until after Sunday’s cinch Premiership contest at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

    The midfielder has been troubled by Achilles pain and has not featured since coming off at half-time during Celtic’s 7-1 win over Dundee on February 28.

    Rodgers said: “Callum has been out on the field, but we are not risking him in this game. But he should hopefully re-join training next week.”

    When asked if McGregor had a chance of facing Rangers, Rodgers replied: “Yes, a very good chance.”

    Reo Hatate is set to make his return after playing only 19 minutes for Celtic since October. The Japan midfielder briefly returned from a hamstring injury at the start of the year only to suffer calf problems during the Asian Cup.

    Cameron Carter-Vickers is also expected to play after being left out of the United States squad amid ongoing hamstring issues but Celtic could again be without wingers Yang Hyun-jun and Luis Palma, the latter of whom has a calf injury.

    Rodgers said: “Cameron is fine, Reo Hatate is back and available in the squad, which is great news. He has worked very hard, he played a bounce game in the time off and he has built up his fitness.

    “Yang has come back (from South Korea duty) with a bit of tightness so we just need to make sure that’s nothing more serious. He played two 60 minutes and a 30 minutes when he was away, so he has come back a little bit tight. We just have to check and make sure he is OK.

    “Luis Palma will probably just miss out on this weekend but will hopefully be available soon.”

    Rodgers admits Livingston’s artificial pitch comes into his thinking when making his team selection.

    “You certainly have to consider it,” he said. “Like, for example Callum, you have to think along that route.

    “There’s no doubt it comes into your thinking, especially on the back of an international break when players have been travelling.

    “I think we are all hopeful in the future that we will have quality grass pitches here that the supporters can see the best possible game they can, but at this moment we play on the plastic pitch so we have to deal with that.

    “Of course that means we have to think about team selection and the welfare of the player, and obviously from Callum’s perspective it’s probably too much of a risk for us.”

  • Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool assessing Andy Robertson injury ‘day by day’ Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool assessing Andy Robertson injury ‘day by day’

    Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool will take things “day by day” with Andy Robertson as he indicated the left-back’s injury was not serious.

    Robertson was being assessed by the Reds after coming off in the first half of Scotland’s friendly against Northern Ireland on Tuesday due to an ankle issue.

    Speaking at his press conference ahead of Sunday’s Premier League home clash with Brighton, Liverpool boss Klopp said: “Robbo, we take it a little bit day by day, so we will see.

    “He will not train today but it’s not as bad, so that’s fine.”

    Klopp – whose side after the Brighton game continue their title bid by hosting Sheffield United next Thursday, then playing Manchester United away three days later – also reported that Darwin Nunez, a withdrawal from Uruguay’s squad as the international break got under way, was “fine”.

    Ibrahima Konate, absent for Liverpool’s last three games, is set to be available this weekend as well, and while Klopp said he was unsure if that applied to Curtis Jones, the midfielder has been training.

    Liverpool have also had Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota on the sidelines, and Klopp added: “The other boys, from next week on, step by step I think they will join parts of team training, and then team training, so we will see what we do with that.

    “They’re not too far away but not in yet. They all make their steps, so it’s positive.”

  • Philippe Clement confident ‘there will be a solution’ to John Lundstram contract Philippe Clement confident ‘there will be a solution’ to John Lundstram contract

    Philippe Clement is confident that John Lundstram will extend his contract at Rangers.

    The 30-year-old midfielder, who signed from Sheffield United in 2021, has found good form since the Belgian boss took over at Ibrox last October but his current deal runs out in the summer.

    Ahead of the home cinch Premiership game against Hibernian on Saturday, Clement was asked if he was hopeful and confident of Lundstram staying in Govan.

    He said: “Yes, I am totally confident about that, that there’s a lot of love from both sides, so that there will be a solution.”

    Clement was pleased to report that Abdallah Sima, Ross McCausland, Kieran Dowell and Dujon Sterling are back in training and in contention for Saturday following recovery from various injuries, although Ridvan Yilmaz is  out and a doubt for next week’s Old Firm game against Celtic at Ibrox, with Oscar Cortes, Ryan Jack and Danilo still on the sidelines.

    Attacker, Sima, 22  is on loan from Brighton and had notched 15 goals this season before picking up a thigh injury in January while with the Senegal squad at the Africa Cup of Nations.

    Of his returning players in general, and on Sima on particular, the Gers boss said: “They are contention but of course not to play 90 minutes – then it is about choices, if they can play 15, 20 minutes you cannot of course have four or five players like that on the bench.

    “So we need to take that into account and make good choices.

    “Of course Sima has been out a long time so you cannot expect miracles from the start but he has shown his quality, he has his power, his pace, he has the appetite for goals and he came back to training in a good way, so that’s positive.

    “It’s about building rhythm again, making him stronger again and then I think he is going to play an important part in this last two months.”

    Left-back Yilmaz withdrew from the Turkey squad over the weekend after limping out of Friday’s friendly defeat in Hungary with a reported thigh strain.

    Clement said: “It is not going to be long, long term.

    “We are going to see next week.

    “There is a possibility that he can to be fit for next week but it is still a doubt so we will see next week.”

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.