Manchester City’s success in winning the treble in the 2022/23 season is a very impressive historical record. Many historical records have been achieved from the achievements of the team nicknamed The Citizens.
Starting from the success of Man City, which won the Champions League trophy for the first time in its history as a club. This achievement strengthened Man City’s reputation in the eyes of European clubs. It’s no secret that Man City’s success over the past decade has been viewed cynically because it has always run aground in Europe.
However, with the Champions League trophy, even the cynical expressions seemed to have vanished. Man City received recognition from Europe. Man City’s investments since being taken over by wealthy businessmen have not ended in vain. The wait, indeed, was long. However, the wait was over and seemed to teach a lesson that to achieve this level of success, a club must be patient in certain processes.
Man City is patient with the process built by Pep Guardiola. Unmitigated, Man City was patient with Guardiola for 6 seasons until they finally won the Champions League trophy.
Inevitably, for Pep Guardiola, winning the Champions League trophy increased his reputation as a coach. For the first time, Guardiola won the Champions League trophy outside of Barcelona. Also, Guardiola became the first coach to win the treble with two different clubs.
It seems that Man City was not so quickly satisfied with the achievements achieved last season. This can be seen from Man City’s eagerness to find players in the transfer market.
After losing Ilkay Gundongan who chose to join Barcelona instead of extending his contract, Man City immediately bought Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea. Kovacic will strengthen Man City’s midfield as well as being able to fill in the hole left by Gundogan.
Man City are lucky to get Kovacic’s signature. At least, Kovacic has adapted to English football. His performance with Chelsea is also not too bad. In fact, Kovacic had become an important mainstay of Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter in midfield. Consistency slightly decreased due to injury. As a result, Kovacic was rarely played when Frank Lampard became Chelsea’s interim coach.
Kovacic’s purchase was Guardiola’s first tactical move. Guardiola certainly knows Kovacic’s character and is ready to become one of the important mainstays next season. It’s not impossible, Guardiola will experiment with Kovacic by playing him in a different position.
On the one hand, Guardiola does not really feel like he has lost the role of Gundongan because his place is immediately filled by a midfielder who is almost of the same type. Not satisfied with Kovacic, Man City had competed with Arsenal for Declan Rice from West Ham. However, Man City withdrew from the hunt for Rice because they were unable to exceed the price offered by Arsenal.
Apart from that, Guardiola is also targeting one of the young defenders from Croatia, Josko Gvardiol. Gvardiol has become one of Man City’s main targets this season. Gvardiol could become one of Ruben Dias’ important tandems next season. Gvardiol’s presence will strengthen Man City’s back line next season. In general, Man City has a pretty solid line of defenders.
Only Aymeric Laporte didn’t seem to have many minutes playing for Man City last season. It is rumored that this French national team player will leave Man City. For the rest, Guardiola often rotates and conducts experiments on his defenders. Including, Guardiola’s mainstay experiment that played John Stones as a shadow anchor midfielder.
Stones’ new role last season at least opened up opportunities for Gvardiol in the main squad. Even more so if Laporte is courted by another club. With that, the competition on the back lines less and less. Apart from that, Guardiola also conducted experiments on Kylian Walker who played as a center back instead of playing as a left back. That role was played well by the English defender.
Furthermore, from an age perspective that is still only 21 years old, Gvardiol can be part of Man City’s plan to rejuvenate the squad. However, the club’s hunger needs to be maintained and that can happen with the presence of new faces in the squad.
Man City’s style in recruiting players is definitely not much different from Guardiola’s choice. However, the players who are recruited must match the work system from Spain. Not surprisingly, Man City’s performance has often been consistent because the players bought during Guardiola’s time seemed to fit his work system as a coach.
So far, Guardiola has made quite a tactical move in the transfer market. Even though Gundongan has lost to Barca, Man City still has a solid squad that is quite capable with the addition of Gvardiol.
The addition of Gvardiol will help strengthen the Man City squad next season. In fact, new players can strengthen the work system that has been going on since last season.
ASL
