Pep Guardiola, when the thinker becomes the master again

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The Spanish coach won his third cup with big ears on Saturday, the first since 2011 and his departure from FC Barcelona.

He finally holds it. After eleven years of chasing another crown in the Champions League, Pep Guardiola returned to the top of European football on Saturday June 10, after Manchester City’s victory over Inter Milan in the final (1-0). A deliverance for him and for the Mancunian club, which had coveted the trophy since its passage under the Emirati flag in 2008. From now on, the Cityzens can no longer be reduced to the label of upstart without a crown that stuck to their skin.

If City can now sit at the big table, it is largely thanks to Pep Guardiola. For the Spanish coach, the road has been long. Guide of a team systematically judged according to its performance on the European scene, in the same way as PSG, he has always kept his eyes riveted on his objective. Facing Inter, Guardiola was so inhabited that he experienced the meeting as if he were the main character, gesticulating, bringing his players together at each timeout, falling to his knees on the lawn on the Nerazzurri’s first opportunity.

The winning strategy

After six successive failures (in addition to the three with Bayern Munich), each tarnishing his image a little more, the one who many still consider to be the best coach in the world has finally accomplished his mission. With a historic treble (Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League) which had not been achieved since rival United in 1999. The success is total for the Catalan, rewarded for his choices at the end of a second part of the season without a false note.

Without question, his team was the best in the competition. We do not correct Real Madrid 4-0 by chance. You don’t end a Champions League campaign undefeated without great tactical work. True to his reputation as a thinker of the game, Pep Guardiola has innovated. Everything changed when he developed a new 3-4-2-1 system on February 12, just after a defeat against Tottenham. By placing defender John Stones back in midfield in the possession phase, he found a way to multiply the solutions to creation. On Saturday, the Englishman was one of the only Cityzens to be good from start to finish.

This season, Guardiola has learned from his mistakes. Wanting too much to surprise his opponent by seeking at all costs the stroke of genius before each big night, he had chained disappointments: from elimination against Tottenham in 2019 (De Bruyne and Kompany left on the bench), to the final lost against Chelsea in 2021 (Rodrigo replacing), through the defeat against Lyon in 2020 (with a new tactical system). “Winning this competition and achieving the treble is so difficult that the way today didn’t matter, he insisted after the final. What was needed was to win it.” A realism rarely heard from him.

This time, he didn’t change his plans at the last minute. He remained confident in the game plan that saw his side go 25 games unbeaten between February and May and topple the Premier League as Arsenal seemed on course for the title. Although he never showed calm in his technical area, Guardiola did not change his formula despite Inter’s perfect defense for almost 70 minutes and despite the exit of his playmaker, Kevin de Bruyne, injured in the first half.

“He’s just a genius. I went to him to say ‘thank you, you made it all possible for me, you showed me so much confidence’. Even last year when I I was playing really badly, he stayed by my side. This year he gave me that space to perform, so I wanted to thank him.”, raved a dithyrambic Jack Grealish at the microphone of BT Sport after the meeting. The proof that, despite the pitfalls, the Catalan has lost none of his aura with his players.


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