Immediately after Pep Guardiola came to Man City, more than 100 scouts from around the world were summoned to gather at a meeting room to listen to the special elements he sought at a player.
It was the first time Pep spoke to the trach team, but instead of giving a long list of complex tactical requirements, his message was extremely brief and direct.
“Simply, please find me the players who can dribble. The rest let me take care of,” said the words he said, and then started to deploy more intensive details.
It was in 2016. At that time, Guardiola has just led Bayern and worked with two wingers who favored: Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery. Earlier, he developed Lionel Messi to become the best player in the world by putting La Pulga's ability to dribble into the center of the tactical system at Barca as a “virtual number 9”.
At that time, the viewpoint of Guardiola was the person who restricted the creativity has not become a mainstream trend, but the dominance of Man City over the past 9 years has made that public opinion more and more widespread. Many people believe that Pep's football is not suitable for personality and is overshadowing the art of dribbling, and he himself “spread” the disease throughout the football village.
Jack Grealish – who has been eliminated from Man City's 2025 World Cup Club – has become a symbol of this accusation since he left Aston Villa to Etihad in 2021 for a fee of £ 100 million. From an impromptu, free player on the field, Grealish gradually became a “ball holder” in the border.
In the eyes of many people, Greealish is the model for the style of mechanical play, the stereotype of the position tactics deployed by Guardiola. However, for many people who have worked with him, this is just a misunderstanding – a mythical story that is woven without understanding the subtlety of Pep's talent.
Guardiola's message with very clear scouts: Find the ball players, because he considered his job as a strategy to bring the ball to the end of the pitch – like Thierry Henry once shared in the program “Monday Night Football”, when recalling the competition experience in the left wing under Guardiola at Barca.
“At the first day of taking over the team, he told us: 'My task is to bring you to 1/3 of the last pitch, and your task is to end the situation',” Henry said.
Guardiola once laughed at the view that he disliked the ball in a last season interview. “If you have that quality, drag the ball,” he said.
“I will show you the time to do it, and I will try to help Jeremy Doku – through our play – have the opportunity to use the ability to dribble as much as possible. That's my job: help him receive the ball in the most favorable conditions, with a lot of space to control and overcome the opponent.”
To do this, Guardiola needs a ball player one at a high level. During the season to win the “treble” 2022/23, he temporarily left that model and used players like Greealish, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden on two wings – players who are more controlled than dribbling.
But now, Guardiola is gradually recruiting more players who are more likely to dribble the squad.
Rayan Ait-Nouri is a left-back model capable of receiving the ball in pressure and then surpassing the opponent in both directions. In the Premier League last season, only 10 players performed more shadow situations than him.
Rayan Cherki has a “street football” style, rich in technical and creative. No player in the top 5 leagues in Europe creates opportunities with high expected goals (XG) for teammates than the French player every 90 minutes last season.
Tijjani Reijnders is extremely dangerous in the directing the ball into the middle – only Matteo Guendouzi of Lazio has more “carry” more than 10 meters more “carry” than the UK in Serie A last season.
In addition to names like Foden, Doku – who has the ability to dribble, although it is not always the most effective – and Matheus Nunes, who moves from Wolves thanks to its excellent ability to pull the ball, can clearly see the PEP trend that PEP is being built: the squad of the guides.
The chart above shows that Man City has recruited many players with the ability to dribble in Europe in recent years. Doku is almost at another level: an average of more than 10 balls per game, and more than 6 times to put the ball into the penalty area.
Cherk and Savinho also appeared in the group of players regularly right below Doku. This reflects the way Guardiola reassembles the tactical changes that are taking place in the Premier League – and signal the new City's new appearance next season.
“Pep told me: 'When you have the ball, you are free to handle,' 'Cherki shared after signing the contract.
Guardiola always shows the ability to restructure the team both tactical and physical. He constantly transformed and changed.
When he first arrived in England, Pep introduced how to press him by luring the opponent. The two wingers are always the core principle in his squad – and once the enemy is rising, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane will take advantage of the back space with their speed and ability to dribble.
However, the teams later adapted by playing “low blocks” – causing Man City to use good players to play in a narrow space to penetrate the crowded defense. Riyad Mahrez has combined both styles, but often PEP uses two of the three: Greealish, Foden and Silva to control and handle more accurately.
To enhance control, he also changed the defender structure. Joao Cancelo was removed, replaced by 4 central defenders to stop the counterattack, with John Stones playing a hybrid role between the center -back and the defensive midfielder in the “Eat Dad” season. However, last season, that approach became obsolete. Many teams play low defensive and counterattack more effectively.
“If there is no player who knows how to dribble, you cannot do anything in modern football,” Guardiola said in 2023.
With more and more pressing teams in the “1 -1 1” style, the players must surpass the opponent directly in a wider space. In that context, Pep recruited good players to show that Man City could switch to a more direct -shadow style. Especially when he has the support from Pep Lijnders, the former assistant of Jurgen Klopp in Liverpool, now the new “right arm”.
Since the end of Josko GVARDIIM's match against the Club Brugge in January, or the impressive performance of Nico O'reLilly against Bournemouth at the FA Cup – when he constantly rises from the lower route – Guardiola seems to be highly appreciated the idea of ”double boundary”.
In the last match of the season at Craven Cottage, Nunes and Omar Marmoush effectively coordinated on the right wing, and Man City became the most dangerous when there was a gap to speed up. That is also the ideal condition for Erling Haaland to maximize its forte. And if Guardiola is building a “supporting cast” suitable for that environment, Man City will most likely become a completely new threat in the next season.
