Guardiola's pre-season plan proving decisive factor in Man City's title charge
It is a point Pep Guardiola has made repeatedly since the first game of the season and reminders have been littered throughout. Manchester City may have the most valuable squad in world football but they have the smallest in England and second across Europe’s big five leagues.
That is the way the head coach likes it. His intricate gameplans are easy to drill into a smaller pool of players who all feel involved and, for obvious reasons, the bigger a group the less harmonious the environment. “I like to work with not many players and have everyone involved,” Guardiola said on the eve of the campaign. "It is what it is. We have shown in the last years we have a small squad and we are there in the last stages.”
Wednesday night’s 3-0 win over West Ham, a trickier assignment than the scoreline would suggest, brought them on to 23 players used in the campaign so far with Stefan Ortega starting in goal.
That is still two behind the next smallest, Brentford, and since the turn of the century is only eclipsed by the 21 Guardiola used in their 18/19 title win.
A closer look shows that, discounting Joao Cancelo, who departed to Bayern Munich in January, City have a core of 14 regular outfield players.
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There are some similarities with Leicester ’s title-winning group in 2015/16, who had 11 players appearing in at least 30 league games. But Claudio Ranieri’s squad did not have Europe to contend with. City, on the other hand, are looking to become the second team to do the Treble after their neighbours in 1998/99.
For added context, the most players used by a title winner came in 2008/09 when Sir Alex Ferguson gave minutes to 33 – although only 20 of those made eight or more appearances.
These numbers also debunk the belief that City are routinely buying up loads of players.
They do not. They just buy, with few exceptions, elite performers who then have some of the best coaches, analysts and medical staff to maximise their output. Guardiola touched on that in February when reiterating his small squad point following the win over Aston Villa.
"Our depth is so, so small, maybe the smallest one in the Premier League by far," he told Sky Sports. "It's important that we don't have injuries but we have an incredible methodology for training to manage the fatigue and avoid injuries. We have incredible doctors and physios and everyone. I fight for that for many years."
Erling Haaland has broken the record for the most goals in a Premier League season (Getty Images)Astronomical wages and close to a guarantee of success must help too. Critics, with much justification, will point to the 115 charges of alleged financial misconduct that the Premier League announced in February and the average fee paid per player is at a level almost every club cannot compete with.
But unlike Chelsea, to give one example, there is no culture of throwing money at signings who may or may not work out. Since Guardiola’s arrival in 2016/17, City have spent more than £20m on 18 occasions and arguably only three of those – Danilo, Benjamin Mendy, and Ferran Torres – have not lived up to expectations. It is too early to definitively include Kalvin Phillips in that list – look at Jack Grealish ’s transformation this season to see why – and both Danilo and Torres ended up being sold on at a profit.
Last week’s demolition of Arsenal clarified the quality-quantity gap. With Nathan Ake absent, and Cancelo departed, Manuel Akanji was plugged in at left back and looked very comfortable. On the opposite side Mikel Arteta found he had a huge drop off between injured first-choice centre back William Saliba and Rob Holding, who was annihilated repeatedly by Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne.
On paper it looks like City have paced themselves expertly this season, putting together a winning run of 34 points from 36 while those around them are wilting late in a season disrupted by the World Cup and warnings from player representatives that players are at breaking point.
Nathan Ake has returned from a minor hamstring injury. (CameraSport via Getty Images)After knocking out Bayern in the Champions League quarter-finals, Guardiola said “we are exhausted” on a night when Ake strained a hamstring. But the Netherlands defender is already back in action and, so far, the squad has been spared any season-ending problems.
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Which again goes back to that core of 14. All have played more than 1,000 minutes but only seven of those have more than 2,000. Arsenal have 11 players in four-figures but nine of those have had more than 2,000 and Gabriel has broken 3,000.
So when the inevitable happens later this month and City secure a fifth title in six years, with the Champions League and FA Cup to be determined, any suggestions that they have ended up here because of the deepest squad must be given short shrift.
Instead the key to the squad’s triumph has been a core with arguably the highest floor seen in the game’s history.
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