Sunday 18 December 2016 11:30, UK
Guillem Balague explains why Pep Guardiola deserves patience as he tries to get it right at Manchester City.
Guardiola won the league title in his first season at both Barcelona and Bayern Munich. In fact, in his first year in charge of both those clubs he swept all of his domestic rivals aside.
After 10 wins in a row at the start of this season, it seemed he would do the same at Manchester City. But City hit a roadblock - and Guardiola's critics were quick to make themselves heard.
Wednesday's win over Watford was just their fifth in 16 games in all competitions and during that spell Guardiola has been criticised for over-complicating his tactics, encouraging his players to take risks in dangerous areas and for his team selection. People have said he is not suited to the Premier League and doesn't understand the English game.
But are those criticisms fair? I don't think they are.
Guardiola has been accused of not caring about defending. His revelation that he doesn't spend time working on tackling on the training pitch fuelled that theory. But let's look at the facts. Only six teams have a better defensive record than City this season so it's hardly a disaster. But looking back at Guardiola's record, we can see he has been hugely successful at keeping the opposition out.
In each of his previous seven seasons as a manager his team have finished with the best defence in their respective league. And by a long way. I fully expect Guardiola's City to be among the tightest defences come the end of the season.
Indeed, there is an assumption that Guardiola should instantly transform City into the best team in the Premier League but, even though he enjoyed success very quickly at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, he has said all along it will be a process at City which will take time.
"I need time," he said recently. "Next year we will be better and the season after."
We've already seen that kind of progress at Bayern Munich. While on paper the second and third seasons don't look as impressive as the first, in his final campaign Bayern had adopted his methods, were flexible tactically to see off almost any type of opponent - and were only denied a place in the Champions League final on away goals.
Bayern's executive chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said Guardiola took the game to the highest level, tactically and strategically. Surely someone who has done that deserves more than five months to shape his team?
The problem Guardiola has at City is he's working with an older squad than most. He prefers to work with young players who are open to his different methods rather than players who are used to doing things a certain way.
Only Stoke, Watford and West Brom have fielded an older starting XI than City did at Burnley this season. In that match, City's line-up was over 30 years old on average. City also have the oldest squad among the top teams in the Premier League, with an average age of just over 28.
There is also a question about the quality Guardiola is working with. We know he inherited the likes of Lionel Messi at Barcelona and treble winners at Bayern Munich, but even the spine of the City team doesn't compare favourably with what he had at those clubs.
Bravo, Stones, Silva and Aguero are not as good as Valdes, Puyol, Xavi and Messi or Neuer, Boateng, Lahm and Ribery. As well as time, Guardiola will need transfer windows to shape his squad into one which can embrace and thrive in his style.
There is also an argument that Guardiola will find it harder to control matches in the Premier League as much as he did in Germany or Spain. He has said himself that it is impossible to control 90 minutes in this country.
First of all, there's the increased number of matches that have to be played, which limit the training-ground time Guardiola treasures and the amount his players can rest. The busy Christmas period, for instance, will be completely new to him, while City didn't have two midweeks off until mid-November this season.
There's also the nature of the football in England. The top three teams combined for possession in England have lower figures than their counterparts in Spain and Germany, highlighting the more frantic style in the Premier League.
It will take Guardiola time to adapt to his new environment but, looking at his history, there's no reason to doubt that he'll do that eventually. But he will do so in an exciting way, experimenting with different tactics, formations and methods.
That's something we should embrace rather than criticise. It will be great to watch - and is great to have in the Premier League.
