Pep Guardiola's Manchester City are paying dearly for their lack of change

"Football is cycles. And each cycle lasts three or four years. Hardly any longer. That expiry date also includes the squads that perform and win awards," wrote Johan Cruyff in a column in the newspaper La Vanguardia in February 2007. At that time, 'El Flaco' was referring to the FC Barcelona squad, managed for the fourth consecutive year by Frank Rijkaard. Eighteen years later, those lines written in the Catalan newspaper, applied in his past as a coach, are still valid and the best case scenario to see it is Pep Guardiola's Manchester City.

The coach from Santpedor, an extension of the 'Maestro' on the field and a disciple from the sidelines, was the ideologist of one of the best Barça teams ever remembered. However, the situation at the British team is getting the better of him. "I'm not good enough," he said after his pupils' defeat against Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium (2-3). That is to say, the second most successful coach in the history of this sport with 39 trophies, only behind Ferguson's 49, says he is not up to the task of turning the situation around. Forgive me, Pep, but you are wrong, because you are surprisingly good.

"Football is cycles"

Two years ago, in the 22/23 season, the entire Manchester City team was focused on achieving the treble: Champions, Premier and FA Cup. The special obsession was the 'big ears', a title that had eluded Pep since 2011. Such was the hunger for titles that a 22-year-old Erling Haaland arrived in the 'sky blue' dressing room, promising to break all scoring records. The Norwegian striker is not the type of footballer that Guardiola likes, as he is a footballer with few associative abilities, but he is a high-calibre striker. As goals are what counts in football, he was the centre forward for the English team, although with Julián Álvarez as an assistant. The objective was achieved, as the trio of trophies ended up in the 'Cityzens' showcases.

After seven seasons in charge of the British team, the objective of the 23/24 campaign was to win the titles that he had not had access to, the Club World Cup and the European Super Cup, as well as trying to maintain the level. He finished both tournaments with City as champions, as well as the Premier League. The path in the highest continental club competition ended in the quarter-finals, against a Real Madrid that ended up lifting the title. The season can be classified as good. The squad was identical to the previous year, except for significant losses such as Gündogan or Riyad Mahrez and some additions, such as Josko Gvardiol.

This year, with the same backbone as in previous seasons, logically older and even incomplete in some areas, Manchester City is having a very hard time. Guardiola has not applied the cycle changes that Cruyff advocated for some time. In fact, he has even brought back a Gündogan who sought his shelter after being invited to leave FC Barcelona. The average age in the lineup for Tuesday's defeat against Real Madrid was 27.7 years, lightened by Savinho (20), Gvardiol (23) and Haaland (24). The rest, except for Rúben Dias who is 27, are in their thirties.

Johan insisted on the need to restructure the squads, even the winning ones, to maintain competitiveness and the hunger for titles. While it is true that the 'sky blue' team has several young footballers who have just arrived, they do not have the necessary impact to consider that the cycle change has been executed. It's not that Pep isn't good, but he's forgetting an important lesson.