Pep Guardiola: Analysis of Manchester City’s new tactics

In response to my question, Pep focused on the quality of the player.

“We are adapting to the quality of players we have. We now have only one suitable winger in Antoine and we are adapting the system to provide comfort for the players.”

It’s interesting that for one of the most successful coaches in football, his style is player-driven.

In recent years, many coaches have been appointed and then sacked due to their tactical style which they did not want to back down from.

Guardiola in 2026 still believes in the importance of opening up low balls by controlling the ball, pinning teams in their own half, as he did 20 years ago, but with the aim of getting the best out of his team, he is adjusting his tactics based on his players, to implement these principles.

Although Guardiola and his staff will work to coach their players on the best way to move and interact with their teammates, the reason these tactics have worked so well for City in recent weeks is down to the players’ suitability to the positions they find themselves in.

Pep has reinvented his team several times throughout his career. Promising managers are sometimes described as playing like Pep, but that claim is often less true given Guardiola’s side often look very different.

Despite this, the way he thinks about the game and his core beliefs have remained consistent over a remarkably long period, and his 2006 columns provide clues as to how the City manager is likely always destined for the top.