Man City have passed Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona challenge five years ahead of schedule

Manchester City are now the blueprint for Barcelona and the German national side – who were the blueprint for Pep Guardiola when he first arrived at the Etihad.

In 2016, when Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City, Barcelona was still the envy of Europe and Germany were the defending world champions and reached the European semi-finals.

Coming from Bayern Munich, a team that has such a huge influence on the German national team, Guardiola’s footprint covers two of the world’s top teams. Seven years later, both of these teams struggled longer as Guardiola’s influence faded from their organizations. Meanwhile, City continues to get stronger

Bayern still dominates the Bundesliga, but not so much in Europe since winning the Champions League in 2020, while Germany has lost the last two World Cups in the group stage and lost to England in the round of 16 of Euro 2020.Barcelona has recently played more football in the Europa League than in the Champions League, with the La Liga championship but facing many financial problems.

Both teams are looking to regain their former glory and they know they won’t be able to sign Guardiola – at least for two years. So their solution? Do what Guardiola would do.

Barcelona have signed Eric Garcia, Ferran Torres, Sergio Aguero, Ilkay Gundogan and Joao Cancelo from Man City in recent years, with Gundogan the most notable player in the group that guided the Blues to a treble in this summer. Signing Cancelo gives them the option of playing in the traditional right-back position or the inverted full-back role that Cancelo pioneered (and others have taken to the next level).

They have appointed Guardiola’s disciple – Xavi – as coach, who combines Barcelona’s heritage and forward-thinking tactics, the closest combination to Guardiola without naming the man himself there.

Gundogan himself admitted that Barcelona’s goal now is to reach the level that Man City achieved under Guardiola – similar to the heights that Barca achieved in the golden era under the iconic coach.

“There have been maybe two or three teams like City last year – at least since I’ve been following football,” Gundogan said last week. “Barcelona around 2011, among others.

“I am convinced that Xavi is addressing the right things. With us experienced players, there can be a good mix. I believe that we can reach a similar level to City in the next few years.”

Back in Germany, a report this week in Bild suggested that Hansi Flick has turned to City in a bid to address his nation’s stuttering form. After crashing out of the World Cup before the knock-outs, Germany beat Peru and have then gone four without a win as they compete in friendlies before next summer’s home Euros.

Bild report that Flick wants to give Joshua Kimmich the role of an inverted right-back, and has taken direct inspiration from Guardiola. The report says that Flick showed his squad videos of City to illustrate his point, with a particular focus on John Stones’ marauding role from right-back to midfield.

It would have been unthinkable that Barcelona and Germany would be using the City blueprint to return to the top of the game, even when Guardiola took the reins at the Etihad. Guardiola’s influence and transformative tactics have been so effective, though, that the only way to beat City’s level is to join it.

Speaking in 2018, two years after taking over, Guardiola declared that City were still miles away from Barcelona’s level, back when his City trophy cabinet had just one Carabao Cup in it.

“They have won a lot in the past. We are new – we’ve won one title but it is not a [fair] comparison,” Guardiola said before a Champions League last-16 second leg with Basel.

“It is not good for us comparing [ourselves] with that Barcelona team. That team dominated the last decade, 15 to 20 years with different managers, different players. We have just won the first title. To join this kind of team you have to be there a long time.”

If dominating for a decade is the measure of success, then City still have a few years, and a couple more Champions League titles to go to be considered among the greatest.

But when that same Barcelona are reliant on Guardiola’s methods to return to those past glories, they have undoubtedly replaced Barca on the top of the pile in Europe, setting the bar for how to win big tournaments.

In doing that, they have arguably achieved in five years what Guardiola challenged them to manage in ten or twenty.