Jay Bothroyd has said that he’s been amazed by what one Manchester City man has done at the club.
The Citizens recently became the first side to win four Premier League titles in a row after picking up their sixth top-flight trophy in seven years.
City also have the chance to complete another domestic double by beating Manchester United in the FA Cup this weekend.
Now though, one pundit has shared his praise for one particularly important figure at the Manchester club who has played a big role in their success.
Bothroyd says Pep Guardiola has changed football
Speaking in a recent video shared on the Optus Sport YouTube channel, Bothroyd had this to say on the matter.
He said: “One thing that I see with his teams, Guardiola could see where teams just used to sit in and put five and six players behind the ball, so he was like how can I break this down?
“He starts putting five and six players up front, and he’s just like that’s how we’re going to break them down because, it’s always difficult to break down teams where you’ve got nine players in the box, how do you deal with that unless you’re just swinging balls in the box.
“But there’s only one player really that can win headers and that’s [Erling] Haaland, otherwise, you got their little 5’8, 5’9s around them that want to play football, but now he’s rejigged the way football is played as in he’s created a false full-back coming in, centre-halves playing in there as midfielders that are comfortable on the ball.
“He’s saying to [Phil] Foden stay up high, Kevin De Bruyne stay up high, your winger stay up high, you got Haaland up there.
“I think the way he has changed football like as in formations, making players that normally wouldn’t be, like [Josko] Gvardiol normally wouldn’t look comfortable as a left-back, he looks comfortable because of what he what they work on in training.
“I think what he’s done for English football, for Man City, for all of the managers in the world, they all pretty much say they copy him.
“Even Ange [Postecoglou] at Tottenham, he says it all the time, I copy him. He is the best manager ever in my opinion.”
Guardiola is one of the most innovative managers ever
Even before joining City back in 2016, the 53-year-old had a reputation for being innovative in his previous managerial roles at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, implementing methods such as the false-nine formation and using players in positions they hadn’t played in before.
Having used similar methods during his time at City, it’s undeniable that Guardiola’s coaching style and ideas have been pivotal to the success that the £378k-a-week manager has led his side to over the past eight years.