Pep Guardiola: Manchester City’s new tactics analysed

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

“We are adapting to the quality of players we have. At the moment we only have one suitable winger in Antoine and we are adapting the system to make the players comfortable.”

It appears that the approach of one of the most successful coaches in football is player-centred.

Numerous coaches have been hired in recent years and then dismissed due to a tactical style they were unwilling to give up.

In 2026, Guardiola still believes in dominating possession, unlocking low blocks and pressing teams into his own half as he did 20 years ago, but he aims to get the best out of his team, tailoring his tactics to his players to realize these principles.

While Guardiola and his staff will teach his players the best way to move and interact with their team-mates, the reason these tactics have worked for City in recent weeks is that players are suited to the positions they are in.

Pep has reinvented his side many times throughout his career. Promising coaches are sometimes said to play like Pep, but that claim is often less true given Guardiola’s sides often look different.

Despite this, his way of thinking about the game and his core beliefs have remained unchanged for a remarkably long time, and his writings from 2006 provide clues that the City manager was always destined to be at the top.