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Pep Guardiola is one of footballs greatest ever managers. Winner of multiple domestic trophies in England, Germany and Spain - the Man City manager also boasts 3 Champions League winners medals, placing him amongst the most successful head coaches of all time.
With his influence being felt across football in the last decade, it’s fair to say the Spaniard has made a lasting imprint on football tactics during his time across Man City, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. But how do you actually beat a Pep Guardiola team?
To answer this slightly difficult question, Jon Mackenzie takes a deep dive into Pep’s approach and just how to beat one of football’s smartest minds.
Time Stamps:
0:00:00 Intro
00:08 Here's the bottom line
04:15 Who has beaten Guardiola's Man City?
06:23 Importance of controlling space against Guardiola
11:53 A conservative approach against Pep
16:37 A proactive approach: Jürgen Klopp
19:39 A proactive approach: Mikel Arteta
27:46 A proactive approach: Inter in the Champions League Final
35:30 Outro
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Tifo loves football. We create In-depth tactical, historical and geopolitical breakdowns of the beautiful game.
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Additional footage sourced from freestockfootagearchive.com
#ManCity #Guardiola #premierleague
Make him play all games at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium
Pep still winning everything.
Veerrrrryyyyy Tru neva won there since forevermore 😊
@@ivanbravo4536 he never won there
@@ivanbravo4536impossible, Man City can’t score against spurs away
@@mohammadhrajaeei8637he never got a single point there, he always lost there, scoring overall 2 goals in 5 matches
Simple. You hit him over the head with a large stick. Pep, being extremely bald, is particularly susceptible to head shots. He's lived a life of luxury for many years so it's unlikely that he can fight. He shouldn't be too hard to beat.
you are hilarious😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂😂
The only option guaranteed to work😄
"Extremely Bald" as in there's different degrees of baldness.🤣
@@DC-zi6se there pep's baldness and prince William's baldness
They played 3 matches in a row without Rodri. They lost all those 3 games. There you have the answer.
So to beat Man city, injure Rodri?
@@samkelorashuza5949without getting sent off (rotational fouling) 😂
@@samkelorashuza5949 works very well
Team loses without their 2 best players . shocking
@goodevil1227 I think they have good backups for everyone except for Rodri
Jon said that Liverpool actually lost 1 game fewer than city whilst having close to double the games with positive xGd. Now I find this way more remarkable and I'd love to see an in depth analysis of how Klopp can consistently beat the odds.
finer players execute low quality chances better, that and the absurd amount of pressure klopp's team puts others under forces them to make mistakes. it's a risky play style that the numbers can't measure (yet) and only shows up on the field.
I was thinking the same
Pretty sure the answer lies in Salah being an absurd finisher of low xG chances, and Alison being the best 1v1 goalkeeper in the world. Which means Liverpool routinely play in a way that exposes Alisson to normally pretty good xG situations for their opponents, but they back him to make the save. Whereas Salah does the opposite. Also worth mentioning I think the quality (even if not so much last season) of TAA’s cross and set piece delivery. Normally crosses have a fairly low xG because they’re not a typically great way of creating chances, but when you’re dealing with a guy who can put the ball EXACTLY where you want it as a striker, I would say it changes the fundamentals of the chance without actually changing the xG expectation I would imagine.
that actually upsets me. we’ve lost fewer games, but have 1 PL to their 5 😭😭😭😭
They just have better finishers in salah and mane
I remember Pochettino caused the most problems for man city when he was at spurs especially in those famous champions league matches. In his first season, Tuchel also won against man city 3 times! Tuchel's and Poch's tactical approaches might've deserved a decent analysis as well
Those two have lost more games under Pep than they have won
@@Ditiro100 the same is true for every other manager! Tuchel's and Poch's wins were epic in the ucl final against chelsea, man city didn't have a single shot on target! that's epic
Poch actually didn't have great records against Pep except those 2 UCL matches. 5:38 Can be seen from that stat, he only won once in the prem. Spurs' Conte had bigger win rate against Pep than Poch.
he just explain exacly how they beat him
@@kavehf9183no klopp has more wins over guardiola head to head so it’s not entirely true
The formation guardiola has lost most against is 3-4-3, reason, it offers 4 to 5 central midfielders which disrupt his central midfielders, and when pressed, it tends to become 5 or 6 at the back which completely stifles city Remember, he beat Chelsea 2-1 deservedly but lost 2-1 in the second leg goal coming from debrurunes free kick Difference 433 vs 343 in second leg
Also, in Tuchel's last Chelsea game vs City, he started out playing a 3-5-2 and City were dominant because they drooped Silva alongside Rodri and they controlled the team, but after Tuchel switched to a 3-4-3, Chelsea were the better team
Blabla 😂
Inter also gave city alot of trouble last season
Wasnt expecting 36 minutes!
It’s because it’s pep
@@A-se2ur😅😅😂
John Mackenzie is one of the best things to happen to Tifo football -- his ability to explain in-depth topics and willingness to dive into the details is simply wonderful.
I was hoping you’d bring in the Inter game. They did really well at making life difficult for Pep. It was impressive, even as a Milan fan
Every ucl final is like that.
@@russellward4624 🙄
City players were clearly nervous that game, just look at Ederson and Akanji first half. That probably has as much impact as Pep tactics
Bring back the Podcast 🎉
Damn sure Ten Hag's gonna watch this😅
He didn't
Playing Pep reminds me of the IRA quote about assassinating Maggie Thatcher - 'we only need to get lucky once, you need to get lucky every time'. Pep's players so rarely make mistakes, whilst opposition players do. Even when the managers tactically foil Pep, their players will make mistakes and City will punish them, City only need to get lucky once. Arsenal suffered this in the loss at the emirates last year, until that Tomiyasu mistake Arsenal were nullifying City pretty comfortably.
Only thing that can cancel players that rarely make mistakes are other players that rarely make mistakes like prime Liverpool. Since you would have to be almost flawless in order to have no player dribble past you for an entire season
Not necesarily... you can also force players to make mistakes. When Spurs beat City under Poch we pressed the life out of them. When City went to Anfield they were often visibly on edge... Sterling especially. but generally speaking, ensuring you are water tight, remove space from CM and counter is the way to beat pep. @@samkelorashuza5949
wasn't expecting to see IRA references in here but fair play, I see your point
Never thought I would see Pep get referenced with an IRA quote lol
+1 for a reference to the people trying to do the Lord's work and send Maggie T back to hell. Also, for an amazingly apt description of playing against Pep.
loving the longer form videos. allows for more detail.
Great video, John, really liking the in depth look at these questions that are always asked but never properly answered
funny thing is Ole used to beat pep for fun. he did it in such an obvious way as well. deep block which was a 5-2-1-2 out of possession(therefore counteracting citys front five) and it be came a 3-4-1-2/3-4-3 in attack. he beat city home and away in the 19/20 season and united looked ridiculously comfortable in the process.
Ole counterattacking was probably the best way to do it and maybe the most similar to what Spurs were doing. Mad that Dan James was an absolute lynchpin of that system. On the flip side though, I remember a pretty horrendous 2-0 (21/22 season?) where United played a back 5 and got mangled by the false 9. Not helped by Bailley being an absolute character, but I remember their out of possession structure got shredded and there was no clear out ball in the wide channels. Agree with you though, couterattacking from mid/deep has been the most successful system against City in recent years (especially with inferior players).
A lot of Ole beating Pep was also down to pep looking at other fixtures over united at that time aswell. And one of those "wins" was worthless cuz it was an aggregate loss in the cup
Tifo has become my lunch break routine
Facts😂
You get a lunch break?
@@asdfkie well fortunately corporate allows an hour to eat :)
amazing informative videos, love your content guys, well done
What a masterpiece. Tour de Jon. Love the stat regarding his 13% loss ratio. In a game as noisy as football, that must be quite close to what 'perfection' actually is.
Lovely video! We demand the podcast come back I miss you Joe 😭😭😭
Klopp with City’s war chest funds would be dangerous
😂😂😂 he did spend much in his first few years remember Van Dijk,Alisson they were most expensive players at their positions at some point
@@firstlane7695yeah but we had to sell Coutinho for 150 million to get the money to fund those transfers in the first place
Dangerous for my ribs, maybe 😂. Imagine his current bottling skills x100 💀
@@QuentinMajor stop whatever you’re smoking. For the sake of your ribs
@@PistolPanda28 I can't help it - the Klopp pack is just so tasty 🚬
Brilliant video, though would have liked a quick look at Solkjaer's wins^^
Excellent analysis!!..
Jon Mackenzie is doing great with his engagement with the camera, tone, etc
Awesome vid, thanks Jon! Not a fan of City or Guardiola, but thoroughly enjoyed this analysis
What a beautiful demonstration on the importance of "Out of possession" stuffs in football which is the most necessary for a top team :) Expecting more videos on the same. Excellent work TiFo Team.
Basically Man City without KDB and Rodri is pretty much on par with Arsenal. This is exactly the situation where individual talent shines.
You made the point that everyone including the video producer ignored. It is harder to beat Pep because he has the best players in every position.
@@alexanderomucheyi1857they were never the best when he started with them,he made them best for their respective roles,put some respect to that.Simply saying he has the best players is just,I dunno Gaslighting
Counter attack is what I'd say
The Leicester one was three penalties too it wasn’t like Leicester gained good shots in real play.
Tuchel beat Pep 3 times in a row. That feat deserves some detailed analysis..
How many times has pep beaten him since then? I am waiting
@@GermanChickenwing I don't know how many times. However, the title of the video is "How to beat Pep Guardiola". It's not about, for example, "why does Pep win so much"? So I suggest Tuchel's 3 wins in a row deserves at least a mention. Don't be emotional about it please..
he ran away to bayern after schooled by city and again got schooled by city with Bayern. he is just a bus parker. not a coach. his Bayern is playing sh*** football
Thanks Jon that really explained how you can can beat a 9 man city defense with 11 attackers
One point which is often not talked about enough is that you need to have possesion phases. You need to keep possesion and not only hoof it long and give instantly back to city. Because even if you defend perfectly an opposition will always get chances. If you let them attack for nonstop 90 minutes at one point a longshot or blocked pass/shoot goes to someone in the box and he scores
It would be also interesting to see the stats on teams that have drawn with Man City, and teams ranked by goal difference.
Thanks! Ill use this next time i go up against him
Where do I get those framed print shirts in the background? They r pretty coolio 😎
Saw the title, checked the duration and it adds up
Pep has the most deep analysis on this show and other ones. Idk i feel like if i was a PL coach i would watch this. At this point I feel like they are trying to help them out so we can get parity again. Pep really turned the Prem into a Farmers league 😂. As a City fan it's crazy to see so much effort being put into how to beat us.
and didn't even need to cheat! oh
@@chris94kennedyhope y'all feel the same way about Eddie howe In a few years lol
The whole city hierachy, the staffs and the playing staffs with the best manager in the world creates a very very good system to become a massive football club. SO in a way to beat Man City you have to beat it on the field(not off it since there is no way to do that) and that means you have to beat the best tactical manager ever. THat is why it is interesting for TIFO to make this content. ANd trust me so many effort is put into how to beat you guys is because you guys are just super good and the top dog.
@@SolAya21Newcastle aren't cheating, you guys have multiple ffp breaches and use fake sponsor money
@@franalytics5995it haven't been proven yet,even pep said they are eagerly waiting for the result Being salty about a clubs success only by being pitiful and ranting is pure stupidity
I like how he explained everything in detail,shows how hard ot is to beat city
It used to be simple: He used to have a weak soft-underbelly due to trying to have every player a ball player so his defence was weak if you did long/quick ball to speedy strong strikers who can hit if they make a mistake while being solid block in defence creating tension in his team trying to attack but knowing a mistake will cost them. Now? He's modified his personnel... solid defenders. Strong striker to capitalise on big chances and put more pressure pushing defences back (Haaland) while still being solid with the ball and creation and control. Looking at all the other big teams: Real, Barca, Napoli/Milan, Bayern, PSG, Liverpool, Arsenal... I'm thinking there's few of even those that would out-perform Man City and feel Liverpool and Real alone might be disruptive enough to beat them with higher chance but still not be favourites? Sure Arsenal won recently and did out play but I think they're still short up front to really hurt City... Real still have a few players up front who can do damage despite run of play for another example but even then they lack a lethal striker as well.
Dangerous long balls over the top of that high line defence with a fast and CLINICAL striker or forwards running in behind
7:27 Yeah...we all know 0-0 is a victory.
Where did you get that Cruyff jumper, that's class 👌👌
John is glowing, fresh skin game surely. Keep up the great content x
Damn😮 those numbers
Wow! Very interesting. 👌👌
Great video only other thing I wanted to see analysis of 3 Tuchels wins over Guardiola in 2021.
Not much analysis to be had, I'm afraid. It was covid fluke, is all.
Liverpool have lost less games in that period ?!
They drew a lot though
In our prime we were better at not losing but City were better at winning if that makes sense in 18/19 season we lost 1 game in prem for example where as City lost 4 and still won title and 19/20 where Liverpool won title Liverpool lost 3 games where as City lost 9 even in our injury crisis season we only lost 3 more games than Man city.
I really enjoyed this break down. Thank you for taking the time to do this!
At least mark Haaland😂 last season it seemed like the teams forgot that option.
They marked Haaland, it is just that he can convert some low xG chances last season (he well overperformed his xG). However, this season, Haaland's conversion rate is a bit lower due to form (iirc same goals as xG).
“A famous 0-0 win against Pep’s Barça” sure must have felt like a win 7:22
Nice video
Marching on together!
This guys has changed so much from the first video he made.. So much more relaxed .. he is brilliant.. but not as fun as JJ but the balance is slightly better
Just in time for the derby
Someone share this with Big Ange pls 😂
easier said than done lads!
initially i would have said Mourinho but to beat pep u have to use the strength which is possession and turn it against them to a no settle possession. inter , Liverpool does this to city
Nothing really changed, you need to play like Mourinho's Inter in 2010, compact in defense, quick in counterattacks, efficient in the box. IMHO it's the most (only ?) reliable way.
You also have to foul their players a lot and have a referee who doesn't call fouls.
My favourite 🎉🎉🎉
4:16 that's what happened to Newcastle on the weekend, at the start the pressed really well but Pep pushed his full backs up and took Gordon and Almiron out of the press so it just left city with domination of possession.
Midfielders with pace and physical strength like Fede valverde partnered with Frankie de Jong would do the most damage vs city
Is postecoglou more attacking or pressing based
Should do a Bielsa video
Where do you get your data?
Noted
I hope Eric Ten Hag is watching this🥲🥲
I mean, all this comes back to "for his whole career as a manager, Pep has had a more talented squad than pretty much every team he faces." Being better than them generally is therefore really rare. Given that his teams are "consistency" teams rather than "rise to the occasion" teams means that being better than them on that day is also going to be very rare. Because they're so uniformly good across the field, taking one thing away will always open up another thing that they can take advantage of. You have to commit to whatever it is you want to do against them and hope for some good fortune.
Tuchel Implemented the same system in the CL final and away at the eitihad against Pep.
35 minutes trying to figure out were the notification noises were coming from, turned out to be the background music.
cant wait to see what Ange has in store for pep
What’s his winrate with and without Rodri
Two out of three of his managerial jobs have been with two of the most corrupt clubs in European football history. The man gets far too much credit
This is more about how to stop them and not beat them. I would like to see how to attack them effectively and win, rather than stoping them from scoring
Tifo putting out a tutorial for Ten Hag
its just like basketball. you have 2 approaches. you out-possess him and force his defense to work, tire them out, and bury the chances that you will get. or emphasiize defense, man marking dangerous creative playmakers while forcing others to make decisions, creating turnovers in play, and getting out on breaks and running to eat up yardage to get as close to the box as possible, and possessing from there.
did you take into account when city wins with a negative xg ?
Make him manage a club without a lot of funds
No one mention of the man with the most encounters against him with the most wins against him and the only person with a positive record.
"how do you actually beat pep guadiloa?" simple, you take his trucks of transfer cash away from him.
Ding ding ding!
Like hes the only one with trucks of cash. Use your truck of cash and beat him
watch the 2 legs of Real vs Bayern in 2013 and you have your answer.. Carlo put on a master class and Bayern were left clueless lol. the key is not to compensate or to compensate NATURALLY.. also falling into his traps need to be avoided. I'd go for a diamond and mark zonally that way you can mitigate his use of space much easier than defending traditionally. also youd need 2 extremely intelligent fullbacks and strikers especially defensively because they will be key in regards to mitigating switches and rotations when he's exploiting your weak side which is another reason why i love the diamond against this. the diamond always acknowledges the weakside.. the issue is how efficiently can you mitigate it.
Investigate his team for financial irregularities, then punish them for it. Next question!
@3:44 I see you editor 👀
You play give and go's (one twos) in passing triangles, how wenger did in Wengerball but you switch the play to the full back or winger often for transition football. Always double up on rodri when pressing, set your CAM on rodri to man mark him out the game when you don't have the ball. Also, target the side that Kyle Walker doesn't cover, i.e. Man City's left hand side
The way arsenal recently beat them is pretty much the only chance a decent team has against them. Tight, tactical, disciplined and get a late goal ..smaller teams don't have any chance.
You also need to get rid of Rodri.
By actually going through with charges.
PRESSING!!
Im just here for 30 minutes of that beat tbh
The moment i saw the length of the video, I was discouraged.
Eth taking notes
How about, how to beat Postecoglou
Easy - give him a mid-table team.
Roberto Di Matteo made Pep Leave us that awful Thursday in Camp Nou
By giving the other 19 teams a way to cheat FFP too
Imho, City were weak mentally in the UCL final. I think that led to worse stats for them especially at the end of the game... Experience breeds confidence and belief and then performance goes up eg Real winning UCL multiple times (along with a cushy league). So expect City if they do get to another final would perform better but Haaland seems dipping in form atm is a minor worry...
Nah ,Haaland is coping/learning to play with players marking him.Real showed masterclass by Making Rudiger marking him and every club noted that,they are doing tht tactic now and Haaland need to find a way to overcome this.This might take some time,but he's clinical as ever
@@akiraaoiichigo I disagree: He clearly missed high chance shots on goal irrespective of marking and has carried on doing that this season until his latest game against ManU.
@@commentarytalk1446If you notice Firstly he didn't even had the ball. Now he's missing it all he needs is how to leave his markers
Set him in charge of a team which is not systemically cheating, that makes it a good bit easier.
Well that also excludes united, Chelsea and liverpool then. Might as well add madrid barca and psg. Surely you're not naive enough to think that only one club has shady practices
@@bluemoon1716 Pep has not managed PGS or Chelsea. There is black on white proof of ManC willingly and knowingly cheating. The only reason the got away is because they had stuck in a "you cant punish us for stuff older than five years ago"-clause in there first time, when they provably had cheaten the next time it was to late. and now there is 120+ new cases. They win because of a spinless organisation and tons of lawyers. To say ManC dont cheat is like saying OJ did nothing wrong.
Guardiola is the godfather of the beautiful game. Modern day game management is all about changing the situation and in game management. Teams like Man united and ten hag have a lot to learn from them. No wonder man city is the best In Business today.
How to beat Pep: Have more money than him and be a decent manager.
Man utd is richer. Chelsea is wealthy. Premier league clubs have mountains of cash. This money argument is sentimental and short sighted
Pep is the goat
Brentford beat City both home and away last season.... this was season they won the treble. Amazing
6-1
@@grsafran Huh? Brentford haven't lost 6-1
I pretend that I can pay attention to all that while having my morning coffee, but who am I kidding? It's too much for a casual listen 😀... Jon also speaks way too fast for us mere mortals 🐢
Guardiola was really beaten in UCL final...inter really impressive,they were bad and unlucky infront of goal
But then you have to give him the wins against Spurs, Lyon etc...
It certainly shows the flaws or deficiencies in xg as a metric?