London: Can a team that fails to win the Champions League truly be thought of as great?
Manchester City have played extraordinary football this season and could wrap up the Premier League title on Saturday with six games
remaining. Pep Guardiola’s stars are likely to set new records for points won and goals scored — and yet if they fail to win the Champions League this season, or at some point in the Spaniard’s reign, there will be a palpable sense of failure.
Guardiola’s time at Bayern Munich is proof of that: There he won three Bundesliga titles with ease, his side playing some extraordinary football, and yet there was a shadow because each time he was defeated in the semifinal of the Champions League. The Premier League, it is true, carries more cachet than the Bundesliga, where Bayern’s budget, which is roughly two-thirds bigger than that of their nearest rival, means they should always be champions. But, still, Europe is the testing ground if City want to enter the highest level of the pantheon.
The doubt about this City side, even as they have racked up 88 goals in 31 league games this season, has always been their defense. That they have let in only 21 in the league is irrelevant. They are extremely good at keeping the ball; lesser sides cannot get near them. The issue comes against teams who are capable of breaking through their press, as Liverpool did in beating them 4-3 at Anfield in January. That was the failing that undid City against Monaco in the quarterfinal last season and the fear must be that it will do so again.
No manager has a better record against Guardiola than Jurgen Klopp, who has won six and drawn one of 12 meetings. Klopp has made clear that he believes the only way to play against City is to attack and try to expose their weakness. Sitting back, looking to absorb pressure and hoping City miss the chances, he has said, is hoping “to win the lottery.”
Liverpool may be the only team to have beaten City in the league this season, but over two games against Guardiola’s side they have conceded eight goals. In part that is a result of the four they conceded after Sadio Mane’s sending off at the Etihad, but it also hints at Liverpool’s own vulnerability at the back, which has not been entirely solved by the signing of Virgil van Dijk or the emergence at left-back of Andrew Robertson.
It is City’s left-back position that has provoked the most pre-match chatter, all the more so because whoever plays there will have to deal with Mohamed Salah, whose extraordinary season continued with his 37th goal of the season against Crystal Palace on Saturday. With Benjamin Mendy injured and Danilo out of favor, Fabian Delph had become the first choice, but he has seemingly not been trusted since his red card in the FA Cup defeat at Wigan a month ago. Oleksandr Zinchenko is inexperienced, which may mean Guardiola turning to Aymeric Laporte, who played at left-back in the 3-1 win at Everton on Saturday.
On such decisions history is made, but the discussion is already about legacy, which shows just how good City have been this season.
City have scored a wide variety of goals this season, but their trademark is the low cross cut back from the byline for a player making a run from deep. That means there is a huge onus on opposing full-backs to stop City wingers Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling, which in turn means they are likely to play deeper than usual. The danger of that approach, however, is that attacking width is lost. That is an issue for Liverpool, whose wide forward, Salah and Mane, naturally cut inside and so benefit from having an attacking full-back overlapping them. Robertson has been a revelation since becoming a first-team regular this season, and Klopp may choose to fight fire with fire and try to force Sterling to concentrate on tracking Robertson rather than looking to get in behind him.
