Guardiola and his idea of ​​a “false 9” led City to the Champions League final for the first time

Guardiola and his idea of ​​a “false 9” led City to the Champions League final for the first time

With Manchester City, Guardiola has tried a formula that has already worked with him in the past with Barcelona

Pep Guardiola reached the Champions League final for the first time at the helm of Manchester City and he achieved it using his ‘False 9’ idea., A strategy he first used during his remarkable time with Barcelona.

The citizens advanced to the Champions League final for the first time by defeating Paris Saint-Germain, and Guardiola got a ticket to the final match for the title without using a natural attacking position.

From the second leg against Borussia Monchengladbach to the eighth final of the UEFA Champions League, Guardiola chose not to participate Gabriel Jesus a Sergio Aguero, Both are center striker, in starting scheme and are preferred to use the pseudo-9 system with Kevin De Bruyne a Bernardo Silva Perform this function.

The first time Pep used a “9 error” was in 2009 with Lionel Messi As a hero. According to Xavi Hernandez in the documentary “Take the Ball, Pass the Ball”, Guardiola spoke with the group before a match against Real Madrid and made it clear that he would try a new way to play against the Meringue.

“Guardiola has the system and asked Henry and Eto’o to play between a winger and a central defender. When analyzing the movements of Real Madrid’s players, Pep realized that they never went out to press the number nine in any team. The superiority we did,” said Xavi, who was linked directly to Barcelona next season, “with the number 9. Faulty, Messi came to join the center. We were always an extra player to own the ball and had numerical superiority throughout the match. “

For his part, Messi indicated in the documentary that was previously cited, that Pep called him to tell him what his role will be in the match against the Spanish capital team, and the Argentine indicated that Guardiola’s idea was very successful because Real Madrid was not ready.

“Pep called me the day before the Classic and made me go to the sports complex to tell me we were going to change the situation. He was watching matches with Tito Villanova and they decided to do something new.

“It was something new for Real Madrid. They studied us well and at that moment they didn’t know if they were going to leave. Freedom when I pulled out and when the midfielders left, Samuel and Henry moved in space and that’s what Henry did. The first goal came.”

Now, with City, Guardiola has succeeded in the “error 9” in the most important section of the season, despite the strange fact that the Catalans do not use this system in the English Premier League by rotating Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero as a striker or even using both in the initial approach. Just one point.

With the victory over Paris Saint-Germain, Pep guided Guardiola City to be the England team that scored the most consecutive wins in the history of the Champions League. In this edition of ‘Orejona’, City will reach the Final without losing a single match (11 wins and one draw) and seven consecutive matches.

Guardiola and City will face Chelsea or Real Madrid and it will undoubtedly be special for him to face Pep El Meringue in the title match., Who were the first to suffer from the Catalan “false 9”.

Oliver Walton

"Pro alcohol addict. Bacon scholar. Award-winning beer fan. Gamer. Social media expert. Zombie guru."

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