It is probably the romance and the feeling of tradition, the real meaning of English football, which Pep Guardiola sends weak to the knees when one of the old guard is in his job.
Tony Pulis, Roy Hodgson, David Moyes, Sam Allardyce. Those with the long history, that coaching style for which this country has always been identified. Because the Manchester United Terrace number is not going – they have seen it all, they did not win the lot.
He has that and worshiped these managers for what they gave to the Premier League, but also their lasting power as tactics such as he arrive and ultimately improve the product. There is real affection. Some say it's for the cameras, but Guardiola did it on competition days behind office days about a good Rioja. Pulis and men of his kind appreciate that.
Neil Warnock is one of that. Warnock was recently hired by Guardiola when he said his Cardiff City team was one of the only two teams that Manchester City had confronted until this season that Man-for-Man went instead of being in it, trusting against counterattacks.
Warnock was viewed about this and was within a matter of weeks at the City Football Academy on Friday that Sky Sports represented. An audience with Guardiola. Or an audience with Warnock, depending on how you interpret the chat between the pair – Warnock Regaling Tales of Promotions in Notts County and Guardiola who shows full and extreme respect for the man for 18 years his senior.
It is one of the great qualities of Guardiola, this. The respect for his elderly – invite Warnock to view training and lunch in the future, while they also want to show naughty that he is a generation younger – but also a deep respect for the game. For different styles, different attitudes. Showing a lot of entertainment in some dressing room antics Warnock once started before he was confronted with Jose Mourinho. To a certain extent, let Warnock have his moment.
Guardiola makes this respect a good loser. Someone who, of course, cannot stay there, but still someone who – despite all of the fact that all of maniacal tendencies are confronted – appreciate that the guy in the other dugout can also be decent.
In fact, he is often accused of going overboard in honor of opposition teams and in that chat with Warnock he has written 17th wolves placed as proof that the division is of considerably higher quality than when it was joined in 2016.
They discussed how he would never 'throw players under the bus' after defeats, as easy and attractive as that could be at the time, and the dissection of the long -term problems of the city is characterized by age and injuries instead of some clearly clear dips In personal form.
He is a bit different in the dressing room, as we all know, but this season has a general acceptance that it just doesn't right. He called hunger and wondered if that still exists after four in a row. He acknowledges that he has become 'attached' and for some players 'affections' – such as Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva – and probably admitted that the rebuild has been late.
And there is a general acceptance, because Guardiola has repeated countless times since November, that the opposition is 'better' – notice the present instead of a thing of the past – or how physical city is the worst in the competition. He speaks the truth, which must be welcomed and is a noble art in his own way. But there is a feeling that city – staff and players – that sentiment have allowed themselves to manifest further.
Play well, but the opposition is better. Too dangerous on transitions, too fast, too clinical. It certainly had that look on Sunday, when City was good for large spells, making it a match against the run -away champions, without really believing that the shortage with two goals could be overcome itself.
Jeremy Doku dribbled more occasions along Trent Alexander-Arnold in the first half than someone ever met one marker, to the delight of the Etihad Stadium who achieves their small victories. A spectacle, exciting and fascinating.
End product, however? Zero. Promise without delivery, enough to insist that change will eventually come – that city will come back – but not that it will soon be against the very best. Guardiola is trying to inspire and inspire management tactics that have let him leave the players to sort themselves during the break, but nothing is enough in the biggest phases at the moment.
Hands behind the back in the final phase, raining, Guardiola was waiting for the inevitable and first Liverpool League victory here during his nine-year term and even ready to shake the hand of Arne Slot in surrender for the last whistle of Anthony Taylor. Really, it was a photo of a whole club and his fan base clocks patiently after next season.
City will achieve the top four or five, whatever it is needed to reach the Champions League, because their recruitment in January strengthens them over the entire field and seemed more energetic. They also have a fairly favorable run-in.
But the 13-4 aggregated defeat in four games against Arsenal, Real Madrid twice and now Liverpool, and the way in which those games have folded off, suggests that the acceptance is there, that they are unconsciously playing time. The last man to tremble away, De Bruyne, whose future is in doubt, puffed his cheeks and looked at heaven under his heavy coat. Disappointment without anger. A few others gestured the big partner of De Bruyne, Virgil van Dijk, raw rags for the end.
The only goal of the city now accepts their fate to use and dream that image of Van Dijk to replicate it in Anfield in the spring of 2026.
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