There was something welcomed with Pep Guardiola in discussing the whims of the style of Manchester City and possible changes in their tactics, given the appointment of Pep Libnders such as No. 2.
His well -downs, the content and delivery, has always been there with the best of them and when the idea that the defense line might be even higher than normal, Guardiola was good in his right to point out that “we've been doing that for nine years.” He almost stopped to roll his eyes.
Not wrong, but just as much, it had felt on the opening day at Wolves, and to a lesser extent during the club World Cup, that the rear four is taught to play a more bold match. It was then suggested that it might be strategy filled with more risk. “Maybe we will see,” said Guardiola. 'Don't know.'
The proof of the first two Premier League weekends suggests that the answer is yes – and John Stones offers the perfect case study.
The way in which the central defender stepped to play Marshall Munetsi offside in Molineux, told about a very specific guideline to catch attackers unexpectedly. That was for a not -insan goal and stones had also done the same halfway.
These were borderline calls and, as Guardiola met, only look genius when the team won.
Less if they did not do that and so when stones tried the same trick in the construction of the opening goal of Tottenham, scored by Brennan Johnson, seemed considerably more vulnerable in the Etihad Stadium seven days later.
Borderline again, centimeters. Wild different results and this is a result company. In two of their last three competitive competitions, including Hilal in America, City has been left to their final fall.
“Against Hilal we have no control over the transitions because there were three new players that we did not speak much and anticipated that that could happen in that game,” Guardiola said. “It was a good lesson.”
Fortunately, Thomas Frank revealed that the City High Line was something that Spurs spent the week working.
And this can take some time to perfect for Guardiola if they stay on the same path. This was the youngest start of the club for a Premier League match in 15 years; Many young people learn the Guardiola way, but also the Libnders a lot and the manager has already assessed that this defeat by Spurs and next week's discouraging journey to Brighton, where they were humiliated-effective last year act as their pre-season.
He has been talking about teaching concepts to players – City has drawn nine new faces since January, the majority in the infancy of their career – and that will take time. While Guardiola went through the tunnel unusually after shaking Frank's hand, he will be mapped out who should learn what and how to do that as quickly as possible.
James Trafford may be the list at the top and this was a look at a post-Desson era. Ederson, a target of Galatasaray, sat on the couch. City talks with Gianluigi Donnarumma, but then he is so far away from the Brazilian with his feet that it offers fascination in what the plan is at the start of their legendary structure.
Without Ederson, City will have to worry about things that they have never really been concerned with in the last eight years. Trafford's striking error when placing Nico Gonzalez under serious pressure in their own box, so that Joao Palhinha could score the second, crystallized how reliable Ederson has been in those tight spaces for so long.
A 22-year-old Trafford will be a work in progress. Guardiola – who was visibly agitated by his keeper who did not restart the game quickly enough if City followed the game – indicated that he has decisions to take number 1 and the direction that is on the way will only be clear next month.
Trafford had become a bit insecure about himself on home debut, which is probably understandable in the circumstances, and still had a few hairy moments when Mohammed Kudus clear racing and arrived later to tackle a bouncing ball.
They left more questions, some of the victory at Wolves, but when everything was said and done, Spurs scored with the first shots on goal and lost them only once on this ground in the past five seasons. Maybe this should not have been a huge surprise.