Why Thiago to Man City not being a thing baffles me

[THREAD]

Let's start off with Guardiola's time at Barca. They would play with a 3-2-5 structure. This structure meant that Barca had two of the best tempo-controllers in the middle of the park dictating the pace of the game knowing when it needed to speed up or slow down.

This ensured that the game won't be end to end and Barca would largely control it.

Now let's have a look at Guardiola's City. They would play in the following structure. This is partly due to the playing style of the Premier League and partly due to the personnel available to Guardiola.

In La Liga, whenever the smaller teams win the ball back they have players who are technically good enough to keep the ball and relieve pressure. In England, teams after winning the ball just launch it into the air and try to win aerial duels and 2nd balls.

A simpler strategy but less successful in relieving pressure. This swayed Guardiola to move the full-backs closer to his DM as the full-back are more athletic and physical than the CMs and much more likely to win the 2nd balls.

The personnel ensured Guardiola played this type of football because it is not feasible or sensible to get rid of De Bruyne and Silva when he came to City because Silva understood from day one what Guardiola wanted from this team and De Bruyne is a fantastic footballer.

So Guardiola had to build a system to get the best out of both of them. The system being that both of them would play as extremely high CMs as neither of them had played as pure CMs in their careers and the full-backs would be the ones staying in the midfield zones.

While this worked in the PL, when they came up against the better teams in the Champions League the games would become too open and end to end. Because the full-backs were the ones playing in the middle zones there was no one controlling the tempo and dictating the game.

That's why the games in which City have got knocked out in the last 4 years most of the goals have come in counter attacks and transitions. Guardiola has tried to amend these problems by playing Gundogan in these games as he's closer to being a pure CM than Silva and De Bruyne.

Enter Thiago Alcantara. The guy absolutely bossed the Champions League final and was oozing class and composure. Dictating the tempo, evading pressure, being good defensively, always making the right pass Thiago has it all you want from a pure CM.

His addition would ensure that the games don't become too open and end to end as he can slow the game down and make sure it stays in his team's control which would result in City winning that elusive Champions League trophy that they crave so much.