Pep Guardiola’s craziness ignites Manchester City’s season in pursuit of cup treble

The Spaniard has transmitted his energy on the touchline to his side after a lethargic first half before Sergio Aguero sent the Premier League champions into the quarter-finals

Pep Guardiola has inspired City in recent weeks (Getty)

Long before Sven-Goran Eriksson became Manchester City manager, his post-match assessments became the stuff of mockery. “First half good, second half not so good,” the Swede used to pronounce during his days as England manager until others began to conclude the calm man of management ended up subduing his own charges and draining the excitement from the game with his words at the interval. Pep talks they were not.

There are ways in which Pep Guardiola is the anti-Sven. Placidity has been replaced by histrionics, Scandinavian sangfroid by Latin temperament, a surfeit of rationality that seemed to lend an indifference to defeat to a perfectionist’s capacity to over-react. But the Catalan’s reign has not included an 8-1 defeat to Middlesbrough and it is safe to say it will not. As City advanced to an FA Cup quarter-final against Newcastle, they overcome Sheffield Wednesday in the opposite of the stereotypical Eriksson game: first half not so good, second half good.

“I don’t think they had a shot on our goal in that first half,” said Wednesday manager Garry Monk. The vagueness perhaps came from the improbability of it all. City’s first effort on target came after the interval. So did eight others. Managerial intervention reaped a reward. “We correct a few things,” said Guardiola. “The second half was better than the first because we found better the spaces to shoot and attack.”

City had more intensity. Riyad Mahrez roved more influentially, Benjamin Mendy overlapped with greater urgency and Sergio Aguero’s predatory prowess rendered him the match-winner, but not enough to fully satisfy his manager. The scorer received an animated, extended debrief from Guardiola when he was substituted. “He says when Riyad or Bernardo [Silva] receive the ball, just to move in behind the centre backs,” said the Argentinian.

Not for the first time, Guardiola was lost in the moment, the touchy-feely tactician who could not wait to convey his commands to a player who cannot now implement them until Sunday. “Always a good manager and crazy,” City’s record scorer noted.

Pep Guardiola will be keeping an eye on United against Derby (Getty)

“I like to be crazy and a good manager,” Guardiola countered. Other pastimes would suit him less. He would make an awful poker player. His feelings are all too apparent, his nervous energy manifesting itself in wild gesturing on the touchline. Suffice to say he was scarcely inscrutable when John Stones contrived to misplace the simplest of passes, coming close to picking out the linesman than Joao Cancelo.

Thirty trophies into his managerial career, the quest for the 31st felt draining. At a half-empty Hillsborough, against a Wednesday team on a damage-limitation exercise, with a City side who rarely threatened to turn possession into incision in a dull first half, Guardiola’s craziness provided some of the little entertainment.

“We spend a lot of mental energy in the last games,” said Guardiola. He was talking about his players. He could have been discussing himself. Perhaps the relentlessness of the last two years has taken its toll on City in the Premier League, mental fatigue bringing errors and inconsistency. A manager who exhausted himself in charge of his native Barcelona has committed to a fifth season at City, despite the probability it will not entail another tilt at the Champions League.

The FA Cup’s diminishing status is a matter for debate. If circumstances are a reason it matters to Guardiola, the reality is that everything has an importance to those whose perspective is skewed by their obsession with the game. One-nil up against Championship opponents who had not mustered an effort on target, he seemed to be rebuking his match-winner.

Man City celebrate taking the lead at Hillsborough (Getty)

He had words with his top scorer and about his leading supplier: Kevin de Bruyne is a doubt for Sunday’s Manchester derby with a back problem.

It will be their fifth consecutive game away from the Etihad Stadium. City have won at the King Power and the Bernabeu, Wembley and Hillsborough. They have a reward. “One day off,” said Guardiola. It will be City’s first in two weeks and a brief respite from his demands. Then the craziness resumes.