What they said in 2016/17: Manchester City
After a season of ups and downs, Manchester City finished a respectable third in the Premier League in Pep Guardiola’s first campaign in charge.
However, they will have felt disappointed with a trophyless year after spending big money in the summer, and under the stewardship of a coach widely thought to be among the best in the world.
Their season started impeccably, with 10 wins from their opening 10 competitive games under the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach.
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Guardiola’s possession-based philosophy and track record spoke for itself, but even for his high standards, he could not have wished for a better start to life in England.
“Wins help to win more. Confidence is a real aspect to the way we play but every game is hard. “Football is a process and my happiness as coach is to see the team getting better.”
However, a dip in form in the mid-part of the season saw them toppled from top spot and left scrapping for their place in the top four. Guardiola admitted he had made “mistakes” himself.
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“We improved a lot in the beginning [of the season] and then we stopped,” he said. “Maybe it looks like I’m being humble, or shy or something, but it was a bit my mistake. I’m pretty sure we started really good in many things and now we stopped.
“You have to restart that. Our build-up is so fundamental in my vision of football.”
One of the criticisms levelled at Guardiola throughout the season was replacing Joe Hart between the sticks with Claudio Bravo. The Chilean arrived in August with a reputation of being able to play the ball out and start attacks, but blunders in several Premier League games meant the Spanish boss was forced to repeatedly defend his number one.
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“He’s a top player, a top goalkeeper. He’s one of the best in the world. His long career speaks for itself.
“Football here is more particular, more crosses, more special things, but he is a top goalkeeper. There’s no doubt about that.”
There were hopes Guardiola could guide the Citizens to Champions League glory, but they came up against a fearsome, athletic and talented Monaco side in the last-16. Guardiola was disappointed with his side’s 3-1 defeat in the second leg in France, a scoreline which sent them out of the competition on away goals.
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“Normally we play to a good level but here we didn’t. We will learn. The team does not have a lot of experience.
“We will improve but this competition is so demanding. Sometimes we have to be special and be lucky. We were not.”
City only mathematically secured Champions League football on the final day of the season. Guardiola remained his defiant self, but was philosophical in the team’s performance over the year.
“Sometimes it has to happen and it happens now. If I extend my career a lot in the future I am sure it will happen again but there are a lot of big clubs in Europe without a trophy.
“If you analyse the trophies, how many were we able to win this year? Zero. It’s easy to analyse. It’s simple like that. If you analyse how many titles was good or not good then the season was not good.”
