Man City welcome Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday and Pep Guardiola has hinted that for once, he could look to keep things simple.
The Man City boss has been guilty of overdoing things during key Champions League matches and most often than not, City have faced the brunt of these choices by getting knocked out.
On Monday, Pep Guardiola was asked about this exact same thing to which he laughingly joked about people calling him an overthinker.
“In the Champions League I always overthink,” the Catalan said, as per the BBC.
“I always create new tactics and ideas, and tomorrow you will see a new one. I overthink a lot, that’s why I have very good results in the Champions League. I love it. It would be boring if I always played the same way.
“If people think I will play the same against Atlético and Liverpool [City’s next opponent], well, I don’t think like that because the movements from Liverpool are completely different than Atlético – especially because the players are all different.
Pep Guardiola is his own harshest critic 🤣 pic.twitter.com/P73iNhyXvj
— GOAL (@goal) April 4, 2022
“Every player has a mother and father and the mother and father give different personalities to the players.
“That’s why I love to overthink and create stupid tactics, and when we don’t win I am punished. Tonight I will take inspiration and I’m going to do incredible tactics tomorrow – we play with 12 tomorrow.”
Pep Guardiola to go ahead with his tried and tested 4-3-3?
It seems like Pep Guardiola has finally accepted the fact that keeping things simple might be the best way to win against Atletico Madrid but there’s still an outside chance that the manager could ditch the 4-3-3 system.
This season, he’s relied mostly on a false-nine formation but in occasional matches, the Spaniard has used a 4-1-4-1. Against teams like RB Leipzig, Southampton and Leeds United, Manchester City have played with a 4-1-4-1 system.
We are not sure Pep Guardiola will rely on this exact system but when his Bayern Munich side had faced Atletico back in the 2015/16 season, the manager had used a 4-1-4-1 in both legs.
Simeone is a master at closing down spaces and if Man City need to break down Atletico’s defence then their players will have to make crowd the final third and then rely on decoy runs.
But then, playing with a false nine is something the City players have properly mastered during the course of the season so ditching that at such a crucial juncture might result in more harm than good.
