City Is Ours were delighted to take part in Tuesday’s 12-hour podcast marathon curated by the fine people a Ninety Three Twenty to raise a huge amount of money for the very fine people at MCFC Fans Foodbank Support.
However, one question posed by Twitter user Anthony Abdool during the pod, well… we haven’t been able to get it out of our minds.
Anthony asked: “If you were put together a team of the greatest players Pep has worked with across his clubs, how many City players would get in?”
Oof!
Pep Guardiola’s trophy-laden tenures at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City leave us with plenty to choose from.
To refine the original question slightly, we’ve tried to pick a team featuring the players who performed best during their time under Guardiola, as opposed to focusing on anyone’s wider body of work. At the risk of going a bit Monty Python, we’re looking for Pep Guardiola’s best players, rather than the best players to have played under Pep Guardiola.
All clear? Good, then let’s dive into it. Of course we’re playing 4-3-3.
Goalkeeper
All of Guardiola’s teams are based on the foundation of having a goalkeeper capable of playing a full part in building from the back.
Victor Valdes was steeped in La Masia philosophy, meaning he was vital in Pep’s methodology taking hold quickly at Barca, while Manuel Neuer was probably the best goalkeeper of the previous decade overall and a masterful “sweeper keeper”.
However, we’re going to give the nod to Ederson - arguably Guardiola’s most important signing in his City revolution and a man who has, to a large extent, reimagined what is possible for a player in his position.
Defence
Dani Alves joined in the same summer Guardiola took the reins at Barcelona in 2008 and provided a thrilling extra-dimension for an all-conquering side.
Gerard Pique was another La Masia graduate who reached his imperious best under Pep. In terms of the other centre-back slot, ex-City man Jerome Boateng’s efforts for his Bayern deserve an honourable mention, while Vincent Kompany thrillingly turned back the clock in the 2018/19 run-in to cement his City legend.
Alas, Vinny is edged out by another talismanic leader who had some struggles with injuries. World Cup winner Carles Puyol gets the nod.
At left-back, Jordi Alba has a strong case for completing an all-Barcelona back four, but Philipp Lahm was magnificent for Guardiola at Bayern and was the canvas on which his pioneering full-back experimentation came to life.
Midfield
It’s very hard to look beyond Barca’s holy trinity of Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Xavi here. The perfect midfield - how can you improve upon it?
Xavi Alonso and Fernandino and now Rodri have all impressed as holding midfielders for Guardiola, but Busquets remains the archetype.
David Silva would get into pretty much any collective XI for which he is eligible, but in a straight shootout with the masterful Iniesta and Xavi it’s hard to make a case. David often shone for Spain in the front three, leaving midfield duties to the Barca boys.
But Kevin De Bruyne would give the engine room a little extra edge - the sort of difference-maker Pep didn’t necessarily need at Barca a decade ago but the two-time reigning PFA Players' Player of the Year elevates everything City do when he is in prime form.
Attack
Lionel Messi is, of course, a lock-in, but we’re going to stick Pep’s original pet false-nine project on the right-wing - and he won’t mind at all.
That’s because it makes room for his great mate Sergio Aguero. It feels like a coin toss between Kun and the stupendously prolific Robert Lewandowski, but the Poland superstar only came into his own during his final season under Guardiola after a familiar period of acclimatisation in 2014/15.
Aguero’s endeavours to hone his game to the manager’s demands and prevailing by reaching his playing peak with a clutch of heavy goals and broken records at City is just too stirring to ignore.
The final wide forward position has a plethora of candidates. Thierry Henry played in Guardiola’s first treble-winning side but was on his career downslope at that point. Barca hardly experienced any drop-off when David Villa came in to shine alongside Messi and Pedro.
At Bayern, Guardiola was able to call upon the sparkling talents of Frank Ribery and Arjen Robben, alongside the inimitable Thomas Muller - elite performers who would lift any team.
But we’re going to give the nod, on sheer weight of numbers, to the other man aside from Messi and Aguero to have broken through 100 goals under Pep’s management. Raheem Sterling might not capture the imagination like some of the other names listed here, but his relentless record speaks for itself.
Guys… we need time
An interesting aside when looking at our combined XI is that Alves is the only outfield player signed and not inherited by Guardiola - and he arrived in his very first top-flight transfer window.
For all the ample market resources Guardiola has enjoyed at each of his clubs, it speaks of his unparalleled ability in the modern era when it comes to taking elite players and making them better. To get the full benefit of that, it pays to be in the building from day one.
Talking of time, it is also worth acknowledging that Pep’s City still have at least 18 months of road left to run. Maybe Joao Cancelo will have surpassed Lahm by that point, with Ruben Dias or Aymeric Laporte pushing Puyol and Phil Foden making an inarguable case for inclusion.
Such is the beauty of an unending hypothetical debate that will never please everyone.
City Is Ours all-time Pep XI: Ederson; Alves, Pique, Puyol, Lahm; Busquets, De Bruyne, Iniesta; Messi, Aguero, Sterling
Who would make your all-time Pep Guardiola XI? Follow City Is Ours editor Dom Farrell on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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