Manchester City are about to embark on a brutal run of fixtures that could determine the success of their season.
Over the next 11 days the Blues will face Atletico Madrid over two legs in the Champions League quarter-finals, as well as a top of the table Premier League clash with Liverpool, before an FA Cup semi-final against the same opponent a week later. The thought of enduring what is bound to be an intense 360 minutes of football is enough to send shivers down most supporters' spines, but City boss Pep Guardiola appears, for the time being, to be remarkably cool.
After City comfortably dispatched of Burnley with a 2-0 win on Saturday — a result that reinstated their one point advantage over Liverpool at the top of the table — Guardiola was in a relaxed mood. He even kicked off his post-match press conference with a joke, before explaining that Atletico and Liverpool have not been at the forefront of his mind recently.
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"[Diego Simeone] is a master for the Champions League knockout stages. There are many games during the game, and he handles different types of games perfectly. [Sunday] we start to talk about them. [I was a] little worried about this game [against Burnley] more than Liverpool," he said.
It sounds ridiculous that, with respect to Burnley, Guardiola would be more worried about the team sat 19th in the Premier League than the threat posed by two of Europe's best sides. But, as he explained, he had had just one training session with his players after the international break, while Riyad Mahrez, one of his key attackers this season, was not in a god headspace following Algeria's heart-breaking failure to qualify for the World Cup.
Fast-forward two days and Guardiola still cut a laidback figure when he addressed the media ahead of Tuesday's European clash. Settling down in front of the cameras in his trademark Stone Island sweater, there was a mischievous twinkle in his eye; what came next was unexpected but telling of relaxed attitude.
After intentionally dropping the word 'overthink' into one of his answers, the issue was picked up by reporters. Guardiola then preceded to sarcastically address the accusations that he overthinks his tactics in big European ties.
"In the Champions League, I always overthink, I always create new tactics and ideas, and tomorrow you will see a new one," he teased. "Tonight I will take inspiration and do incredible tactics tomorrow. We’ll play with 12 tomorrow."
This was not Guardiola at his tetchy worst but at his jesting best. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism, but rarely have we seen Pep so openly discuss — and mock — criticisms of his coaching. He was in a playful mood, and why shouldn't he be?
Guardiola knows that if his gameplans come off and his players perform at their highest level, then City should get past Atletico, avoid defeat to Liverpool in the league and progress to the FA Cup final. He knows that come kick-off he will have done all the preparation possible (and more) through video analysis and on the training pitch, and that his players will do their utmost to put his plans into action.
Nine times out of 10, City play well. That doesn't mean they always win, but most of the time Guardiola is left satisfied with his team's performances. Should Mohamed Salah produce a moment of inspiration that downs City, or if his players fail, try as they might, to penetrate a compact Atletico defence, then Guardiola will hold his hands up and admit that sometimes in football, things just don't go your way.
What bugs Guardiola is the one time, maybe even less than that, when he feels his players didn't do what he asked of them, or if makes a misjudgement. But this is Manchester City we're talking about; that can happen.
With such a mindset it is easy to understand why Guardiola appears so relaxed, an almost c'est la vie attitude. He backs himself and his players entirely, regardless of what the opposition might do. Of course, football fandom doesn't work like that, but us supporters should try to do the same.
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