Every season, we look for the new tactical innovation that Pep Guardiola uses to go in search of another Premier League title and a debut Champions League crown.
Earlier in his Manchester City reign, it was his use of traditional full-backs, while in 2020/21 those full-backs became inverted to great effect. Last season, the false nine became City's (enforced) weapon of choice, while other seasons saw Fernandinho used at centre-back, Bernardo Silva moved around various midfield roles, and changes from fast, wide wingers to slower, more controlled, inverted wide-men.
This season, with Erling Haaland adding a focal point up front, Guardiola's new weapon of choice has been an unexpected one: the press conference.
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All season, Guardiola has been searching for the right formula to motivate his City squad. He said recently that he 'had the feeling' that it would be difficult to keep the momentum up from winning back-to-back titles from before the season even began. He has regularly pointed back to the last time City went for a third title in a row, in 2019/20, and the notable drop-off that was experienced that year.
Guardiola has tried to refresh his squad, by bringing in goal machine Haaland, or by promoting surprise package Rico Lewis to the senior fold. He has praised his players, he has hailed late wins as among the best of his reign, and he's even signed a new two-year contract. Nothing has had quite the effect the manager may have hoped for.
So he's gone the other way, and been critical of certain aspects of City's game, even when winning, and his extraordinary press conference after the 4-2 comeback win against Tottenham would usually have been a moment in a season where all end-of-year reviews mark as a turning point.
In that press conference, late at night underneath the Etihad, Guardiola had something he wanted to say, so he said it. He challenged City's players, fans, staff and the entire hierarchy to raise standards and demand more from the team. It was a rare Premier League moment, where a manager openly calls out his club in such damning fashion.
Yet it probably got the response it wanted in the short term at least - because Guardiola is a master tactician, who will have calculated the right time to rant passionately while also fully in control. He famously said during City's All or Nothing Documentary that he would protect his players to the media, but tell them the truth in the dressing room. There was no protection that night, and it felt like a deliberate attempt to find that motivation he has been searching for - even if he may have presented the appearance that fractures may have been beginning to emerge at the Etihad.
However much Guardiola was in control that night, his warnings to his 'happy flowers' team also carried plenty of risk.
So while the news this week that City have been charged with over 100 alleged financial breaches by the Premier League - which would carry unthinkable sanctions if proven - may have been alarming, it also provided Guardiola with exactly what he has been grasping out for all season.
After his once-in-a-blue-moon press conference in January, he followed it up with another iconic performance on Friday. This time he wasn't taking aim at City, he was sending a message to literally everyone else.
He named the nine clubs who sought to get City banned from the Premier League after their UEFA charges, he said the other 19 top-flight clubs were behind these new charges, and affirmed that he was confident the Blues would clear their name. He sent a Bat-Signal out for Paul Dickov to dust off his boots in the event that City are demoted to League Two, adding that he's never wanted to stay as manager more than he does currently.
This was Guardiola on the warpath, defending City's name and turning the club's issue with the Premier League as an organisation into a situation where it's City against all the other 19 clubs, banded together looking to stop them winning. If his players can't be motivated by that, they're in the wrong game. City's title race with Arsenal is now a title race with Arsenal and 18 others.
When City were charged by UEFA in 2020, Guardiola backed his club but added that if they had lied, he would leave. There were no such caveats after the Premier League charges, and the manager has effectively pulled on his replica shirt and joined the noisy fans in the South Stand in the Etihad singing 'City's going down with a billion in the bank.' If City go down sometime in the future due to these new alleged breaches, so does Guardiola.
Again, however, the risk feels calculated from the manager. If Guardiola took a machine gun to his own club after Tottenham in an attempt to get their title challenge back on track in one press conference, in another he's rallied everyone of a sky blue persuasion behind his banner and is leading the cavalry charge himself.
Maybe 2022/23 is the year of the Guardiola press conference, and Friday's showing suggests the Premier League have handed the manager exactly what he's wanted since the summer.
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