Guardiola gets his lines wrong

From the off, Pep Guardiola's starting formation for his Manchester City side was odd, with no holding player in the centre of the park and without a recognised striker. His team featured a raft of creative players looking to dominate control of the game. It reminded me of a Barça game under Guardiola against Santos where Cesc Fabregas played as a false nine, complimented by a number of ball players. At least that side featured Busquets, who could fill in with defensive duties. On that particular day, his Barcelona side faced a free-flowing Santos team featuring a certain Neymar Jr. and not a dogged Chelsea side, who dig their heels in deeply defensively and are able to spring quickly and effectively on the counter.

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His formation failed to work as Chelsea's counter-attacks pierced through City like a knife through butter. Despite being excellent in moving City defenders out of position, Chelsea striker Timo Werner was wasteful in front of goal and this was instrumental in the game just being decided by a solitary goal at the interval. When Guardiola amended his line-up with the introduction of Gabriel Jesus, Fernandinho and Agüero, it was too late. The final, his first since his spell with Barça was over. His plan was either a poor one or his players failed to execute their orders well. Whatever the flaw in the system, his game plan fell perfectly into the hand of Tuchel, one of Guardiola's admirers who was astute in his game management of the Porto final.

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