history in the making! taken June 11 2023, at Man City fan club Shanghai
After Man City won the treble in 2023, they released a special documentary in August titled “The Pep Effect.” This documentary takes a close look at Pep Guardiola, arguably the most influential and successful football manager today. His football philosophy has revolutionized how the sport is played.
Historically, there have been two opposing styles of football. One is “direct football” or the diagonal ball, where the ball is passed from one side of the midfield, through the air, straight toward the winger on the other side for an attack. The other is the “scientific possession style,” which takes a more tactical approach by strategically positioning players and passing the ball for clever goals. The tension between possession and direct football has arguably been a part of English and world football ever since.
Although direct football is generally considered the traditional style of play and scientific possession football is regarded as the modern one, neither is inherently superior to the other. The evolutionary trajectory of playing styles is not a straightforward shift from the old to the modern either. Man City has incorporated a lot of diagonal passing since they bought Haaland, and traces of adapted small passing tactics can even be found in teams that heavily rely on direct long-pass attacks. But, what can be certain is that when you look back at the past 15 years of football, the possession style has spread like a contagion - from Cruyff to Pep, from Barca to the Premier League, evolving from an idea into a new era of football.
The “six degrees of separation” principle somewhat explains how it happened. Simply put, if an innovative idea is valuable and people are willing to share or learn it, it spreads exponentially through the network. However, it takes years, or even decades of effort for several generations of players and managers to overcome the friction and inertia imposed by whatever the old system might linger on. Pep Guardiola finally made his football philosophy complete (at least that’s what the media says) by winning the unprecedented three championships for Man City this summer. But the journey began more than 22 years ago when a young Pep left Barcelona and headed overseas to study under his mentor Cruyff for possession football and prepared to become a manager.
And it’s not the effort of an individual alone. FIFA makes the rules of the game, and one of their major objectives is to make the game more appealing and enjoyable for the crowd - football is THE most popular sport in the world and FIFA certainly would like it to stay that way. Several adjustments to the rules over the past decade, in a certain way, favored the tiki-taka style because it incentivize more interesting games and strategies. It stimulates genius passes, unexpected strike-backs and, more goals. After all, one pays for a ticket to be entertained at the end of the day, don’t they?
Overall, it’s a mutual evolution for the players and managers, intertwined with the game itself, much like the environment vs. species or market vs. consumers.
What’s next for Man City and Pep Guardiola? Haha, personally, I just wish they keep putting out well-designed jerseys. As a fan, that would be enough.
2023-24 season away jersey replica. go Man City!