Two Players That Pep Guardiola Made Worse

Pep Guardiola is arguably the greatest manager ever. His initial stint with Barcelona changed the beautiful game forever, with his tiki-taka possession-based style of play leading the Blaugrana to an unprecedented Sextuple. Since moving to Manchester City, his stock has grown even further.

The iconic Catalonian boss has helped the Blues make history by becoming the first team ever to win four straight Premier League titles, in addition to the second treble in the history of English football back in 2023. However, this season, the wheels have come off the wagon.

Under Guardiola, the Citizens currently languish way down in sixth place in the Premier League table, some 12 points behind runaway league leaders Liverpool. That has prompted live sports betting sites to sit up and take notice. If you check out live sports betting at Bovada, you’ll see the odds now make the Blues a distant +2500 outsider for the title, someway behind the -450 table-topping Reds.

Much of City's plight has been aimed at Guardiola's tactics, with his demanding system often stifling his most creative players. With his high-pressing fluid style of play requiring a strict adherence to positional discipline and tactical responsibility, many players have suffered as a result over the years. Here are the two most notorious of them.

Jack Grealish

When Jack Grealish joined Manchester City from Aston Villa for a staggering £100 million in the summer of 2021, he was arguably the most exciting attacking player in English football. He had thrilled in his free-flowing role on the left-hand side of the Villains' attack, being offered the freedom required to dismantle defenses all over the country. He bagged 16 goal involvements throughout his final campaign at Villa Park, securing a place in Gareth Southgate's England squad for Euro 2020, as well as prompting the Blues to make him the most expensive Englishman of all time.

Initially, he managed to thrive. He was one of the stars of the show as his new club romped to the treble in the 2022/23 campaign. But since then, he has slowed down drastically.

His manager’s system prioritizes control and positional discipline and demanded that Grealish curtail the individualistic flair that made him stand out. Instead of being encouraged to express himself, he was instructed to play safe—holding the ball, maintaining width, and rarely venturing into the unpredictable moves he excelled at.

This shift in role significantly impacted his confidence. Many noted that the fearless, unpredictable Grealish of Aston Villa evolved into a cautious player at City. Guardiola himself acknowledged the drop in Grealish’s performances, recently stating, “I want the Jack that [helped us win] the Treble,” before adding that Grealish needed to “compete with himself.”

The former Villa captain didn't bag a single goal or assist throughout the entirety of 2024. And with new signing Savinho making the spot on the wings his own, Grealish's days at the Etihad could be numbered.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s one season at Barcelona under Guardiola is a tale of a mismatch in philosophy and a clash of personalities. The iconic Swedish striker was brought to the Nou Camp in a blockbuster deal that saw the Blaugrana part with €65m and goal machine Samuel Eto'o. But the money-spinning transfer would ultimately end in disaster.

The Catalonians were the reigning European Champions when they secured the signature of Ibra, an honor they claimed with a resounding 2-0 victory against Manchester United in Rome. That was the final piece of an iconic treble, but Guardiola still hadn't perfected his team. He wanted to usher out strikers Eto'o and Thierry Henry in favor of more technical wingers able to play to his style.

Initially, the record signing hit the ground running, bagging 11 goals in his first 14 games including a memorable El Clasico winner against archrivals Real Madrid. However, with the maverick Swede preferring a more direct style of play, cracks began to appear, and it was Ibrahimovic who would bear the brunt of it. Messi was moved from the right wing into a central false-nine position, and the former man who occupied that spot found himself on the sidelines.

The tactical issues were compounded by a breakdown in communication between player and manager. The former Malmo striker famously stated in his autobiography that his boss barely spoke to him during the second half of the season. “He didn’t want to solve any problems. He just stopped talking to me,” Ibrahimovic wrote. The Swedish striker likened Guardiola’s misuse of him to “buying a Ferrari and driving it like a Fiat.”

Things came to a head in the Champions League semifinal second leg against Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan at the Nou Camp. The Blaugrana were looking to overturn a 3-1 deficit and surprisingly Ibra started against his former club. Unfortunately for both him and Guardiola, however, he was ineffective, and he was hauled off to a chorus of boos on the hour mark in favor of academy product Bojan. Barcelona ultimately bowed out after a 3-2 aggregate defeat, and Ibrahimovic was sold off to AC Milan not long after.