Pep Guardiola has seen it done. The question is whether he is still interested in how they did it.
April 16, 1986. Barcelona 3 IFK Gothenburg 0. European Cup semi-final second leg, aggregate score 3-3, Barcelona advanced on penalties. We know Guardiola was there because when Pichi Alonso scored the third goal, for his hat-trick, to level the tie after 69 minutes, a ball boy sprinted with sheer abandon and excitement across the Nou Camp turf to join the celebrations.
That was Guardiola, aged 15, and a protege at the club. He infiltrated the celebrations after the penalty shootout, too, and can be seen in the photographs of the players chairing coach Terry Venables from the field.
Pep Guardiola and Manchester City were beaten 3-0 by Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday
Now Guardiola needs his own three-goal comeback and, while Barcelona moved on after Venables left and Johan Cruyff gets the credit for the club it is now, the Englishman deserves his due.
To win Barcelona’s first La Liga title in 11 seasons and reach the European Cup final the next year means Cruyff did not take over a club in the doldrums, or one that conceded the league to Real Sociedad or Athletic Bilbao, as had happened the four seasons before Venables arrived.
So would Guardiola dare to focus on defence, as Venables did in the days leading up to the Gothenburg return? Would he desert every instinct telling him to attack, attack, attack and work instead on preventing the one development that would all but guarantee the tie was over: an away goal for the Swedes?
Venables was a smart coach. That is why, 20 years later, Gareth Southgate is still replicating some of his ideas as England manager. And having lost 3-0 in Gothenburg, he knew what the mood inside the Nou Camp would be for the return.
He envisaged the noise, the passion, the desire that would cascade down from the sides of that concrete bowl, he knew what it would do to his players and how determined they would already be to avenge this unexpected first-leg reverse. And he knew he would not be able to harness it in any way that would make for a structured game. So he worked on his back line.
Terry Venables was a smart coach at Barcelona and Gareth Southgate is replicating his ideas
Venables divined that in a team bursting with attacking talent, Barcelona would have no problems getting forward. Everything they had would be thrown at Gothenburg. He felt it very possible that they could score three goals.
What he feared, what would end the contest, was if Gothenburg hit back on the break. One goal and Barcelona would need five. He could not guarantee five.
So, that week, every training drill focused on defence. And not just defence, but outnumbered defence. Venables took into account that if Gothenburg countered, such was Barcelona’s need to score, they would probably have numbers on their side.
He did not work with defence in its conventional shape, but on match situations: three versus four, two versus three, one versus two. Where to be positioned when a man down, how to cut off an angle, diversions, preparations.
It’s fair to say Mohamed Salah would not have been left on his own around the halfway line, as he was for Liverpool’s first goal against Manchester City on Wednesday night.
And Barcelona had great players, too. They won the league by 10 points in the days of two-for-a-win. In modern terms, they finished 15 points clear of Atletico Madrid in second place. They scored 18 goals more than any team in the competition and only Sporting Gijon conceded fewer.
City have a mountain to climb as they bid to overcome a three-goal deficit in the second leg
Yet, that week, Venables’ squad was not happy. They could not understand the negative focus when they needed to score three, at least. They would implore their meester to work with the forwards on beating Gothenburg.
Venables remained loyal to his plan. On the night, attack would take care of itself. It was the defence he had to look after.
All those years later, would Guardiola allow himself to think the same way? Would he abandon the instincts that have served him so well — and may deliver the Premier League title on Saturday, the earliest it has been won — by shifting his focus before such a game?
City have scored five against Liverpool at home already this season, but four of those came against 10 men. Liverpool are a different proposition now. The City defeat began a run of one win in eight matches across all competitions.
As the season has worn on, so Liverpool’s confidence and the effectiveness of their front three have grown. Without proper vigilance at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, Liverpool will score. And if they score, City are as good as out.
Barcelona came back from 4-0 down against Paris Saint-Germain last season, but for all the grand claims made on their behalf, City are not Barcelona. They do not have Lionel Messi or Luis Suarez, they do not have a way of playing honed over decades.
Barcelona even conceded a goal in the second leg, but still scored six to progress.
Barcelona came back from 4-0 down against Paris Saint-Germain in last season’s competition
The reason we remember each detail, however, is that it was so improbable. Manchester City cannot rely on emulating the greatest comeback in European football history if they are to win through.
For Guardiola, this is his biggest test since coming to English football. When a man can win the league on April 7, losing a game, even one as big as this, does not make him a failure. Yet not to respond to it, to learn from it, to correct the faults, that would be troubling.
It is going to be hard to advance, no matter how well Manchester City’s forwards play, but the least that can be done is to stop Liverpool running wild again — to prevent them scoring is the bottom line. If Guardiola cannot do that, or is not interested, then City have problems, not just next week but next season, too.
Look at league bosses if you want new blood
Millwall have the second lowest spend on players of any club in the Championship this season, just £800,000, and currently sit a point outside the play-offs. What a job Neil Harris has done. The same can be said of Chris Wilder at Sheffield United, whose squad cost £5.9million, making it the sixth cheapest.
It is not only Neil Warnock who has worked wonders in that league this season. Preston may be 10th, but they are three points off the play-off places, with a budget for players that would leave them in the relegation zone — just £2.1m.
What a job Neil Harris (pictured) has done with Millwall despite spending just £800,000
Yet when the scramble begins for new managers in the summer, would any of the Premier League clubs even cast a sideways glance to the competition below and acknowledge the work being done there? Harris has a special bond with Millwall and that may be where he is most effective — but no one with a squad worth less than £1m gets to the brink of the Premier League without being able to coach.
Harris took over a team doomed to relegation to League One. He led the club back to the Championship in his first season and they haven’t lost a league game since visiting Norwich on January 1. Every Championship form guide, over six, eight or 10 matches, has Millwall in the top three.
British managers often complain about absence of opportunity caused by foreign appointments, but that hasn’t been the case this season. Sam Allardyce, David Moyes, Roy Hodgson, Alan Pardew, Paul Lambert and Mark Hughes have all landed Premier League jobs, mostly at good clubs that are doing poorly, but have potential if they can survive.
Yet where are the opportunities for the young British managers like Harris or Wilder? If anything, they are being blocked, not by interlopers from leagues abroad, but by the lack of imagination of owners here, reliant on a short-list of the tried and trusted, if not always successful.
There has been a lack of opportunities for young British managers such as Chris Wilder
Hughes went straight from almost taking Stoke down to doing the same at Southampton. Pardew left Crystal Palace in the cart and now West Brom, too. Some of the changes achieved the desired bounce, but not all and little radical has occurred.
Largely, the experienced firefighter takes his club back to basics, abandons loftier ambitions and focuses on survival. Young players are sacrificed, defences are tightened up, draws are celebrated, gambles not taken.
Meanwhile, a league below, Harris is beating a Hull team that cost £61.9m more and it barely registers. Unless he takes Millwall into the Premier League against all odds, how is a young manager of promise to get recognised?
Pardew left West Brom in a dismal state this week and, with relegation as good as assured, it appears the club will wait until the summer for his replacement. One name from the Championship has already been linked. A good manager, who has done well on a low budget of £4.2m.
Yet Mick McCarthy will be 60 next February. He has over-performed consistently at Ipswich to little understanding and, if funds remain as they are, the club will have more chance of going down without him next season.
Alan Pardew left West Brom in a dismal state with the club hurtling towards the Championship
But why is McCarthy instinctively considered a better bet than Harris or Wilder? Management is often described as a merry-go-round, but how does a coach without Premier League experience get on? Would anyone have taken a chance on Eddie Howe in the top division had he not got there himself with Bournemouth?
Maybe that’s what Harris will have to do. Get Millwall promoted on £800,000. He would deserve a knighthood for that, not a crack at Stoke.
Neal’s European titles trump Bale’s
If Real Madrid were to win the Champions League again this season, the annals will show that Gareth Bale has equalled Phil Neal’s record of European Cup winners’ medals. It would be a fantastic achievement, sharing in a period of domination unlike any in the modern Champions League era.
Neal, however, played every minute of each one of his finals; Bale came on with 13 minutes to go against Juventus in 2017, with Madrid already leading 3-1.
Nor is he certain to make the starting line-up if Real go to Kiev this year. This is not to decry Bale – but Neal is one of the most under-rated figures in English football and in terms of contribution his record stands alone. He scored, from right back, in two of those finals too.
Liverpool legend Phil Neal (left) is one of the most under-rated figures in English football
Holt meal deal puts the EFL in McFlurry
Only the Football League could make such a disproportionate fuss over a visit to McDonald’s. They are investigating Accrington Stanley after owner Andy Holt revealed he buys the team a fast food dinner when they win.
He gives vice-captain Sean McConville £200 to get the nuggets in and usually receives just over £20 in change. When Stanley lose, says Holt, the players buy their own.
Sounds a harmless practice. A token of appreciation from upstairs and one of the reasons that Stanley have bucked trends to top League Two. Holt has been known to treat fans to a free bar for 10 minutes, too.
When you are the size of Stanley, it pays to keep up spirits. Holt spoke openly about his occasional largesse, not imagining he had done anything wrong. And then he got a letter from the Football League, who view a round at McDonald’s like a bung, rather than a treat. The ‘payment of additional monies’, they are calling it.
Except it isn’t money. It’s dinner — and a cheap one at that. Nobody at Accrington is solely motivated by a happy meal, nobody signs for Holt because he likes milkshake.
Lower league clubs have stopped for fish and chips and the like on the way home from away trips for years. Often the manager, or one of the directors, puts his hand in his pocket for the lads, particularly after a win.
That is what the game is about at that level. If those at the top of the Football League do not know the earthy commodity they have, they should toddle off and let someone else run it.
Ronaldo’s twilight is dazzling
Mohamed Salah will quite possibly win the Players’ Player of the Year and understandably so. Worth remembering, though, that his total of 38 goals this season still places him one short of — who else — Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mohamed Salah will quite possibly win the Premier League Players’ Player of the Year award
It’s worth remembering Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more goals than Salah this season
This has not been Real Madrid’s best campaign domestically and, at 33, Ronaldo is often said to be coming to the end — but for a player in decline his record remains the benchmark. We consider Salah’s return exceptional, yet he is still behind Ronaldo in the twilight of his career.
He is still scoring goals that break the internet, still propelling Madrid towards an eighth straight appearance in the Champions League semi-finals. Nobody rises to a big occasion quite like him.
Manchester United sold Ronaldo for £80million in 2009, since when he has scored 463 goals. To think some said they wouldn’t miss him. Had United got double the price, he would still have been a loss. Imagine what they would have won had he stayed.