Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are well and truly back, although not back to their blistering best, and the Spanish tactician has credited their stint in the FIFA Club World Cup for their revival.
Man City in 2024/25 looked like a team that was “suffering from success.” The players seemed to play with less passion after winning everything together. This led to them failing to win the Premier League and almost dropping out of the top four. It also led to several embarrassing results in the new UEFA Champions League tournament.
Their past performances had sealed a FIFA CWC ticket for them, however, and they arrived in America in June with hope. It ended the same for them, and they returned to England.
After a shaky start to the season, they have now picked up steam and are quietly making their way back to the top, with only Arsenal and Aston Villa giving them a bigger challenge. In other competitions, they are back to being genuine threats, which has seen them get back into title conversations. Their players also lead many of the stat categories in England, which also has seen them enter individual awards discussions.
Following their latest victory in the Premier League (a 2-1 away win at Nottingham Forest), Guardiola credited their time in America for the CWC as pivotal to their revival.
“Energy, energy, energy,” he said. “We lost it last season. We started to train better and compete better. We needed energy, and then you have a good environment. When we went out to Al Hilal, it wasn’t the fact that we didn’t win but that we were so good there. It was then holidays so I said, ‘OK, go on holidays.”
“The place we were in was Boca Raton, in front of the beach. Everyone was happy,” Guardiola continued. “Made a lot of dinners, a lot of talks about what we have to do next season. We wanted to extend it, just to live that. I think there, after talking with [City assistants] Pep [Lijnders] and James [French], Manel [Estiarte], Hugo [Viana], and Txiki [Begiristain], we turned around and said something changed. Something [you can feel].”
“It doesn’t mean you are going to win, but that you are able to recognise the team. Now it is eight victories in a row. It is not easy, but we compete in a way we do. We have to improve, absolutely, but this mindset is better.”
Guardiola also claimed that the revival extended to him, even with all the talks of his future at City. “It’s not about you or you or you, it was something…something was in the fog in Manchester, surrounding our training centre. We missed something,” Guardiola said. “It is not switching on or off [energy]. Results help. The methodology. And Pep Lijnders, James [French], and Kolo Toure.
“New players, I want to help them. When you’ve got the same players, it is, ‘ah, tired.’ But new players, you think, ‘ah, how is this guy?’, and try to analyse. The energy comes from there. Energy can go down, but energy can go up. Never in our lives is it the same.”
“In professional or personal life, you’ll never be happy all the time but never sad all the time. You have to realise why, to realise what we missed, to come back.”
