Pep Guardiola (foto: Getty Images)
Pep Guardiola has shown so many limitations and signs of helplessness with Manchester City this season that the opinion is growing that the era of 'Guardiolism' is slowly fading into history.
It seems that Guardiola's smooth exit from Manchester City against Real Madrid was a harbinger of a new era in football. City looked like a dead team, moving like zombies through rigid patterns, bloodless and listless, mere ghosts of the footballers they once were. The team gave the impression of a bad, faded photocopy of what was once a great side.
The entire season of the Sky Blues has felt like a bizarre starvation for success—the slow disintegration of a system, the gradual decay of a once-dominant team. And it seems that not only is the best team of the last decade and its revolutionary coach declining before our eyes, but also the very philosophy of football according to the gospel of Pep Guardiola.
Guardiola took the core principles of Total Football, introduced to Catalonia by Johan Cruyff, and refined them, modernized them, and elevated them to an even higher level. Cruyff's notorious unpredictability and reliance on inspiration were replaced by an obsessive methodical approach, which led to the creation of the legendary Barcelona team of 2008-2012—perhaps the best football team of all time.
In Manchester, after an initial setback, Guardiola evolved, adapted, and refined his philosophy, creating a team that for years was a symbol of invincibility and shattered records in English football. The pinnacle of this era was the 2022/23 season, when City won the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions League.
Now, however, it seems the cycle has reached its conclusion. Even Guardiola himself admitted at one point that a new era is emerging—one where not all teams will obsessively build from the back, start attacks in their own penalty area, and rely on patient possession regardless of the consequences.
Following Guardiola's lead, nearly every team, regardless of league level or technical ability, has adopted the philosophy of playing out from the back with short passes. In Slovenia, for example, Olimpija, Maribor, and Celje follow this approach. Even Primorje, Radomlje, and Nafta have embraced it. The renowned English journalist and tactical analyst Jonathan Wilson even observed that teams in the lower amateur leagues of England are playing out from the back. The entire football world has adopted this method. Of course, exceptions exist, but they mostly confirm the rule.
However, we seem to have reached a turning point. Every philosophy has its weaknesses, and the antidote to building from the back is intense, deliberate, intelligent, and structured pressing, which can completely neutralize this style of play. The best example of this counter-approach is Bournemouth, led by another Spanish revolutionary, Andoni Iraola. Whether Iraola's tactics would be successful at bigger clubs remains to be seen, but his football indicates a growing trend.
The flaws of stubbornly playing from the back at all costs were most evident in Burnley last season and Southampton this season. Vincent Kompany and Russell Martin refused to adapt their approach from the Championship, which ultimately condemned their clubs to an immediate return to the second division.
At Brentford, however, Thomas Frank took a different approach. Upon entering the Premier League, he quickly realized that rigidly playing from the back would not work against wealthier and superior opponents. He adapted, and today, Brentford remains in the top flight.
It is highly likely that in the near future, more and more coaches—perhaps even Pep Guardiola himself—will begin to abandon the template of building from the back in favor of a faster, more direct game. Because the best response to relentless high pressing on the backline is a long ball into open space, finding a teammate further up the pitch.
With this shift, we might even see a resurgence of classic strikers, who seemed to be dying out not so long ago. Luis Enrique at PSG is one of the few elite coaches who still insists on a system with a "false nine" (which is why Randal Kolo Muani was forced out), but most top clubs now rely on a big, strong striker who can hold up the ball or win aerial duels. The fact that Arsenal lacks such a striker may ultimately cost them the Premier League title this season.
Looking at trends at the highest level, we can conclude that football is at a crossroads. The era of 'Guardiolism' is gradually fading, and a new era is yet to fully emerge.