“Human beings are likely to venerate what completed effectively, not what was carried out effectively. We assault what ended up badly, not what was carried out badly. The factor is, despues de visto todo el mundo es listo: everybody’s a genius after the occasion. I name them prophets of the previous. And but they’re fallacious even to guage the method within the gentle solely of the way it got here out in the long run.”
These may very well be the phrases of Pep Guardiola however they’re not. They’re these of Juanma Lillo, the person who slouches beside him within the dugout on the Etihad. You ponder whether in a quiet second after Manchester Metropolis’s gorgeous defeat by the hands of “the Harry Kane workforce” on Saturday, Lillo reminded el jefe: “Despues de visto todo el mundo es listo”.
Not that Guardiola actually wants reminding. The tendency of everyone in soccer – and particularly soccer journalists – to behave clever after the occasion is certainly one of his largest bugbears, and has been a working theme in lots of solutions at his press conferences this season. It typically comes up when Guardiola is requested about Metropolis’s lack of a recognised centre-forward and the failure to signal one final summer season.
Within the fast weeks and months after Metropolis’s pursuit of Kane collapsed, for instance, it was frequent for the primary query after one other demolition of inferior opponents to be: “Does that show you didn’t must signal a striker in spite of everything, Pep?” Guardiola would at all times reply alongside the identical strains. “Sooner or later we’ll lose and also you’ll ask me do you want a striker,” he mentioned after a victory at Brighton in October. “I guess you no matter you need.”
Right here’s hoping he saved his slip, as a result of that query is abruptly being requested once more. For a lot of, Saturday’s extraordinary defeat couldn’t have supplied a extra compelling and persuasive physique of proof that Metropolis ought to have signed a striker final summer season. Extra particularly, it proved that they need to have met Tottenham’s £150m valuation and signed Kane. “Take a look at what you can’ve gained,” Jamie Carragher remarked on Sky.
Kane’s efficiency – in scoring twice, brilliantly establishing the transfer for Tottenham’s opener and having one other spectacular end chalked off for a teammate’s offside – was maybe the most effective and definitely one of the memorable shows by a Premier League centre-forward in years. The implications for the title race will not be but clear but when Metropolis will not be champions in Might, will probably be in no small half all the way down to a participant they have been purported to be enjoying for them.
Ought to that involves move, scrutiny will fall on Metropolis. Kane was the precedence and the specified goal, of that there is no such thing as a doubt. What’s much less clear is why Metropolis’s key decision-makers continued to pursue Kane when subsequent to no progress was being made in negotiations. There was no motion in Tottenham’s place, however the transfer for another was nonetheless delayed and led to the late scramble for Cristiano Ronaldo. Metropolis do lots proper. Final summer season, the striker pursuit went fallacious.
Kane celebrates scoring in opposition to Man Metropolis
(PA)
But when errors have been made within the pursuit of a brand new centre-forward, it’s laborious to take a look at this season’s performances and spot their penalties. Metropolis have already scored 100 objectives in all competitions. Within the Premier League, solely Liverpool have scored extra and solely as soon as extra to be exact. Guardiola’s aspect have scored in every of their final 22 video games courting again to late October, successful all however three of them. One thing about all that means {that a} lack of objectives or point of interest will not be the problem right here, if there may be actually any concern in any respect.
One of many ironies of the Kane debate is that whereas it’s offered as one thing of a sliding doorways second – the failure to signal a “correct No 9” that compelled Guardiola to stick with a false 9 as an alternative – would a lot actually have modified? When Kane gained each the Golden Boot and arrange extra objectives than every other participant final season, it was put all the way down to the evolution of his sport past an archetypal centre-forward. His skill to drop away from the assault, obtain the ball and make performs was evident on Saturday in how he common the opening objective.
Why would he not be doing a lot of the identical at Metropolis? Although you’ll maybe anticipate Kane to carry out considerably higher within the false 9 position than Guardiola’s rotating forged of midfielders, would Metropolis’s outcomes actually look all that totally different? And even then, the components that dissuaded the Etihad hierarchy from assembly Tottenham’s £150m valuation of Kane would nonetheless be related. He would nonetheless be 28 happening 29 years outdated, with a historical past of troubling accidents behind him, and Erling Haaland would nonetheless be coming onto the market this summer season.
Regardless of Saturday’s defeat, it’s nonetheless laborious to take a look at Metropolis’s season, take into account all the assorted execs and cons of paying £150m for Kane final summer season and definitively declare that they made the fallacious choice. The reality is that they’ve been doing completely advantageous with out him. However Guardiola is aware of that the ultimate verdict on the Kane saga will solely be delivered when the title race has been determined. Will probably be primarily based on outcomes, not performances; outcomes, quite than course of. Human beings are likely to venerate what completed effectively, not what was carried out effectively. Despues de visto todo el mundo es listo. Everybody’s a genius after the occasion.
Kaynak: briturkish.com
