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Pep Guardiola has been hailed as a genius but his extreme tactics and intense training has caught out more than one player during the Spaniard’s career. Perhaps more than any other coach, Guardiola demands tactical discipline and for some mercurial talents, they have quickly found life is not as easy as they may have hoped. Here’s six players whose careers took a turn for the worse after being managed by Pep Guardiola.
READ: De Bruyne successor announces himself for Man City as brief doubts over Guardiola genius put to bed Yaya Toure Yaya Toure was very much part of a dying breed of footballer by the time Pep Guardiola touched down in Manchester. The ability to seem completely uninterested one minute before scoring a worldie the next made him a uniquely enjoyable footballer but in Guardiola’s uber-intense system, Toure was always going to suffer. The player, or rather the agent, did not help matters.
Having been omitted from City’s Champions League squad, agent Dimitri Seluk made his feelings known in the press, questioning if Pep had “the balls to say that he was wrong to humiliate a great player like Yaya”. Guardiola was swift in his retribution, telling a press conference that Toure would not play until his agent apologised and even if the Ivorian made 25 league appearance that season, he had a far lighter impact than he had under Manuel Pellegrini. On his day, Toure was a world-class player capable of magic but his mercurial style was never going to blend well with Guardiola’s intensity.
Jack Grealish Other than the blue half of Birmingham, it is hard to find anyone who dislikes Jack Grealish . The boyish charm mixed with an ever-so-slight simpleness (he does not know what a thesaurus is) make him a loveable character and one that was only more endearing once he took to the pitch. At Aston Villa, he was the centre of the team and often the one who produced a bit of magic to win a game.
He captained them to promotion and his performances in England’s top flight had plenty of big clubs sniffing around. Ultimately, it was City who purchased him in 2021 for a £100m transfer fee set by his release clause. It was a record fee for an Englishman and Grealish took time to adapt to life at City, but his breakthrough came in the 2022/23 campaign when he played a crucial role in the club’s treble.
But any hope that Grealish would kick on has been dashed and instead, the player has found himself limited by Guardiola’s tactical system. A player like Grealish requires the freedom to be creative but Guardiola’s tactics often demand fewer risks and treating the ball like the holy grail. At 29, Grealish should be in his peak but it is looking increasingly like he needs a move away from the Etihad to rediscover his form .
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Perhaps the most bizarre signing of Pep Guardiola’s career was Zlatan Ibrahimovic . Barcelona agreed to not only pay £40million for the Swede but throw in Samuel Eto’o, a player who seemed a more natural fit in Guardiola’s system. The result was not all that surprising.
Ibrahimovic clashed with Guardiola, in particular after a Champions League semi-final defeat to his former Inter side. The Swede claims he shouted “You haven’t got any balls!” and “You can go to hell!” to the coach but instead of rising to it, Guardiola walked away, a cardinal sin to Zlatan. It was the beginning of the end and the following season, he was loaned to AC Milan.
Ibrahimovic’s career can hardly be seen as a failure but if he had stayed at Inter or made it work at Barca, he would have surely earned that Champions League medal he craves. Jeremy Doku It is still early in Doku’s City career but there are already familiar signs emerging. Bought as an expressive and quick winger, he looked lively when he first arrived but as Guardiola demanded more of him, his creative output has shrunk.
The Belgian has scored and assisted just once in the league this year and at times, he has struggled to break into the starting line-up. Joe Hart Like a new prisoner punching the biggest inmate, Guardiola’s first victim at City came in the form of Joe Hart . England’s number one was a great shot-stopper who had bailed City out on more than one occasion but suddenly found himself at odds with the new manager, one the club had bent over backwards to sign.
Hart, an excellent keeper but less comfortable with his feet, was asked to play a different style and Guardiola opted to exclude the keeper in his first Premier League XI. City signed Claudio Bravo, a disaster, but Guardiola was adamant and Hart went on loan to Torino. Hart dotted around a few clubs but would never again reach the heights of his performances at the Etihad.
MORE ON PEP GUARDIOLA ON F365 👉 Man City boss Guardiola on three-man ‘list’ for Brazil after Dorival sack with top target already ‘chosen’ 👉 Man City FFP: Five steps to PL return from League Two post-expulsion include replacing Guardiola 👉 Man City boss Guardiola ‘insists’ on stunning Bellingham transfer, with £125m backup plan initiated Mario Gotze Mario Gotze was Guardiola’s first signing at Bayern but the German wonderkid failed to kick on from his promising career start. He was shifted across the midfield before being deployed as a false 9 and although his debut season yielded 15 goals, there was still a frustration about how he had played. After scoring Germany’s winner in the 2014 World Cup, Gotze returned to Bayern but fell down the pecking order to the point that he was a sub in the opening game of the 2015/16 season.
Struggling for minutes, Gotze returned to Dortmund in July 2016 and has been open about his regret at joining Bayern in the first place..
