If the obvious manner to take a look at Pep Guardiola’s document is to survey his medal assortment, there’s an alternate strategy: take a look at what he might have gained. The Manchester City supervisor has a lone FA Cup to his title and, as he’ll quickly face a sixth semi-final, he has ample expertise of reaching Wembley, if not of prevailing there on this competitors.
“I am a failure in the FA Cup,” mentioned Guardiola, borrowing from his rhetoric in regards to the Champions League, mockingly making an attempt to pre-empt his critics and, once more, invoking Julia Roberts, the Oscar-winning actress who could also be bemused to find she is changing into a staple of City press conferences; return to the early 2000s they usually have been about Eyal Berkovic greater than Erin Brockovich. But Guardiola meant a part of it significantly.
His City have excelled in most kinds of matches. Except two, maybe: the Champions League closing – which, as he has nonetheless solely reached one, represents a small pattern dimension – and the FA Cup semi-finals. “The worst games we have played is always semi-final of FA Cup at Wembley,” mentioned Guardiola. “Never we were [good] there. Our performances were really poor every time; even the year we won we struggled.” In 2019, Gabriel Jesus’ early header took City previous Brighton, however the six-goal salvo got here as an alternative towards Watford within the closing.
Perhaps it’s not only a quirk, an oddity camouflaged by Guardiola’s extra well-known incapacity to win the Champions League with City. It is tough to model it a Wembley jinx when his facet have a historical past of lifting the Carabao Cup there. More pertinently, it’s an April subject, an issue of competing on all fronts. Guardiola is a specialist in extending seasons to the enterprise finish however there’s a purpose why nobody has ever finished the quadruple, and why Liverpool deserve credit score for coming nearer than anybody had earlier than final yr. There is usually a case that one thing has to provide. For City, intentionally or in any other case, it may be the FA Cup. “The last years it always came before or after the Champions League quarter-final and we travelled,” Guardiola mentioned.
Now a semi-final towards Sheffield United is trapped by twin legs of a Champions League quarter-final with Bayern Munich. Rest and rotate and Guardiola might subject a weakened group. Don’t and a few of his premier gamers could also be mentally or bodily fatigued. It would be the no-win state of affairs for the supervisor who doesn’t win FA Cup semi-finals.
Last yr’s loss to Liverpool got here three days after a 0-0 draw with Atletico Madrid in Spain. Guardiola left Ederson, Ruben Dias, Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne on the bench at Wembley after which left them there. The 2021 semi-final defeat to Chelsea was three days after a quarter-final away win over Borussia Dortmund. Ederson, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Bernardo Silva, Gundogan, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez dropped out of the group. In 2019, the video games have been in a special order: City beat Brighton earlier than dropping to Tottenham in Europe, with De Bruyne demoted towards Spurs.
Guardiola’s different semi-finals got here in numerous circumstances: a 2017 loss to Arsenal greater than a month after they have been knocked out of Europe, a 2020 defeat to Mikel Arteta’s Gunners when, after soccer’s three-month shutdown, Champions League video games have been postponed till August. But whereas Guardiola has gained 73 % of his different video games in command of City, his success charge in FA Cup semi-finals solely stands at 20 %. The elevated nature of groups who attain that far is a part of the story. City’s shortcomings is one other half.
“To play the semi-finals, you have to be ready,” Guardiola mirrored. “It’s so important. We’ve played naively, no good. Three-zero [down] against Liverpool… I know they’re a good team but 3-0 at half-time? When we lost against Arsenal in Mikel’s first season [in 2020], it was really bad. Hopefully this time we can behave as who we are. It’s not about reaching the final, I just always had the feeling that we didn’t compete, we were not there, we were not hungry enough.”
If that first half was, together with the next recreation towards Manchester United, when Liverpool arguably peaked final season, there could be a distinction with most of City’s European exits. They are usually a exceptional array of hard-luck tales and near-misses whereas, as Guardiola readily admitted, they haven’t carried out close to their potential in FA Cup semi-finals. A supervisor accused of overthinking might have hampered his trigger: deciding on a second-choice goalkeeper at Wembley, significantly Zack Steffen, has tended to backfire.
Guardiola is more and more outlined by Champions League disappointments, to accompany his twin triumphs. Talk of his six semi-final defeats are likelier to reference Barcelona’s exits to Inter Milan and Chelsea, Bayern Munich’s hat-trick of disappointments towards Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico and City’s loss to Real Madrid final season. They had the air of drama on an epic scale. They nearly actually harm extra. But a supervisor who has gained greater than just about anybody else has additionally accrued extra semi-final setbacks than most.