Pep Guardiola Dikecam Media Inggris setelah Barca Permalukan City 4-0
Manchester City Stardust is in Short Supply for Blundering Pep Guardiola
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
KEBERHASILAN Pep Guardiola di Barcelona selama empat tahun menjadi pelatih di Nou Camp ternyata tidak ada artinya. Dia mewarisi tim yang hebat, membuatnya lebih baik dan hasilnya tidak mengecewakan.
Ketika Guardiola terbang kembali ke Spanyol pada Kamis, dia terpukul dan direndahkan oleh klub yang dia tinggalkan, khususnya pada kemampuannya meningkatkan kemampuan Manchester City dan tampaknya dia harus menghadapi kenyataan pahit dari impiannya selama ini.
Setelah City mengonfirmasi pengangkatannya sebagai pelatih pada Februari, Guardiola dikatakan harus menghadapi tantangan berat dari yang dihadapinya saat melatih Barcelona atau Bayern Munich.
Selalu akan ada masalah mengubah tim yang personilnya rata-rata tidak muda lagi dan harus menghadapi fakta sulit untuk mengembangkan kemampuan Guardiola.
Hal mengkhawatirkan bagi manajer baru, karena ia harus menerima kekalahan telak 4-0 yang memupuskan harapan City menjadi juara Liga Champion, terutama keputusan menarik keluar kiper Claudio Bravo dan tidak menempatkan Sergio Aguero sebagai playmaker.
Obsesi Guardiola memiliki kiper hebat yang mampu mengatasi segala situasi mengakibatkan turbulensi di Etihad dengan hengkangnya kiper Inggris Joe Hart ke Torino di Italia.
Guardiola memutuskan untuk mengganti Hart dengan salah satu dari dua kiper Barcelona, ​​Marc-Andre ter Stegen atau Claudio Bravo. Ini tidak membantu ketika, pada malam permainan ini dan dua bulan setelah Bravo menekan kontrak Rp300 miliar, Guardiola keceplosan bahwa Ter Stegen adalah pilihan pertamanya.
Bravo diusir pada menit ke-53 akibat tindakah ceroboh yang sengaja menyentuh bola dengan tangan (handball) setelah berhadapan dengan Luis Suarez ketika sebagian besar kiper - Hart nomor satu - akan bertindak lebih cermat untuk menghalau bahaya di depan gawang. Sejak saat itu City tidak berkutik.
Ini bukan pertama kalinya bahwa Bravo melakukan blunder. Juga bukan pertama kalinya akibat tekanan Guardiola kepada para pemainnya menghadapi risiko di depan gawangnya sendiri.
Pelatih asal Spanyol itu teguh setelah itu bahwa dia tidak akan berkompromi pada itu, tapi itu menarik bahwa Ter Stegen dan Barcelona yang senang bermain bola panjang ketika itu dirasa masuk akal seperti dilansir MailOnline.
PEP GUARDIOLA'S success at Barcelona over four years in charge at the Nou Camp appeared effortless at times. He inherited a great team, made it better and reaped the rewards.
As Guardiola flew back from Spain on Thursday, well beaten and humbled by the club he took to new heights, the problems building up at Manchester City seemed to pose a far greater test of his fabled coaching skills.
Ever since City confirmed his appointment in February, it has been said that Guardiola was taking on a tougher challenge than he faced at Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
There were always going to be issues transforming an ageing team that had seen better days into one that fitted the Guardiola mould.
The worrying thing for the new manager, as he digested a 4-0 defeat that leaves City's Champions League hopes in some peril, is the issues that arose in the Nou Camp — notably events surrounding the sending-off of goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and the exclusion of top scorer Sergio Aguero — were largely of his own making.
Guardiola's obsession with having a goalkeeper as comfortable with the ball at his feet as in his hands has already caused enough turbulence at the Etihad with the untidy departure of England goalkeeper Joe Hart to Torino.
Guardiola decided to replace Hart with one of Barcelona's two goalkeepers, Marc-Andre ter Stegen or Claudio Bravo. It did not help matters when, on the eve of this game and two months after Bravo signed in a 15.4million pounds deal, Guardiola let slip that Ter Stegen was his first choice.
Bravo was sent off in the 53rd minute for deliberate handball after passing straight to Luis Suarez when most keepers — Hart for one — would have chosen a safer option and cleared the danger. From that moment City were dead in the water.
It is not the first time that Bravo has blundered. Nor is it the first time that Guardiola's insistence on his players passing the ball short in their own penalty box at every opportunity has invited trouble.
The Spaniard was steadfast afterwards that he will not compromise on that, but it was interesting that Ter Stegen and Barcelona were happy to play the long ball when it made sense.
