Consideration was given to Man City's playing style and how we compare - and it got shot down pretty quickly.. because Man City have money. Guess that rules out any consideration of Man Utd or Chelsea. Who do we compare to then? That's another question really.
Not too sure why it got shot down either, it was a question with regards to comparing systems being played, not how much money was spent. It's an interesting question really. I've been reading up on Guardiola and his system, the way he sees football and his tactics in general for quite a while now. He is a bit of a crazy genius really. I think I understand the basics of it and I'll try to explain a few things of it, hopefully I make sense.
Klopp's and Guardiola's systems and tactics are completely different, but they start from the same ideas and have the same goal: dominate the ball, a lot of movement, tactically versatile players / players being able to play different positions and pressing.
He has two starting formations (his formations are very flexible and change a lot during the game). When everyone is fit, he seems to prefer a 3-5-2. Sometimes he plays a 4-3-3 that often changes to some kind of 4-1-3-2 with one of the wingers (often Sterling) coming more central and playing next to the striker and the other winger tucking in a bit too.
Basically he divides the pitch in different lanes (5) / zones both vertically and horizontally. Vertically you'd have the wing, halfspace, center, halfspace, wing. No more than three players in any horizontal zone and no more than two players in any vertical zone is the rule.
On the left you see an image of that in game from FC Utrecht, they are managed by ten Hag, who worked with Guardiola at Bayern Munich when he managed their reserves. The system he uses is similar, but not the exact same. It just visualises well what the different lanes / zones are. On the right you see the training pitch Guardiola uses for the system.
The idea is to try and get Silva and De Bruyne on the ball in the halfspaces. Their teammates create space for them by making movements in the vertical (stretching the pitch vertically to be able to play between the lines) and horizontal zones (sideways movement to open up vertical passing lanes). The movement is complex and has to be drilled really well. You often see De Bruyne and Silva making the decisive pass, breaking the lines, right before the assist.
What you also often see in City games is that both wingers, very often Sane and Sterling or the wingbacks, are playing very, very wide and hugging the sidelines. When Silva and De Bruyne get on the ball, you see Sane and Sterling making lateral / slighty diagonal runs in behind the opposition defence. De Bruyne and Silva are brilliant at playing these weighted balls straight through the lines. With the movement opening up the vertical passing lanes, both players are able to play in Sterling or Sane who have plenty of pace to get in behind the opposition defence and then lay it off for a tap in for the strikers. You see City scoring very often from this kind of move.
Here is Henry explaining some of it from his time at Barcelona:
https://vimeo.com/149800624Notice how wide the wide players play (Henry, Villa, Pedro) and when they come in and then watch City and how Sterling and Sane are doing the exact same and making the same movements. Both players have scored and assisted a lot already this season because of that. We have quite a few players who could fit that same system, but I think we don't have the midfielders to play the system.
Here's a very interesting, in depth, article about Guardiola before he arrived at City:
https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/long-read-guardiolas-16-point-blueprint-dominance-his-methods-management-and-tactics?page=0%2C1Watch some of the training videos too, it's really interesting.
It shows how complex football can be and why it takes managers like Guardiola and Klopp longer to get their ideas / tactics across than other managers. Both managers have complex, high intensity systems. It's the reason why some of our players still struggle with the system or just don't fit the sytem. Guardiola had the advantage he could go out and buy as many players as he wanted for whatever price to get them to fit his system. Klopp is still replacing players and has to bring in replacements more gradually, which is why it's taking longer. People say the system is the problem, while it isn't. Put the wrong players in Guardiola's system (last season) and it doesn't work either. That doesn't mean the system is the problem, it's the personnel.