"Everyone was a machine. But, you know, in a good way. With Pep Guardiola this is always going to be meant as a positive thing, a sign of a team starting to fizz. These are benevolent machines: not so much joyless droid-football, more perfectly functioning jam factory assembly line, interlocking units, systems in perfect concert. A chess computer playing padel against a chess computer, coached by 25 even more powerful chess computers."
"It is acceptable to get a little carried away, a little purple prose at the spectacle of a high-functioning Guardiola team. If only because Guardiola himself is such a paradox. Here we have the ultimate control coach, whose ideal game of football is the million-man midfield plus infinite possession, but who is simultaneously gripped by an almost comical degree of unfiltered passion, leaping on the touchline, carving wild human shapes in the air with his cold metal robot hands."
Pep Guardiola's team moves with machine-like precision and relentless coordination, likened to benevolent machines and perfectly functioning assembly lines. Players interlock in systems of possession and control, creating fluid, relentless attacking play. Guardiola combines meticulous tactical control with intense, visible passion on the touchline. Erling Haaland emerged as a dominant figure, scoring twice and often overpowering Manchester United's defense. Jeremy Doku described Haaland as a machine after the performance. Manchester United's defensive frailties and outdated systems under Amorim were exposed, signaling possible shifts in City's attacking patterns and superiority in the derby.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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