Manchester City : A Definition of Beauty

When Manchester City play the way in which Guardiola has designed, all fleet footed rhythmic movements and accurate speed they are both devastating and beautiful.

The search for perfection has appeared to define the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City. As each game passes subtle tweaks are made. Positions shift and runs are timed differently. De Bruyne knows he can make the passes with his eyes closed because he knows where his colleagues will be running.

This is not the power of “the force” being used by De Bruyne as an erstwhile Jedi knight but rather the result of two much more mundane things. Hard work and repetition.

In training moves are made and rehearsed. And rehearsed.

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These drills see the pitch being divided into squares and passes and runs practised into the spaces. Practice makes perfect and there is a lot of practice.

That such precision and beauty arises through workmanlike repetition should not really be a surprise. It is often the application and dedication which sets the best apart.

I use the word “beauty” to describe the football played by Manchester City with some care. The Cambridge dictionary defines beauty as

"“the quality of being pleasing, especially to look at, or someone or something that gives great pleasure,especially when you look at it”."

It is not always beautiful but importantly it is the search for that beauty, that perfection which drives Guardiola. That in itself seems to mark Guardiola out from most of his contemporaries.

We are used to seeing that beauty click into being during phases of games where things begin to coalesce. Where that Silva interplay at speed combines with Sterling. Or where 44 passes are used to open up the opposition.

The reason why I have dwelled upon the notion of beauty this week is because of some crazy points being made in the Press and on social media. Some have suggested the football played by Manchester City at the current time is boring.

There are few things in the world further away from the truth. This is the ultimate fake news!

The criticism of City being boring is obviously just jealousy. The continual press agenda to try and belittle the achievements of City who have clearly been the dominant force in English football for approaching a decade. If you can’t beat us on the pitch then try and besmirch our reputation or rubbish our achievements.

Thinking about the accusation of City somehow being boring is more laughable the more you unpick it.

Can you imagine the contemporaries of a great artist like Leonardo Da Vinci gathered round as his latest masterpiece is unveiled.

“Well Leonardo, it is a good, but we were wondering if you could somehow make it a bit more rubbish because you are showing us up.”

The bitter tears in the argument about City being boring must burn the people sharing such nonsense. Rather than trying to limit the influence of City or belittle our achievements, people should be celebrating the very best football which has ever been seen in the English Premier League.

Rather than viewing it as inherently threatening, fans should embrace it as the real driver of change that it is. Beautiful football cannot be unseen and as it gradually takes hold, the days of traditional kick and rush, of percentage football of Allardyce and Pulis and their ilk, which have short changed fans for years, are over.

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I can understand the vested interests in the established order of English Football being frightened not only of our success but also of the way we are evolving the English game. The change we are bringing is about not settling for anything less than beautiful entertainment. How can that be considered boring?

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