Pep Guardiola might bend the rules but this is what makes him a winner because finding loopholes in the laws of sport is what separates the great from the good
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola will stop at nothing when it comes to winning.
He proved this with a second half masterstroke at the Etihad on Saturday, which we will come to later. All the greatest coaches want to find that edge. That slight advantage that will help their team come out on top. No-one is better at it in the whole of sport than Rassie Erasmus.
The South African head coach hasn’t just bent the rules in order to succeed, he’s smashed them to smithereens. During the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 2021, Erasmus demoted himself from director of rugby to water carrier. The menial role allowed him to go on the pitch and pass direct messages to his players.
It was a stroke of genius which paid dividends, with South Africa winning the series. In that same series, after the Lions had won the opening Test, Erasmus recorded a video of himself criticising the referee. He denied leaking said video, but you didn’t have to be Albert Einstein to fathom out how it made it onto social media for the world to see.
To his rivals, Erasmus is an irritant of the highest order. His own players might not be too struck on him either, considering how he’s been known to humiliate them with early substitutions during games. But he’s masterminded back-to-back World Cup triumphs, and turned the Springboks into arguably the greatest rugby team of all time.
One which has just subjected Wales to utter humiliation in Cardiff, and is bang on course to make it an historical hat-trick of World Cup triumphs in 2027. Finding loopholes is his forte.
Which is just what Guardiola did, to help engineer City’s home win over Leeds United last weekend. With City finding themselves on the ropes after allowing Leeds to draw level from two goals down, Ruben Dias could be seen telling goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to go down injured. Which he did.
Moments later, Guardiola had taken full advantage of the break in play to gather all 10 of his outfield players on the sidelines for a Pep talk (sorry). City won the game with a stoppage time winner. Stoppage time Donnarumma had helped create, despite seemingly not being injured. The tactic was morally bankrupt, but Guardiola didn’t break any rules.
A point the fourth official made to Daniel Farke, when the Leeds boss asked him if he could do anything about what was going on. Farke has called on the authorities to do something to stop the same thing happening again. He suggested time-outs being introduced, like what happens in American Football.
So all managers can get the chance to have an impromptu rabble rouse. And before people state this would slow the game down, think again. Because the pace of play was ruined from the moment VAR was introduced.
But Guardiola deserves huge credit for having the sporting acumen to come up with the idea in the first place. Finding loopholes like this is what separates managers and coaches like him and Erasmus from the rest. It makes them special.
Elevating them above the likes of Fabio Capello, who’s most ingenious act as England boss was to ban ketchup from the dinner table.
But the obvious message to those inferior to Guardiola and Erasmus is, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.