How Has Pep Guardiola’s ‘Most Difficult’ Season Changed The City Boss?

When Manchester City started the 2024/25 season, many expected Pep Guardiola’s team to make four Premier League titles in a row five. The Etihad Stadium outfit was the dominant force at the top of English soccer and it was difficult to envisage any other team getting close to all-conquering City.

Ultimately, though, the 2024/25 campaign turned into Guardiola’s “most difficult,” as he calls it, as Manchester City manager. City was firmly left behind in the Premier League title race and suffered an early exit from the Champions League. Guardiola’s team could still win the FA Cup, but this would be a meagre return by the standards of recent years.

“It’s been the most difficult [season], that’s for sure,” Guardiola said with City still in need of points to secure a top five place and Champions League qualification. “It’s been more demanding. Much more. When you don’t win it’s more demanding emotionally and preparing, and the moods and everything. It’s been more difficult than the previous seasons we played for the titles.”

Manchester City has already started its rebuild, spending roughly €180m on new players in the January transfer window. Guardiola himself has spoken about how he might have to change his approach to combat some of the forces, internal and external, that dragged down his team this season.

Guardiola sacrificed control to fit Erling Haaland into his lineup following his arrival from Borussia Dortmund. With the Norwegian striker out injured for the last few weeks, City has rediscovered this control, pushing the outgoing Kevin De Bruyne into a more advanced position where has been able to have a greater influence.

Now that Haaland is back, Guardiola faces a conundrum. This will be something he has to solve next season. How can Manchester City control games in and out of possession when its best player and top scorer offers so little in terms of his all-round play? Previously, City was strong enough to effectively play with 10 men in certain phases. That is no longer the case.

Over the course of his managerial career, Guardiola has adapted his approach. He moved away from the pure possession style that worked so well for him at Barcelona to play with more speed at Bayern Munich and Manchester City. In retrospect, he might have moved too far away from what he knows best.

This season has been a difficult one for Guardiola and Manchester City, but it could help to point the club, and its manager, in a new direction as the Etihad Stadium outfit prepares for a new era. Guardiola might have learned just as much about himself as he has about the condition of his City squad.