Jermaine Beckford has hailed Pep Guardiola for how successful he has been during his time at Manchester City.
The 52-year-old has guided his side to winning five major titles across 2023, taking his trophy total to 14 as City’s manager.
With the Citizens now being world champions, one pundit has shared his thoughts on the man who has created such a dominant side and the work he’s done to get them where they are.
Beckford heaps praise on Guardiola
Speaking in a recent edition of Team Talks by Premier League Productions (via Optus Sport), Beckford had this to say about Guardiola.
He said: “He is incredible. He plays manager like lots of us play Football Manager. He’s just got the blueprint for how to win.
“You look at the trophies he’s won there, that is a phenomenal feat for a manager. People say he’s been able to buy the best players, he’s shopped in a different pool to a lot of other clubs yes, granted, however, you’ve still got to make those players mould and work together and that for me is the hardest thing.
“We’ve seen some managers not be able to work with world-class players before and the manager gets the blame for it whereas he’s on the other side of the fence.
“A lot of the stuff he does without the main players, you look at [Kevin] De Bruyne, he’s been out for a long, long time. You look at [Erling] Haaland as well he’s been out for a while so for him to be able to maintain that with one or two slip-ups, they lost against Aston Villa and struggling at times to keep clean sheets, I don’t think they’ve kept many clean sheets this season. But he still manages to find a way to galvanise his team and get them working as a unit and play some of the most impressive football we’ve ever seen.”
Since being appointed as City’s head coach back in 2016, Guardiola has overlooked 442 games in total across all competitions prior to this weekend’s Premier League match against Sheffield United.
With 325 victories, 53 draws and 64 defeats under his belt during his time at the Etihad Stadium, the Spaniard is undoubtedly one of the most successful managers English football has seen.
Moving forward, if Guardiola can add another Premier League trophy to City’s cabinet at the end of this season, he and the club will have made history by becoming the first side to win four league titles in a row, which will definitely be something the players will want to do.
