Tactical Theory: How Pep Guardiola’s use of wingers from Barcelona to Manchester City has evolved over time – tactical analysis

Pep Guardiola’s teams are renowned for their ball possession stats, build-up from the back, and controlling space around the pitch via player positioning. Since his first stint as a manager for Barcelona B in 2007, it is evident Guardiolas football philosophy is rooted and influenced by Johan Cruyff’s success and ideology from their time working together when Guardiola broke into Barcelona’s first team.

With this said, adapting to the quality of his players is constantly at the forefront of Guardiola’s approach, referring to this often in press conferences throughout his time at different clubs.

This tactical analysis piece will be an analysis, looking at the importance and emphasis on effective wingers in a Guardiola team, and how the type of winger Guardiola wants has evolved and changed over time in his tactics.

Demands of a Guardiola winger

One of Cruyffs ideas that seem evident in Guardiola’s team still to this day is his demand for players to maximize the horizontal and vertical space on the pitch during the build-up. This is why Guardiola has put a huge emphasis on the importance of disciplined and dynamic wingers throughout his coaching career in Spain, Germany, and now in England with Manchester City.

“More than ever we must move, move, move, and constantly create superiority. Well open up the pitch and well look for the wings and then there will be space down the centre.”  Pep Guardiola

By using his wingers to stretch opposition teams vertically and horizontally, Guardiolas side maximises the space on the field, making it difficult for the opposition to press effectively. This creates space in the centre of the pitch for his midfielders to safely move the ball further up the field.

Although the principles remain, Guardiola has since evolved, adapted, and changed his ideas on the type of wingers he wants in his teams, especially in the final third. From Thierry Henry to Franck Ribery, to Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden, let’s take a look at how the Catalan makes use of the qualities of these players and why spending 100 million pounds on Jack Grealish is showing signs of an astute transfer.

Barcelona (traditional wingers and inverted strikers)

It has been 15 years since Guardiolas first season as a manager for Barcelona, stepping into the upper echelon of Spanish football, and inheriting a squad filled with world-class talent with the likes of Samuel Etoo, Henry, and a young Lionel Messi at his disposal. Guardiola often lined up in a 4-3-3, asking his wingers to stay high and wide.

With Eto’o, Henry, and Lionel Messi, he had pace, guile, and excellent players in 1v1 positions. At the time, opposition teams in La Liga often pressed from the front. During the team’s build-up phase in their half, his wingers were asked to stay high and wide as decoys to occupy the opponents back four to create numerical superiority in the build-up.

Guardiola also tended to overload one side of the pitch to then switch the ball at speed to the opposite side to provide Messi or Henry with a 1v1 against the oppositions fullbacks for a shot at goal, with both players registering 34 and 26 goals contributions that season, respectively.