Brave New World

by Guillem Balague

  I do have fond memories of those Catalan derbies though. Mindful of Barça’s superiority, we always set out to rattle them and make them play in a way to which they were unaccustomed. If you let them develop their game, it’s not a question of whether you’ll lose, just by how many. It was really funny when, earlier this week, Sky Sports screened the Barcelona v Espanyol match that we won in my first season in charge, when we were bottom going into it and inflicted a first home defeat on Guardiola’s team. A lot of players gaped at me because they see Espanyol as tantamount to a neighbourhood team – so I beat Messi’s Barça with a neighbourhood team! It’s good for them to see that such things are possible. And it’s a reminder for me that I’m finally in a position to go toe to toe with a Guardiola side.

  Pep and I always had a relationship of respect. I think our teams contested something like eight to ten derbies and there’s a tradition in Spain according to which, ahead of the game, the coaches get together on the pitch where it’s going to be played. There came a point at which we stopped doing it because we were coming face-to-face so often, but our encounters were always entirely cordial. Plus, we lived near one another in Barcelona, so we sometimes bumped into each other in the neighbourhood.

  We overheard Pep talking about me on the TV in my office. I didn’t hear the whole interview, but from what I could pick up he had some interesting, well-argued things to say. ‘If I were a young, aspiring coach and I saw Tottenham, I would say, “I’d like to play like them.” I don’t think he’s one of the best managers in England; he’s one of the best managers in the world.’ He seemed pretty sincere to me. Everyone knows that footballing battles aren’t just won on the pitch, that it all starts at the press conference. Since I find it strange when people talk about me in such terms, and because praise can cause complacency, as we were listening we thought to ourselves, ‘What’s he up to?’ But honestly, I think it was a genuine show of respect.

  I made my opinion clear at my press conference: Pep is one of the best coaches in the world, not only because of his results but also because of his philosophy and the style of football he favours, which are very similar to my own.

  It’ll be a great pleasure to greet him, as well as City’s fitness coach Lorenzo Buenaventura, who is a good friend of mine, and particularly Mikel Arteta, who has embarked on a new adventure. I’m very fond of him and he’ll make an exceptional coach.

  *

  Saturday 1 October. We strive constantly to improve and develop our system, method, or whatever people want to call it. We insist on our ideas and we tweak training slightly depending on our next rivals. This game has a series of connotations different to any other we had played before. The team feels it too. There is no need to motivate the troops, maybe just insist on our principles.

  Several conversations with Harry Kane come to mind because that is what we did with him from day one. I know it was really tough for him at the start. We had to win over hearts, minds and bodies so that they would keep pressing and running up and down the pitch. But I refused to entertain any doubts about this being the way forward. ‘If you do it, and continue doing it, and you’re tired at the end, don’t worry,’ I told Harry and the rest of the team. ‘I’ll introduce someone else to do your job, but you can’t leave anything in the tank.’

  Before I arrived, his game was a bit more back to goal, holding it up, waiting for chances to come, getting in the box. Whereas now, he is always on the front foot, always trying to press. And if we have the ball, he has freedom to move around, not just wait for the ball to get to him. He has to be alive every minute.

  This is how we’ve turned the team with the worst defensive record in the top ten into the best defence in the division. And without playing defensive football – far from it, in fact – or making many personnel changes.

  It is all about being brave. I love that word in English. We must display bravery at all times and, since mental preparation is crucial nowadays, we send daily messages to this effect in different formats and packaging.

  Today, before the session got underway on the pitch, we showed them a five-minute video of some aspects of City’s game, and especially how they bring the ball out. They’ve won every match so far, but we’ve found some good examples of how pressing can disrupt their build-up play. I like to spark debate with the players, whether in the team briefings or during the tactics sessions: their ideas can generate new solutions. It also helps them to feel invested in the process. We record absolutely everything, even what goes on in the gym; we flag up mistakes to the players and correct them using videos.

  We analysed their Champions League clash against Celtic on Wednesday and I’m convinced they’re going to line up tomorrow with Fernando and Fernandinho in central midfield. We know what they look for, so we think the keys are: outnumbering them in the middle of the park; harrying them so they don’t have time to build from the back, getting in their faces and not letting them pass it about, which is what they enjoy; and, finally, using the ball well when we get it, being bold and pushing forward without fear.

  I told the squad all that and then restated it differently by reminding them about when England played Spain in Alicante. It was 0–0 at half-time, but 2–0 to Spain at the final whistle. The England internationals returned home happy, reckoning they’d given a good account of themselves in the first half before conceding twice in the second. I told them, ‘Excuse me, but I disagree, because at no point did you seek to take the initiative or be brave. Truth be told, it was clear right from the warm-up that Spain were going to win. The only question was whether they’d score in the first minute or the 90th, but the match was a foregone conclusion. Football is all about attitude.’

  The message was clear: let’s go out there, take the game to them and dictate.

  I’ve decided on the starting line-up. Sometimes I keep the players guessing until the last minute; I can really channel the emotional and psychological state that suspense creates. But on this occasion, I told them earlier today, and the team in question had a dress rehearsal against an academy XI who replicated City’s approach. We’ve opted to go for the most attacking team we can, with a lot of pace up front and plenty of movement in the side to cause them difficulties in the transition game.

  Son will operate as a false nine, a role he’s played before at Bayer Leverkusen and at Hamburg, as well as a couple of times for us last year, such as against Borussia Dortmund. He offers us the ability to press their centre-backs and take City by surprise, because he can exploit the space created by the movement of Alli, Sissoko, Lamela and Eriksen. We’ll carry a threat from deep.

  That’s the plan. We have a good feeling; we played well in Moscow and are confident. After training, we gave the squad the afternoon off.

  *

  Sunday 2 October. The day of the game has arrived.We met up at the training ground: the players not in the matchday squad came in the morning, while the rest arrived in time for lunch and the subsequent briefing. I once again repeated the previous day’s message: that we had to capitalise on the opposition’s weak links and try to hurt them.

  We got to the stadium around an hour and a half before kick-off and showed a couple of clips from yesterday’s training session to Sissoko, Wanyama, Alli and Eriksen, to remind them of the idea behind our game plan and point out a few positional tweaks. We’re always open to making late changes. Even though we’d settled on our line-up, following some video analysis we adjusted one player’s position to try to make the most of his qualities and avoid putting him in compromising situations.

  In the pre-match interview, a journalist asked me how we were going to play, since we didn’t have an out-and-out number 9. I kept my answer vague.

  Ossie Ardiles came down to the dressing room to greet us, as he does whenever we play at home. He told me that Pep’s praise of me had made headlines in Argentina and that it’d help raise my profile there. Afterwards, I changed out of my tracksuit, had a shower and put on my club suit for the game. My two kid
s arrived and spent a little while with me in the Manager’s Room.

  *

  This is what I said in my post-match presser: ‘It was a great, great victory for us against this opposition. It is always so difficult to play against them. Sometimes when you have a plan, it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but to make it happen against Manchester City, against such a great team, makes me very happy.

  ‘If you play like we did today, with passion and aggression, then you will always have a chance. It is always about mentality. That is what helps us run and play as we want to. We need to follow this after the international break.’

  It’s been a great day. I feel very satisfied.

  *

  Despite the sense of calm, there had been a palpable vibe in the air before the match: we all knew it was an important match. We knew too that we could win it if we got things right.

  We had put the team on the starting grid. Whether we won the race depended on the players and their decisions.

  This was the line-up: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Wanyama; Sissoko, Eriksen, Dele Alli, Lamela; Son Heung Min.

  We set out our stall really well; we had a clear vision of how to play against them. I think we caught them off guard. For long stretches they weren’t able to build from the back; they had to resort to a lot of speculative long balls, which limited their ability to attack. We pressed high up the pitch, with intensity, and so we won the ball back quickly. That opened up lots of options for us in transitions, dragging the opposition out of shape and causing them to make mistakes.

  It helped that we got the opener so early, after just nine minutes. We were dominant even at that early stage, but we got a slice of luck when Kolarov turned a Danny Rose cross into his own net. We continued to mark our territory by maintaining our dizzying tempo in the first 25 minutes. This forced them into rejigging things and we took a few minutes to adjust. In the 37th minute, after a turnover, Son picked out Dele Alli, who fired home a low, first-time finish to Claudio Bravo’s right from around the penalty spot. So we can still score even without Kane . . .

  I got up off the bench more than Pep, but no more than usual. It was one of the matches in which I’ve felt calmest, so confident was I in our preparations and in the players’ concentration, which is usually relentless in these types of games. I’m often more nervous when we’re up against a team near the bottom of the table, because you have to be wary of players getting overconfident.

  We were 2–0 up at the break, when we just ironed out a couple of small details. We went out in the second half with the same attitude, hitting the ground running again. City kept trying to take us by surprise by having their players interchange positions and switching formation, including sticking Sterling at centre-forward alongside Agüero and moving to a diamond in midfield, but we stayed alert.

  We were awarded a penalty. If Kane had been on the pitch, he’d have taken it. In his absence, it was between Son and Lamela. They are free to decide. Lamela ended up taking it and missing. Then Agüero tested Lloris a couple of times, hitting the post once.

  Something funny happened in the 84th minute, when I wanted to bring on N’Koudou, and we both wound up cracking up with laughter. The problem is that he doesn’t speak any English: he only speaks French, although he understands Spanish. I usually get Miki to translate everything into French for him. Anyway, when he came over to receive his final instructions, I started talking to him in English and he looked at me with an utterly bewildered expression. I could’ve been telling him how to cook paella, for all it was worth. So then I said to him, ‘What language do you want me to talk to you in? Spanish?’

  ‘OK, sure,’ he said, laughing. So I started explaining a couple of things to him, with no idea whether he was understanding – it was total confusion. Only then, when I’d finished, did he reveal that ‘Miguel had already gone over everything’!

  I don’t force them to speak English, I wasn’t forced to when I arrived in England, but they learn fast.

  We didn’t celebrate too effusively, but inside we felt a huge sense of satisfaction. Everything went to plan. We were happy not just about getting the win, but about how it was achieved. When my backroom staff crossed paths with City’s near the dressing rooms, they said we’d deserved it, that we’d played really well and hadn’t let them get a foothold in the game.

  I was already at my press conference by then. The journalists sang our praises. Since the main story told itself, one of the talking points was the penalty incident between Lamela and Son. The press do love to stir up controversy! I spent an hour with the media, almost the length of a game. I understand that the broadcast rights holders want exclusive content, given how much they pay. But it can be exhausting to talk to the radio, the daily newspapers, the Sunday papers, do a press conference and then round off by speaking to the club’s in-house television channel. It’s crazy but we know these are obligations that we have to fulfil.

  When I was coming back from my last interview, Jesús and I ran into Ferran Soriano, Txiki Begiristain and Guardiola in a corridor. We had a chat for three or four minutes about what we’re going to do in the coming days, with the players set to head off on international duty, and about our Champions League opponents. General chit-chat.

  The traditional ritual of managers having a glass of wine together after matches doesn’t exist in Spain. I’m not really into it myself – I think I’ve given it a miss following every away game. My coaching staff are more partial to it, though, and my opposite number will usually come into our Manager’s Room. It’s an odd moment because normally one of us is angry and the other is happy. Still, it’s like an interlude in which colleagues recognise that they are all in the same boat, whatever level they are working at. So you discuss your respective problems superficially, your counterparts ask you about your team selection for the next match and you comment on the latest transfers . . . It’s largely small talk for the sake of keeping up the tradition.

  The chairman came down to the dressing room after the game. Simon told me that was a first. He brought wine – a much better bottle than the one we’d already opened in the Manager’s Room. We toasted the victory. He looked chuffed.

  Son was named the man of the match after a livewire performance, but in my book the standout performer was Victor Wanyama, even though he got himself booked too early, after half an hour. He broke up play and was aggressive, as well as enterprising, having a hand in the second goal.

  I didn’t see him after the match, so I asked Jesús to go and fetch him. When he walked into the Manager’s Room, I laid into him: ‘Sit down, I’m really angry with you! How can you pick up a booking so early? That’s unacceptable!’ A serious expression came over him, he sat down and I thought he was going to burst into tears, so I got up and gave him a big hug. It briefly got awkward as he didn’t understand what was going on. ‘Victor, now you really are the king. I told you – you’ve got to be the boss on the pitch. You’re in charge, you’re the king.’ Only then did the penny drop and he hugged me back with all his might. Then he started laughing, his boyish face lighting up with that somewhat shy smile of his. He showed everyone what a great player he is today.

  There were no further celebrations. It was a great win, but we had to keep things in perspective. Plus, we were all tired because it was our seventh game in three weeks.

  So everyone hauled themselves off home. Since things were dragging on, I asked Sebas, who had driven in, to take his brother home. Jesús, Miki, Toni and I later went back to the training ground in a minivan taxi. Jesús then gave me a lift home. When I got there, I had a glass of wine and something to eat, and watched some football – Espanyol were playing Villarreal. Or rather, I watched a match: there wasn’t much actual football on display.

  My wife had stayed in to watch our game on TV and had tuned in for the full coverage, so she recapped everything the pundits had said. I relived the build-up, the action and the post-match reaction. And everything in between.

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  We’re second after seven games, one point behind City, who remain top. We ran 5.7 miles more than City. We completed more sprints than any other side this season. We’re the only Premier League team that are unbeaten domestically. We’ve only conceded two goals. It’s the club’s best start in fifty years. We’ve won seven matches this season, drawing two.

  We’ve lost just once: that bloody defeat to Monaco.

  We had yesterday off. I spent most of the day at home. In the afternoon I took Mauri to training after picking him up from school.

  It’s going to be a relaxed week. Today we’ll work with the five first-team players who are still around. Wanyama is one: he would’ve been called up for international duty, but since Kenya weren’t in competitive action, he asked to be excused for fitness reasons. There’s also Trippier, Carroll and Winks, plus N’Koudou, for whom the week is vital: an opportunity to gain muscle mass and improve physically. We’ll also catch up with the injured Dembélé and Harry Kane.

  Given our position in the table, we’ve got to make the most of it and enjoy this moment; if not, when else will we? We’ll ease up in training, while drawing up a work plan for the packed schedule ahead: another block of seven games in three weeks. That includes three different competitions – the Premier League, the Champions League and the League Cup tie against Liverpool at Anfield – and four away trips.

  Before then, though, Jesús, a few board members and I will be joining the chairman on a trip for a couple of days.

  *

  Daniel has invited us to his house in the French Alps, near Mont Blanc, for a few days. It is a small gathering of people from his inner circle – eight of us in total – in a spectacular setting. But there’s often a a quid pro quo with the chairman: with Daniel, you hardly ever get anything for free. I sometimes joke about it with him.