Pep Guardiola has been accused of replicating a tactic Sir Alex Ferguson employed during his time as manager of Manchester United while managing Manchester City.
Graeme Souness, the Liverpool legend, has stated that Pep Guardiola has adopted a similar approach to Sir Alex Ferguson‘s when Manchester City are trying to catch up to Arsenal, claiming his handling of Kevin De Bruyne reflects the methods of his fellow Scot at Manchester United.
After being left out of the team in recent matches, Guardiola publicly admonished De Bruyne to improve his performance, emphasizing the importance of executing the basics correctly.
Erling Haaland heeded Guardiola‘s call to “better“ by netting five goals against RB Leipzig, with De Bruyne also showing his quality in the second leg of the Champions League last–16 tie.
Souness claims that Guardiola is utilizing a well–known tactic of Ferguson‘s, which was to push his star players such as David Beckham and Ryan Giggs to their maximum potential, in order to motivate the rest of the squad to improve.
Souness wrote in the Mail: “De Bruyne has been City’s best player for the last five years. Yet this season he hasn’t played in some important games.
“I was at the one City lost at Spurs in February, for example, and he didn’t start that day. Strange. And now Guardiola has dug him out a little in public. This week he said De Bruyne had to get back to doing the simple things well.
“I have my theories about why this may have happened. It could be part of a deliberate tactic aimed at motivating the whole squad.
