![]() ![]() ![]() Joao Cancelo appeared to be the defender with the best skill-set to fulfill the hybrid position but, unhappy at dropping out of the team because of poor form and after reportedly clashing with Guardiola in training, the Portugal full back was allowed to join Bayern Munich. Indeed, City hasn't lost a match since Stones took up the role in late March. Eventually that hybrid role was passed to John Stones, a ball-playing center back, and he has excelled in it. The change came midway through the season, with Guardiola first using Rico Lewis - an 18-year-old full back from the academy - as an inverted center midfielder in possession and a regular defender out of it. Guardiola, the deep thinker and master tactician, has evolved his formation this season from a 4-3-3 to an innovative and fluid 3-2-4-1 lineup, essentially to accommodate the arrival of Haaland and make better use of City's dominance of possession. Haaland has added a new dimension to Guardiola’s attack, given he can play as a target man when City has possession and as a counterattacking weapon on the rare occasions the team is not dominating the ball. ![]() And Haaland could easily have gotten more had Pep Guardiola not chosen to bring the fearsome Norway striker off early at times to manage his fitness. A mind-blowing 36 goals, four hat tricks (including three in successive home games), scissor-kick acrobatics and a bunch of scoring records including the most goals in a 38-game or 42-game season. Starting with the two-goal performance against West Ham on the opening weekend, Haaland has taken English soccer by storm. It’s surely the most astonishing debut season in Premier League history. Here's a look at how Pep Guardiola's juggernaut hunted down Arsenal and captured the biggest prize in the English game with three games to spare. ![]()
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