What is the story behind Manchester city’s endless success?

Manchester City are a world renowned team for their ability to win what feels like every major English trophy after the departure of their previous manager, Manuel Pellegrini. This is the result of several key factors, combining financial power, astute management, and a well-structured football philosophy. Here’s a breakdown of the story behind their success:

1. Pep Guardiola masterful use of tactics: although Manchester City don’t play a very entertaining and dynamic style of football, City are the best and most successful proponent of positional play. They attempt to gain a numerical advantage through their centre backs moving wide and the number six taking up a position beyond the oppositions first line of defence, creating a triangle. Explained in simpler words, the centre backs jump forward helping with the press in the middle of the pitch. Consequently resulting in creating a passing lane into the midfielder. In the opposition's half, the players occupy positions at different heights, the aim of this is to find the player beyond the next line of the opposing defence, due to the players being at different levels of the pitch, always resulting in a clear passing lane. This also contributes to Guardiola’s almost robotic style of passing which consists of playing a very unselfish style of play to score the goals. Guardiola carefully analyses different players from all over the globe to find the best fit for his Manchester City and his tactics.

2.  Changing formations: Manchester City often rotates in their build-up, creating new formations to confuse opponents. They also adapt to their opponent’s formation to create numerical advantages in different areas, allowing them to beat the defence and score more goals. Their most frequent formation change is to push one of the centre-backs into the midfield, creating a 1-2-3-4-1 formation. Their principles and general guidelines stay the same when they do this.

3. Finances: Manchester City’s financial backing has been a major factor in their Premier League success. Since the Abu Dhabi United Group took over in 2008, the club has had access to vast resources, allowing them to sign top-tier players like Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, while also building squad depth that many rivals struggle to match. Their financial strength extends to infrastructure, with the City Football Academy, a world-class training facility that helps develop both senior and youth players. This combination of heavy investment in talent and facilities has given City a significant edge in maintaining their dominance. Although City has faced scrutiny over Financial Fair Play regulations, their financial clout has undeniably played a key role in shaping their success.