MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 26: Pep Guardiola (Manchester City and Southampton left coach Russell) … (+)
Southampton via Getty Images
When an embattled team visits the Premier League title holders and loses 1-0, the journalists present tend to struggle to find a story that will grab people’s attention.
Reporting chaos and failure is a much easier task than finding a perspective on expected success, so it is not surprising that almost every media outlet that attended Manchester City’s narrow win over Southampton began by interpreting a couple of lines from Pep Guardiola’s post: matching comments.
“Pep Guardiola says he will ‘learn’ from Russell Martin,” screamed BBC Sport.
“Pep Guardiola lavishes praise on fallen Southampton,” exclaims The Daily Mail.
“Southampton are one of the best teams in the Premier League, says Pep Guardiola after Manchester City’s tense 1-0 win,” shouted Eurosport.
All of these publications know their readership, and anyone with even a passing knowledge of English football might think that the idea of a rookie manager with just one point this season teaching one of the most decorated managers in the history of the game sounds absurd.
Most viewers read the story with curious disbelief. Given that the world of online journalism is often a battle for eyeballs, it makes sense that the 1:0 angle would be reduced to the most clickable angle possible.
But, as always, the truth behind the headlines was much more nuanced.
The BBC, which, let’s not forget, prides itself on impartial and accurate reporting, selectively left out some pretty important parts of Pep Guardiola’s statement that he will learn from Southampton.
Although reporter Simon Stone thought it was “a strange thing” that both teams praised the losing side, when you look at the quotes, the positives were quite specific.
“When I see an opponent doing something with my team that I like and they do it very well, I give it a compliment,” Guardiola said.
“I’m sure I’ll learn, there were some movements, reasons why they do things, movements they make to connect with the striker. It’s not easy.”
In another interview, the Manchester City manager elaborated on this issue and used a phrase chosen by the BBC as his headline.
“This is a good game for the coach. I’m going to learn a lot from Russell because they did a really good job,” he added.
Looking at the fuller transcript of his words, Eurosport’s claim that Pep Guardiola called Southampton “one of the best teams in the Premier League” becomes even more dubious.
As the Mail correctly explained in its longer online headerGuardiola only mentioned “one area”.
“They played very demandingly. They defend with the ball,” said the Catalan.
“You can defend on the ball and they are really good at it, one of the best in the Premier League.
“They didn’t create many chances, but we created a lot. Unfortunately, we failed to score the second goal. A lot of credit goes to them – it’s not because we were sloppy or flat, I don’t have that feeling.”
Wrong for learning?
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – MAY 26: Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, watches him smoke a cigarette. … (+)
Getty Images
Article by Manchester City correspondent for Athletic Sam Lee, who defends the Catalan manager’s claims, can provide evidence that the headlines are driven by media skeptical of Guardiola’s habit of praising embattled Premier League bosses.
“(Guardiola) had already told broadcasters after his side’s 1-0 win that he would ‘learn a lot from Russell because they did very well’, so when he sat down in front of reporters he was asked if his comment was genuine in the sense that most of us laymen would not expect such an experienced manager to learn from someone much younger,” Lee wrote.
He then quoted Guardiola’s response, as reported by most of his colleagues, without saying it was due to a question of sincerity.
“Absolutely,” the Manchester City manager said when asked if he could learn from the new signing.
“I’m a big believer in the process of building the game, I prefer my players to get the ball in their feet rather than in their teeth.
“And when that happens, it’s because they’re doing an incredible process. We weren’t sloppy, we didn’t play smoothly and if we were able to get the ball back it was because they were very, very good.”
The idea that a top coach can’t learn from a newbie who is struggling is too ignorant to even consider.
Those who reject an idea because of its origins rarely succeed at the highest levels of sport or in any business.
Guardiola is one of the best managers of all time precisely because he looks at Russell Martin’s Southampton and sees what he can learn.
If he believed for even a moment that he couldn’t learn from his opponent, his team would likely begin to falter.
There is also empirical evidence to support the fact that the result was so close and that Southampton almost gained something from the game. This glitch in the Manchester City game speaks for itself.
It’s important to understand that the best angle for journalists is often not on the game, but in this case they may well have gone too far.