The Familiar Film
Pep Guardiola. Manchester City. Rewatching the film we always seem to watch at Christmas.
Lingchi: a slow process. Death by 1000 cuts — a method of torture spanning across history for just as many years: 900-1900.
A tool of execution banned in the early 1900s revived on the tactics board of the Catalan coach, circa 2008. Take the ball. Pass the ball. Then do it some more until the final whistle is blown. Until the trophy is in your hands. Rest. Do it again the next season. Do it for the next decade. And again.
In the beautiful game, the lingering death prevails. This season, Guardiola and his men, ever-focused, enacted it in its most excruciating form against Manchester United, the club’s closest rivals, as if it was deliberately saved for them.
It would be a mistake to think Guardiola took his blueprint of the late 2000s and placed it unchanged on the table of Germany and then in England as he relaxed.
Year on year, the blueprint is tweaked. Adapted.
Perfection is the goal and the 100 points season, the domestic treble of 18/19, the 3133 of 20/21 and its English top-flight win record — they flirt with the idea of it.
But there is always room to improve. There always will be. The goal is to conquer an ever-expanding space, one you cannot control entirely. There are simply too many externals. It is impossible — but you can be close.
For City, we see it in the league positions. Through the revolving carousel of who makes the first team each year and what new change is implemented to best utilise the season’s all-star cast, City manage to hit plot points with deja-vu.
For the story of this season, whispers around the country have began to bemoan the familiarity of a film they’ve seen before. Some people love the rewatch of a film, others don’t see the appeal.
But for the film purist, for the fanatic, on each rewatch, there’s a new detail, an actor in the background, a previously unappreciated composition, the delivery of a line, that is noted for the first time.
City are top of the league, following a (by their standards) underwhelming performance that regardless saw City put 4 past their opponents unanswered. On the same day, title contenders Liverpool and Chelsea dropped points.
Only Pep and the wonderful City side know the entirety of the fine details of their movie. Each rewatch will give you a sense of ‘I have seen this, I know what happens,’ but every holiday season, when the film’s rewatch begins, there’s always something new to point out to the person less enthusiastic, sat besides you asking if we can watch something new this year.
‘We always watch this film’.
Thanks for consuming my opinions, analysis, articles and content otherwise, this year. I appreciate it a lot. Hope and pray you have a lovely holiday period. Stay safe and well - Umir.