EPL title race: Klopp and Guardiola’s legacy will be beyond titles and numbers

London: At the final whistle of the first duel between Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp in the English Premier League, a scrappy game Liverpool nailed 1-0 at Anfield in December 2016, the DJ played out the Starship track Nothing Gonna Stop Us Now.

Nothing, though, seemed to suggest the mesmerizing brand of football both managers would produce to enchant the world over the next five years. The match was a turgid affair with just three shots on goal.

City finished third that season, Liverpool just behind them. The steering of English football seemed secure in the hands of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea, runaway leaders, and the emerging Mauricio Pochettino. Klopp and Guardiola were afterthoughts than protagonists that season. The path of greatness then seemed distant.

But since then, they have recast English football in their mould, making England the centre of the footballing galaxy. In a short time, they have ensured that they will be remembered for the glorious football they have been orchestrating, week after week, year after year in the last four years, and producing a fierce but beautiful rivalry comparable to the El Classico peak, or the Arsene Wenger-Alex Ferguson era. Almost without fail, the pair have fought over the high ground of expressive winning football.

Theirs is total domination, in style and substance; in art and the quest for artistic perfection. In the last four years, City have kissed the league title twice; Liverpool once, but have in that span won the slice of glory that City so desperately covet, the Champions League. On the suspenseful final day of the league, both are in contention for the title. City, leading Liverpool by a lone point, cannot afford to freeze, against Aston Villa, a side managed by Liverpool immortal Steven Gerrard. Liverpool host Wolverhampton Wanderers, fuelled by dreams of a champagne night, before they wrestle with Real Madrid for Champions League glory a week later.

Wherever those trophies end up, how much drama and thrill, joy and hurt are to unfold, these two clubs are playing football on a different realm, an unattainable space, for their competitors, both home and abroad. What makes their ascent to greatness unique is how differently they have approached the peak, showing that the antidote to attacking football is not defensive football, but attacking football itself, thus stressing the evolutionary truth that there is no saturation point for the sport’s evolution. It just transforms from one shape to another. Beautiful football can be played in beautifully different ways.

Both Klopp and Guardiola are at once similar and dissimilar, similar in the unshakeable belief that football should be entertaining, dissimilar in how they choose their vehicle for entertainment. Guardiola is the master of order, every player functions like a piece of machine, the movements and patterns elegantly choreographed; everyone has the space to operate and not to operate. He sees football as a ballet, where roles are nuclear-specific, movements precise and fast yet languorous.

A typical Guardiola move involves elaborate build-up in the midfield and emphasis on positional play. Though he has long moved away from tiki taka, the fundamental philosophy still revolves around possession. The nucleus of his side, like any other side, is the midfield. The most creative of his players have always been midfielders, often a twin axis, from Xavi and Andres Iniesta to Bernardo Silva to Kevin de Bruyne. At City, he has a plethora of technically-gifted midfield creators, who are not necessarily nippy but intuitive. As a team, they prefer to operate more centrally.

Even their full-backs, like Joao Cancelo, often abandon the flanks, cut in and travel through the centre, thus narrowing the lines and wading through the traffic with their technical mastery and nimble-footedness rather than pace and power. An unsung aspect of Guardiola is his experimental streak —though the changes are subtler than radical — his predilection to work around with his players, deploying them in different positions. For example, Phil Foden has donned roles from a false nine to winger, de Bruyne has featured in most roles in the forward line as well as midfield. There have been instances when some of the tactics have misfired, but often Guardiola makes them work.