Few players have a better footballing CV than Owen Hargreaves.
The former England midfielder’s three former clubs – Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Manchester City – are all in great shape to make it through the Champions League group stage with ease.
But BT Sport pundit Hargreaves believes the different approaches taken by the two Manchester clubs this summer will shape the season ahead.
“The one thing United still have to figure out is what’s their best team,” Hargreaves told JOE.
“You look at Chelsea winning the league last year and you knew their starting 11 pretty much – maybe they rotated an Oscar or a Willian, but you pretty much knew the whole team head to toe. When I was at United you pretty much knew the team, give or take one or two, but now there are no certainties aside from Wayne Rooney.
“That consistency is important to have from game to game – the players benefit from that but also the fans coming into the stadium see the team sheet. Before if you saw Van Der Sar, Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand, Gary Neville, you knew ‘oh, it’s safe today’ – now United fans see changes in the back four and they’re not sure.”
There are certainly plenty of positives, though, not least Anthony Martial’s remarkable debut against Liverpool and David De Gea’s return to the starting line-up.
“I think the one thing United lacked was a bit of speed. Sometimes when you’re not playing well, you need that outlet of pace to get out of trouble, and I think Martial will give them that and be able to let them stretch teams, and give those ball-players somebody to hit,” says Hargreaves.
“He’s a terrific young player but he’s 19 so you need to be careful to protect your investment. I think mentally you don’t want to overstress a player.
“Sir Alex Ferguson could give young players more time, but that’s because he had a more settled team. He had Giggs, he had Scholes, he had Carrick, so he could drop those young players in and give them an opportunity to play, whereas nowadays a lot of them have to play. The expectation is different – before you could buy one of those players and slowly drip-feed him in, but United don’t have that luxury any more.”
Still, the United midfield is undoubtedly stronger than it has been in recent years, perhaps at its strongest since Hargreaves himself lined up for the club in the 2008 Champions League final. But the issue now is how to accommodate so many talented players.
“They have so many pieces of a puzzle but they’re not all always going to fit in different games I think Schneiderlin will play the majority of the time because he’s that natural defensive thinker – Carrick, Herrera and Schweinsteiger are all great players who want to control the tempo, but you can’t have too many of those because there’s only one ball,” Hargreaves continues.
“Then you’ve got to fit Mata into the equation, so it will be interesting to see how they do it. You’ve seen they’re still trying to find that balance, even against Swansea, who aren’t as good in possession as someone like Barça and Real.”
Despite the question marks over United’s first team, Hargreaves expects them to comfortably come through a relatively weak group containing PSV Eindhoven, CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg. And he expects a similar outcome for neighbours City despite Manuel Pellegrini’s side facing a tougher draw. The reason for this? A very impressive tactical renaissance.
“It’s pretty much the same team,” he notes. “You’ve added Sterling and De Bruyne has come in late, and there’s the emergence of Vincent Kompany back to full fitness – I think he’s one of the best centre backs you’ll ever see.
“But the change in tactics is the biggest one. In those big games, instead of two strikers they’ll play one and I think in the early games this season it’s made a big difference.”
Personnel changes have made some impact, with Edin Džeko and Stevan Jovetić moving to pastures new this summer, but there’s also seemingly a greater acceptance of the different challenges in Europe.
“When you play in the Premier League it’s not as much of a problem. You dominate teams, you have 60 or 70% possession and the other teams can’t find a way to come back when you go one or two up.
“But City have found that when you play the top teams like Dortmund or Bayern or Barça, they’re pretty good in possession too so you end up having a ton of attacking players on the pitch but you also need those attackers to do a lot of defensive work in big games.
“That’s been one of their biggest problems, and by playing two centre-forwards in those games they’ve often lost that battle in midfield. Now with the change of tactics they’ll probably find a way to cope better.”
Hargreaves has tipped City to win a group containing Borussia Monchengladbach, Sevilla, and a Juventus side that he admits are “still transitioning” after a significant turnover of players.
City’s opener against Juve comes at the perfect time, with the likes of Mario Mandžukic and Alex Sandro not hitting the ground running in the same manner as fellow new arrival Paulo Dybala.
Last season’s finalists have missed the impact of Arturo Vidal since his departure over the summer, failing to win any of their first three Serie A games, but Juve’s loss is Bayern Munich’s gain and Hargreaves thinks the Chile midfielder is one of the reasons why his first club should be considered favourites for the competition alongside Barcelona.
“I think Bayern do a terrific job of addressing things they definitely need, rather than just buying a player because he’s available,” he explains.
“Bayern needed speed so they got Douglas Costa, they needed another midfielder with Bastian Schweinsteiger leaving so they got Vidal. They’re not sure what’s happening with Franck Ribéry after his injury so they got Kingsley Coman, a really exciting young guy. They address their needs specifically so that’s why they stay where they are.”
Costa has perhaps been the stand-out performer for Bayern so far, outshining even those squad members who cruised to the Bundesliga title last season, and he has impressed so much that Hargreaves considers him to already be worth “nearly double” the £25m the German club paid Shakhtar Donetsk for his services.
Everything seems in place for Bayern to mount a convincing challenge for Europe’s top honours, but the one main question mark is the future of coach Pep Guardiola.
The former Barcelona boss is out of contract at the end of the season, and this may be his last chance to lead Bayern to Champions League glory. But if they fall short again will one of the continent’s best coaches be considered to have failed?
“Winning the league by 10 points and losing to Barcelona in a Champions League semi-final – it shows where Bayern are as a club that it’s even a consideration that that might not be a success,” Hargreaves says.
“I think everyone has shown how difficult success in the Champions League really is – Bayern have been in the semi-finals in four of the last five years and that consistency is incredible. There are no guarantees at this level though; you need to be at your best on those days, and they haven’t been at their best against Real two years ago or against Barça last year.
“It’s a big year for Guardiola – his contract’s up in the summer and I think he’s at the best club he could be at in terms of the players he has and in terms of support from the club, so if he leaves there’s only really a United, a City or a Chelsea that he could go to, everything else he’s been there and done.”
As problems go, it’s a very nice one to have, and it’s easy to see why Hargreaves considers Guardiola’s side the best-placed of his former clubs for Champions League glory.
But things can change very quickly in football, and one poor performance could yet open the door for the likes of United or City to make a run for the trophy.
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