5 dramatic changes at Manchester City that allowed them to succeed in 2017/18

#3 Guardiola reinforced the squad in the right areas

Guardiola reinforced his squad greatly, signing full-backs like Kyle Walker

Guardiola has often been criticised for being a “chequebook manager” and nobody can deny that he’s splashed the cash at an astonishing rate since taking over at Manchester City. But on the other hand, he’s rarely accused of being the type of boss to stock-pile players he doesn’t need. Pep spent a total of around £207m in the summer transfer window, but a massive £120m of that went on three full-backs – Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo.

Guardiola’s past teams at Barcelona and Bayern Munich always traditionally made use of powerful, athletic full-backs capable of sprinting up and down the pitch to join in with attacks, but the City team he inherited from Manuel Pellegrini simply didn’t have the personnel in those areas – Gael Clichy, Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna and Aleksandar Kolarov were all ageing stars incapable of the tasks Pep was asking of them.

And so rather than stick with them and attempt to change his style, Guardiola dispensed of all four in the summer of 2017 and bought the replacements he wanted. And for the most part, it’s been a rousing success.

Granted, Mendy has yet to live up to his price tag as he’s spent the majority of the season injured, but Walker and Danilo have had tremendous seasons while Guardiola has also used Fabian Delph as a makeshift left-back, and the success of the former Aston Villa captain in his new position also shows the greatness of the Spaniard’s coaching abilities.

Pep’s new full-backs have added another attacking dimension to City’s already dangerous arsenal, and given them far more energy going forward than they had in 2016/17.

The critics of Guardiola will always knock his need to spend big money, but when his buys pay off like they have done this season it’s hard to argue with them.