Pay attention to Manchester City at the start of the season because, as Rodri says about Pep Guardiola, “He is never satisfied with keeping things exactly as we played last season, because your competition is always going to be analyzing last season.”

Rodri writing in The Players’ Tribune:

When I had the chance to move to City the next summer, it was a dream for me. I had spoken to Sergio Busquets before I agreed to the move, and he told me, “Pep? He is going to make you a better player. But he is never, never, never going to stop pushing you. You will never be finished.”

Sergio had the same role with Pep, and he achieved so many great things, so I put a lot of trust in his words. And he was completely right. To me, the unique thing about Pep is that he is always one step ahead. He is always evolving before the game around him can evolve. He is never satisfied with keeping things exactly as we played last season, because your competition is always going to be analyzing last season. You don’t win four Premier League titles in a row by standing still. You either reinvent yourself or you die.

That is what gives Manchester City an edge over everyone else. By the time you fully analyze one strategy, he has already created a new one. Pep Guardiola is a tactical Whac-A-Mole.

In order to be the top team, you have to think the opposite of what everyone else is thinking.

Why think like those that are losing, especially those that are copying you? By the time they’ve copied you, you’ve already created a new system that beats that old system.

The key point though is that you can see it coming. This is where microanalysis comes in. They try one thing one game, and then another the next, and then they’ll go on a series of consecutive matches with one specific change.

The most obvious one: Josko Gvardiol was played as a high-advanced fullback on the left last season, operating almost as a left-winger in possession. Turns up for preseason this summer, now he’s a defensive fullback operating as a left center-back in a back-three in possession. He gets forward now, but not in the same way.

That experiment—a successful experiment—is now stored. It worked; Gvardiol is fully confident. Pair that with several other experiments, and you have a completely new system. They can flip between different trialed tactics whenever they want.

They’re constantly running those little experiments all season. You have to pay super close attention because the experiment could run for fifteen minutes, a full half, a full game, several games, or half a season. They try it, it works or fails, they continue using it, or then they move on, and they usually revisit it in a week, a month, a year, or several years.