Manchester City will cast envious eyes at Monaco's thriving project
With Leicester City’s Robert Huth and Wes Morgan showing no evidence of being able to thwart Jorge Sampaoli’s organised disorder and press at Sevilla, and Arsenal being battered in Bavaria by Bayern Munich, it’s not amiss to say England’s hopes of Champions League glory rests solely with Manchester City.
In Tuesday’s first last-16 meeting with AS Monaco, City will encounter a club with some parallels but, through two-and-a-half seasons of Leonardo Jardim’s management, one with a more distinct identity to its football. Monaco has every chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
Born in Barcelona, Venezuela – 4,500 miles from Pep Guardiola’s old backyard of the same name in Spain – Jardim spent his earlier years in footballing obscurity. Unable to forge a playing career in the professional game, he used it to his advantage by getting his first coaching gig at the obscure A.D. Camacha aged just 27. Two years later, he was manager and continued to enhance his reputation at other Portuguese clubs, the country where his family had relocated when he was young.
Jardim’s early spells in the technical area saw him get the best out of small sides with meagre resources, but it was his consolidation of Braga’s new-found strength, and then short-term stints with Olympiacos and Sporting Lisbon, that encouraged Monaco to take a punt on him. And it was a gamble – Jardim had shown to not bend in his philosophy, something that had resulted in fractious relationships with a few boardrooms.
He turned up on the French Riviera to encounter an outfit which – like Manchester City – had changed its focus from buying success to cultivating it.
When Monaco returned to Ligue 1 in 2013, Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire that acquired the club in December 2011, splashed the cash, most notably on James Rodriguez, Radamel Falcao, Joao Moutinho, and Geoffrey Kondogbia. It was a statement – Monaco was back with a bang – but Claudio Ranieri was unable to hone the Gallic-dwelling Galaticos into a winning outfit, prompting a change of tact.
Months before Manchester City opened its £200-million Etihad Campus home with the aim of having a fully homegrown team by 2027, Monaco’s youth project was underway amid Jardim’s 2014 appointment. Money continues to be put into the academy system, scouting opportunities and first-team minutes for its youth products are being explored abroad, and some of the finest Europe-based youngsters available – Tiemoue Bakayoko, Fabinho, Thomas Lemar, and Benjamin Mendy – have been acquired in recent seasons.
Some envious eyes will be cast at Monaco’s suited throng when they arrive for Tuesday’s match in Manchester. City is rumoured to be interested in Fabinho and Mendy, but the Stade Louis II hierarchy is likely to demand an exorbitant fee for the pair. Bakayoko is heavily linked with a transfer to Manchester United and, heading up the exciting French contingent emerging in the first team, every leading European side wants Kylian Mbappe.
A generation built in Jardim’s image is entering fruition before Guardiola has been able to make a true imprint and, before the predatory glances from rivals can become tabled offers in the summer, there’s a sense that this is Monaco’s first chance to upset the elite on the continental stage. There’s room alongside Paris Saint-Germain in the French offensive.
Can Monaco be stopped?
While Guardiola toys with inverted wing-backs, Fernandinho playing in every position imaginable, and deploying a goalkeeper in Claudio Bravo who has feet for hands, Jardim’s ideas are already implemented via his sought-after group.
The back four is set in stone – Djibril Sidibe, Kamil Glik, Jemerson, Mendy – but the full-backs surge forward to join an attack which washes around the cornerstone of its attack, Radamel Falcao. The Colombian has shaken off the remnants of a serious cruciate ligament injury and dour spells at Manchester United and Chelsea to tally 20 goals in 26 competitive showings.
There are disturbing similarities between the Arsenal side that Monaco trumped two years ago to the Manchester City of today. Guardiola’s lot tends to start quickly, but is often wasteful in front of the net, and then loses intensity in the second stanza. If Les Monegasques rehash their approach to that first leg at the Emirates Stadium – staying compact in the first half, unleashing swathes of counter-attacks in the second half – they will win. Simple as that.
The Ligue 1 leader is more relentless nowadays as well. It had limped through the 2014-15 group stage with four goals in six matches, but since October 2016 has hit four goals in 11 different matches. Falcao, 31, is a serious upgrade on Dimitar Berbatov too, who was then aged 34.
(Photos courtesy: Reuters)
Guardiola has already been exploring various systems to stymie Monaco, it seems. Fernandinho cropped up at right- and left-back against Swansea City and Bournemouth, seemingly to bring more options to areas where City has floundered. Sergio Aguero’s 90 minutes at Huddersfield Town on Saturday – a full appearance partly enforced due to Aleksandar Kolarov’s 78th-minute withdrawal with a knock – may also suggest Kevin De Bruyne could operate as a false nine this Tuesday.
Aguero not fulfilling the industry Guardiola demands from his forwards has been a hot topic, and De Bruyne would be more natural at defending from the front. He could cut the supply lines to and from Bakayoko and Fabinho, in a similar vein to Edinson Cavani nullifying Sergio Busquets at the Parc des Princes last Tuesday.
In that setup, much of the penetration up top would be left to Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, two of his City’s standout players of late with the injured Gabriel Jesus.
