An Unorthodox Premier League 2021-2022 Season Review

By Naufal Ubaidillah

May 23rd, 2022

2 G’s won the day today. Guardiola and Gundogan. Both of them are football people with deep tactical understandings. Guardiola is arguably the greatest football manager ever, leaving his mark on the history of football with his tiki taka tactical philosophy. I read somewhere that if a supercomputer is tasked to formulate the strongest football tactic, that super computer would emulate Guardiola’s strategies. Guardiola’s philosophy is also mentioned to possess the analogy of classical music. If you try to find a genre of music that constitutes Guardiola’s football, it would be classical music. It’s elegant, precise, and extremely outstanding. Meanwhile, Gundogan has been one of the metronome players of the Guardiola era. He is incredibly smart in inspecting space and making those perfectly-timed runs into the box. At the same time, off the pitch, he seems to have an ambition to follow Guardiola’s path as a football manager. He was pictured watching a football match and playing the video game “Football Manager 2022” at the same time. He is also reportedly taking football coaching licenses.

At other parts of the league table, there are many heartwarming stories. Everton dramatically saved themselves from relegation. Their fans also invaded the pitch, as Manchester City fans did. This inspires me that for each people, different levels of achievement can feel equally exciting.

Arsenal have been fantastic for most of the season, but unfortunately lost their place in the 4th place to their North London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal-Tottenham rivalry is always fascinating, as their derbies always show high-octane football. Especially, their managers are now of the highest quality, Arteta as a Guardiola student and Conte as a progressive Italian manager. 

Meanwhile, my beloved football club, Manchester United are stranded on 6th place. It is obviously not where we belong. We belong in the first place. But, we have got to admit that we have to be patient and stick to a clear philosophy and be persistent about it to catch up with Manchester City and Liverpool. 

Erik Ten Hag is the definition of hope. He brings a wealth of innovative ideas and a winning mentality, which he has shown during his time at Ajax Amsterdam. He combines Guardiola’s philosophy on the ball and Klopp’s philosophy off the ball. He seems to be a fiercely strong person mentally, which is a profile sorely needed at the helm for a club as gargantuan as Manchester United.

As the Arabic saying goes: “Whoever is patient, he will win.”

What a time to be alive!