They weren’t the same. They weren’t clicking. They missed David Silva. Pep was a busted flush.
They were no longer running up cricket scores and Aguero missed too many games, Sterling too many chances. And Jesus wasn’t as good as we thought.
Pep didn’t know how to defend. Or how to buy a defender. He’d spent £250 million on centrebacks and still not replaced Kompany.
Foden didn’t play enough games and even De Bruyne wasn’t the same this season. It just wasn’t working any more.
Pep Guardiola was yesterday’s man: Jurgen Klopp had stolen his clothes and his thunder.
Well, that was pretty much the early season narrative for Manchester City. They started the campaign late and weren’t making much impact. But critics wrote off Pep at their peril.
They’d written him off before, but he’d come back with two of the greatest seasons in the history of English football, not just the Premier League era.
The critics were fulsome in their praise, but always ready to pounce.
Perhaps they couldn’t remove the image of him sinking back into the upholstery of the Goodison Park dugout on that January day in 2017. Hooded and huddled as the snow fell and his reputation with it.
He’d picked an attacking side but the tiki-taka got stuck in the snow. They were bludgeoned by Lukaku and Everton hammered them 4-0. For all the world, Pep looked a beaten man.
In certain eyes, it was a classic case of the archetypal Fancy Dan foreigner with the big reputation being found out.
Too naïve, couldn’t take the cold, the hostile crowd, with players who didn’t like it up ‘em. The knockers didn’t spare the stereotypes.
By his own high standards, Pep’s first season in England was a winter of discontent. His arrival had been greeted as if it was the Second Coming, but he didn’t win a trophy. Then he won practically everything.
Then Klopp became the media favourite and Liverpool superseded City at their own game, a higher and harder press, with more solid defenders and lightning counters.
The big difference was Virgil van Dijk. Why City, with all the money in the Gulf and a chasm in defence, didn’t go for the big Dutchman remains a mystery. Especially as Liverpool mucked up the initial approach and had their knuckles rapped.
But this was when the balance of power began to tilt towards Merseyside. And when Van Dijk’s season was ended by Jordan Pickford in October was perhaps when the pendulum began to swing back.
Klopp stuck Fabinho in and we hardly noticed the difference until the Brazilian also got injured and, centreback partner Joe Gomez as well.
With only the fragile Joel Matip as a senior central defender, the inexperienced Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips have been tried and, to be fair, made a decent fist of it.
But the loss of Van Dijk and his all-pervading influence on the entire team is finally catching up with Liverpool. The well-oiled machine is stuttering.
Meanwhile, Pep’s new defender Ruben Dias, a £54m buy from Benfica, has settled in quietly but well.
And Pep’s patience with another £50m plus purchase who has been written off for two seasons, looks to have been rewarded.
John Stones, the type of defender Pep loves in that he can pass a ball, has battled back from the wilderness to emerge as the cultured defensive fulcrum he was always supposed to be.
It’s doubly ironic as Stones has replaced Aymeric Laporte, by far City’s best defender of the past two seasons, as first choice on the left side with Dias on the right.
While City have not been conceding like they did even when they were unstoppable, they’ve not been scoring anywhere near as many.
And they’ve not been parking the bus – Pep doesn’t know how to drive one.
Both Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus have been missing for much of the season, but in the past that wouldn’t have been a problem.
Goals would come from all over the field with Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez sometimes almost walking the ball into the net.
And Stones, of all people – albeit slightly fortuitously – did that in the midweek win over United.
It capped a momentous return for the ex-Evertonian and was a tribute to Pep’s caring man-management. With his private life in turmoil and unable to do the basics, Stones looked set to be jettisoned.
But Pep kept faith, worked on his game, and is now reaping the rewards. Laporte, his erstwhile rock, is on the bench.
Ominously for the rest, City have begun to click. They now sit on the cusp of a fourth successive League Cup final victory – with Spurs to face in the April final – and are poised on the shoulders of the leaders in the Premier League title race.
They also have a manageable tie in the Champions League away to Borussia Monchengladbach in the first leg of the Round of 16.
Liverpool will cling fiercely to their crown, but City will give them a run for their money and look a good bet to pick up at least a couple of trophies – perhaps even the Holy Grail of the Champions League.
As we should know by now, Pep’s teams don’t just play pretty football.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.