Guardiola misses his ‘guru’

Pep Guardiola loses one of his key men on the Manchester City bench. Carlos Vicens was the specialist of the English team’s strategy plays, which he had made this year the most dangerous team in Europe from set pieces, but the Mallorcan assistant will begin a solo adventure as head coach at Heracles Almelo, a club in the Eredivisie, the first division of the Netherlands.

The Dutch team has fallen in love with Vicens, who was seen on Wednesday giving directions from the Santiago Bernabéu wing. One of the last stadiums he will set foot in as Guardiola’s assistantwho drafted him into City’s first team just a year ago, and since then, he has relied on his strategic mindset for set pieces.

“Carlos has made everything very simple and very clear for the players,” Guardiola himself acknowledged just a few days ago, who has seen his team score 18 goals from set pieces this season, City’s best tally since the 2013-14 season. Not even Nicolas Jover, who was the predecessor of Vicens and was considered a “genius” by the English press, achieved the numbers of the Mallorcan.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the same journalists on the other side of the English Channel now know Vicens as Guardiola’s “guru” in strategic actions. More so, after his last game in the Premier against Leeds United, in which the citizens achieved the first two goals in two set pieces.

Nevertheless, Vicens was not always an assistant to the Catalan coach. In fact, he arrived at City in 2017 to train the youngest in the lower categories, but his good work made him the youth coach of the ‘sky blue’, where he lifted the “Youth Cup”which ended up convincing Guardiola to upload him to the first team.