Question. In Spain, City is tipped as the favourite to win the Premier League. Do you agree?
A. No, I think we're a very powerful team but Chelsea, with Mou on board, and United, with Moyes's new team, will open up the league. We have some very tough opponents.

Q. Will the team be more technical under Pellegrini than with Mancini, who was perhaps more tactical?
A.They are two different coaches. I do what they tell me. In terms of football, maybe we have changed the way we play. We're attacking more now, with a very Spanish style.

Q. What have the Spanish players brought to City?
A.They all have a lot of skill and give us balance. Navas is very quick and intelligent. On the left, Silva is very good at finding the spaces.

Q. The team is better than last year. There are no excuses.
A.We'll have to wait and see how we do. We've had some top signings come in and we've had another year of experience. Let's hope we win.

Q. Your recent performances in the Champions League have been disastrous.
A.That's our main objective this year, of course. We have to have a brilliant season and top it off in Europe.

Chelsea try to play it also

Pellegrini looks stoned Lol :D

at least he will do better than Mancini, i rate him very high as high as klopp. Mou and pellegrini had different level squads last year and he gave a good fight, waiting to see them with same level squads, chelsea vs city will be an amazing match.

It'll be interesting to see how a team playing Spanish-style football copes in the EPL. Maybe we can finally show people that Spanish football is as good as English football (which mainly constitutes of player from abroad coming and playing in England).

Every english team needs 1 spanish creative midle, EPL teams already started to change their way of playing.

@Dynast: It's been going on for the last 5 years. It's just that people are only just now beginning to notice, because of the influx of actual Spanish players. ;)

Ferguson had United playing tiki taka for years, for instance. He was just doing it with non-Spanish players.

@Lod

Same with Arsenal. They played the Barcelona tiki-taka system very capably when Cesc was still there. Swansea are doing the same now with Laudrup as manager. I predict City will go all out and adopt a completely Spanish playing style under Pellegrini.

But Ferguson's mimic tiki-taka will never be as good as Barcelona's, or even Real Madrid's. You need pure Spanish midfielders for that. The Spanish are the best when it comes to midfield, play-making, and possession.

"But Ferguson\'s mimic tiki-taka will never be as good as Barcelona\'s, or even Real Madrid\'s. You need pure Spanish midfielders for that. The Spanish are the best when it comes to midfield, play-making, and possession."

I disagree with you, there. It may be that no-one will ever be as good at tiki taka as Barcelona, sure, but that's because it's written into the club ethos. I notice that Brazilians, Argentines, Colombians etc all manage to play tiki taka pretty well, down there in the Camp Nou. ;)

And besides, the rest of the Spanish league is merely copying Barcelona anyhow. It's not like the league was known for overtly possession-based play, or a wealth of intricate passing before the current Barca generation, is it? If anything, Spanish teams were known for playing direct, flowing football the likes of Arsenal circa 2004. Even Barcelona didn't start obsessing over it the way we're accustomed to until Guardiola. Even today, Madrid play with pace and power more than with a thousand patient midfield passes.

So, you might as well claim that you need pure CATALAN midfielders in order to play tiki taka. ;) But then you'd have to leave out Madrid and the rest of La Liga, which I doubt you're going to be willing to do... ;)

It's a style. Barcelona perfected it, and the world has tried to copy them, essentially, with modifications to suit their own leagues.

@Lod

Even so, Spanish midfielders are the ones best at possession play. It was Cruyff who had originally started it, but his legacy has spread across Spain, and now going global. You don't NEED pure Catalan midfielders to play possession play. Xabi Alonso is Basque, and he is one of the best in the world in midfield. Isco, Cazorla, and Silva are all brilliant at possession play, and none of them are pure Catalan.

And down there in the Camp Nou, it is mostly Spaniards who are best at it. Pique, Alba, Puyol, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Cesc, and Pedro are the ones who do it best, and all are Spanish (Messi is Spanish grown). Alves fits in to the bill nicely, but any other RB, and they won't work. Alexis took 3 years to finally slowly get used to tiki-taka. Alex Song doesn't fit in at all. Neither had Ibrahimovic. And I haven't seen enough of Neymar with Barca to judge him yet.

And even the Spanish U-21 side were playing fantastic possession and mimic-tiki-taka, and only Thiago was pure Catalan in their midfield. Koke, Isco, and Illarra were all performing fantastically in retaining possession.

Even the stats are eerily similar.

Well if it wins us matches, I am all for it.

@Dynast: yes, but what I am saying is: Spain were not known for this style of play, until the emergence of Barcelona in the current era. Yes, the Spanish u21 team is playing that way NOW. Yes, most La Liga teams are playing that way NOW.

And still none of them do it quote like those Catalans, do they? ;) I wonder what the common link could be...

Xabi Alonso is a great midfielder in his own right, but his best attributes are positional play and his excellent long passes; hardly the tiki taka style, eh?

Isco and Cazrola may be brilliant at possession football, but again, that's not overly surprising given the influence, and it's not like Modric, Carrick, Toure, Dembele, Goetze, Kagawa, Matic, Oscar, Hazard etc are bad at it, is it? Yes, it has been an influence that has spread from Spain, again mainly thanks to the example set by Barcelona, but there are players out there every bit as good at it as Spaniards, and who did not themselves learn their trade in Spain.

Sure Song couldn't fit in, and neither did Ibra. That's because they're not that kind of player. Alonso would not fit in at Barcelona, either, because he's just not that sort of player. The player has to suit the style. or be willing to surrender to it, for it to work. Dani Alves didn't need a breaking-in period, and neither did Eric Abidal. Nor did Xavier Mascerano, or Deco, or even Mr Ronaldinho himself (though of course, in Ronnie's day, Barcelona were not playing the same way. That was only 7 years ago, remember...)

DO you see what I'm saying? The influence of tiki taka (which is not JUST about passing, but passing with a particular purpose, and moving to allow ease of triangular possession) has been going on in the PL for a number of years now, and didn't begin when Mata and Silva joined the league, is all.

@Fred: that similarity is pretty stunning, yeah. Good find.

@Lodatz

I'm not saying that Mata and Silva single-handedly turned the EPL's style around.... I'm saying that they played an important part in changing City and Chelsea's playing style to a more visibly Spanish style. Hence, the Spanish influence I've been stating. Even Arsenal needed Cesc to function that way properly.

@Dynast:

If you ask me, Barcelona bought an Arsenal-trained Fabregas, not the other way around. ;)

When Cesc left Barcelona he was 15, and Barca hadn't even bought Deco. Think about that.

And sure, Mata and Silva helped their teams more effectively play the 'Spanish style' (which I still maintain is basically the Barcelona style -- look at the success of the national team, mostly Barca players), but as I was saying: teams were already doing it.

It's only because Mata and Silva transferred that people NOTICED, because most people can't analyze football to save their life, and still think that the PL revolves around 4-4-2, for instance. It doesn't. The top teams have played 4-3-3 for, like, the last 8 years.

All I'm saying is that the 'Spanish style' doesn't require Spaniards at all, and most of the 'Spanish style' isn't real tiki taka anyhow, nor is it particularly Spanish in origins. ;)

I often wonder how the Dutch feel when Spain takes credit for the playing style they invented...

@Lod

Only United have been keeping the 4-4-2, and in a much more modified style too. Sir Alex's players continually interchanged positions, so that it was never much of a fixed 4-4-2 either.

You may say that Cesc is English trained or Arsenal trained, but his playing style is perfect for the Spanish system. It's why he fit in flawlessly with Barcelona, despite not playing for them for 8 years. Cesc's style is pure Spanish, and that's how Wenger deployed him (as a pure #10, something that the English national team has been lacking for the last decade). Wenger knew he needed a player like Cesc, and that's why he bought him in the first place. A pure #10. What's more is that he is a Spanish/Catalan #10, perfect for a new innovative system at Arsenal.

And tiki-taka has basically been adopted AS the Spanish style nowadays.

"It's why he fit in flawlessly with Barcelona, despite not playing for them for 8 years."

Yes, because Wenger took a raw academy prospect and trained him into a midfielder that was perfect for them. Wenger did that. In the English league. There's nothing inherently Spanish about Cesc other than the fact he was born there (and again, is a Catalan anyway). That perfect style. suited to playing Spanish football? He learned at Arsenal. In England.

Do you get the point yet?

"Cesc's style is pure Spanish"

Then how come he learned it in England?

"Wenger knew he needed a player like Cesc, and that's why he bought him in the first place."

Nonsense. Wenger had the best midfield in the league, when he bought Fabregas. He bought Fabregas because he was a promising youth prospect, surplus to requirements at Barcelona because of Xavi, and Wenger took a punt on him. Just like he took a punt on Wilshire, Henry, Pires, Bergkamp and countless others.

In addition, when Wenger bought Fabregas, La Masia wasn't the world-famous institution they are now. Barcelona were not even playing tiki taka in their first team, for heaven's sake. No-one had even heard of tiki taka, or what you're calling the 'Spanish style', now. To suggest that Wenger needed 'a Spanish midfielder' back in 2003 is just ridiculous, man.

Why? Because Spanish midfielders, a decade ago, were nothing special at all. And Spanish teams were not even playing possession-based football, for heaven's sake. They were playing direct, flowing football, the likes of which Madrid are playing now (because Madrid sure as hell are not playing tiki-taka).

You're attributing fame, influence and reputation to something which no-one had ever heard of, at the time. When we're talking about 'the Spanish style' nowadays, we're talking about Barcelona. We're talking about Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets. We're talking about Guardiola, and his advancement of Total Football into tiki taka. And we're talking about everyone copying them, after seeing how successful that Barcelona was.

You can't thank an entire generation of excellent Spanish cantera products (like Silva, Mata, Cazorla, etc) for a system that Barcelona only made happen about 5 years ago. Like I said, there is nothing inherently 'Spanish' about it at all. If anything, it's Catalan.

But the chief point is: it doesn't belong to Spain in any way. United have been copying Barca ever since 2009. Arsenal have been playing possession-based football since before even Rijkaard came to Barcelona. City have been trying to do the same, and Chelsea too.

It's just that no-one noticed, because we're bludgeoned over the head with this idea that it's a Spanish style, that only Spain can achieve.

But LOOK at Spain, in terms of the national team. It's Barcelona through and through. Who are Spain's first choice midfielders? Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Busquets, and maybe Alonso (if he's lucky). Who has been the forefront of Spain's attack? Pedro and Villa, with Torres if he's lucky. What about defense? Pique and Puyol, with a side dish of Ramos. And now Alba, too.

Apart from a couple of cameos (chiefly Casillas), this most successful national tam in history is basically Barcelona, plus a couple of friends.

I know it hurts, but it's just the freaking truth. The Spanish league owes their current fame and reputation to FCB, not to some 'style' that the league itself somehow invented. Like everyone else, they just copied Barca. The only difference is: in England and Germany (and Italy), they have more clubs to look up to than just Barca, so there is a greater mix of styles.