Keeping motivated

I've mentioned it before, and you have probably read other pieces debating the same point; how do you keep motivated after the league has been won so comfortably and so easily?

As happened at Bayern, and Guardiola has admitted this himself, once the title was secured so early, the players eased up and lacked the intensity to keep winning league games. They took that lower level of intensity, motivation and desire into the Champions League semi finals and they took a beating. Losing 4-0, regardless of how good your opponent was, is simply humiliating. 

Complacency is a dangerous trait in many walks of life, and football is no exception. Think you’ve got it easy or someone else will score the goal or provide the cover, and you can open yourself up for disaster. 

Minnows can beat giants on their day and that was most decisively re-affirmed when those pie eating Davids from Wigan slew the behemoth that is the all conquering Goliath from East Manchester in the last round of the FA cup.

So, back to the original question. How to keep the motivation and intensity at the levels required once the Premier League title is safely housed at Etihad Stadium?

A crucial aspect will be having all your first team squad available for selection. Sometime, late in March, that will probably be the case for City.

City will have top class players fighting for selection. Fighting for a starting spot for the bigger games. Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus duelling over the one centre forward position available. Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva challenging for the right wing option. Four fully fit centre backs vying for two spots. And Fabian Delph tussling with Benjamin Mendy to play left back.

Mendy, the new darling of the City faithful and social media, has been out injured for most of the season. He’ll be back in contention for a starting berth in the next few weeks. The explosive full back is already well into his training program, ready for the final push that could be the difference between a very good season and one of the best ever premier league seasons. Or any league season for that matter.

And that brings us to the second motivational factor that should ensure a high level of performance is maintained in the league; the chance to shatter records. Not just break records, but set records at such a level that no other team, even City themselves, will be able to match. 

It’s an opportunity for Guardiola, and his players, to show that they really are a great team. To show their detractors that it’s not the other teams playing badly that make City look so good; it’s City playing so well that makes the other teams look average. This would have been a tightly contested championship if City had been at the level of normal champions. But City have been a level or two above your average league winner. It’s an opportunity to show those that decry the amount of money spent ‘buying duccess’ that it’s also how you spend the money and, more importantly, how you play football.

City deserve their success this season. Drink it in; you may never see the like of it ever again.

Martin Samuels

Good read...you really should quote the author though.