Barcelona's mini maestros to Man City’s towering titans - Reijnders typifies Guardiola's evolution

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 4 Jun 2025 10:40 CDT
• 4 min read

Analysis

Pep Guardiola has changed football, for better or worse, more than any other coach of the last 30 years.

Though the influence of tiki-taka had been felt at Barcelona decades before Pep eventually took the reins, it was his implementation of that tactic that gave us the greatest club side this century in the form of his talented Barca squad that won the Champions League in 2009 and 2011.

Though Lionel Messi takes his share of the plaudits for the success of that team on the pitch, he himself would argue that the building blocks came further back, through the midfield trio of Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Xavi.

Current ETV

Tijjani Reijnders

M, DM (C)

Milan

Tijjani Reijnders

M, DM (C)

Milan

€55.6M

ETV Range

€50M - €61.2M

View full profile

Busquets the anchor, Xavi the metronome and Iniesta the creator.

You will be hard pressed to find a more perfect distribution of attributes than in that midfield.

Natural physicality became less of a requirement for success on the pitch 15 years ago, as although Busquets stood at 6ft 2in, Xavi and Iniesta were below average height, each at 5ft 7in, respectively.

Height and power didn’t matter - what did matter was prowess on the ball.

Since that time, the tide has changed, and Guardiola has slowly adapted to embrace - even spearhead - an era of giants.

Though we still have smaller-stature midfield geniuses out there - just look at Vitinha’s performance in the Champions League final - there is an undoubted preference for athleticism, height and strength in the modern game.

Guardiola now prefers taller players

Man City are on the cusp of announcing a deal for Milan central midfielder Tijani Reijnders, who is set to join for around €55 million.

That means that, within the last six months, Guardiola has spent over €100m on two midfielders, both of whom are over 6ft tall.

Nico Rodriguez, who joined from Porto in January, stands at 6ft 2in, while Reijnders is 6ft 1in.

Rodri will be available again next season following his serious knee injury and, as the Ballon d’Or holder, will reclaim his place in midfield. The Spaniard is the biggest of the three at 6ft 3in tall.

There will be natural rotation as always from Guardiola, but if we are to assume that he will start with Rodri, Reijnders and Nico next season, that is a midfield with an average height of over 6ft 1in.

That aforementioned Barcelona midfield had an average height of 5ft 8in, and that is boosted by the presence of Busquets.

Though there are still smaller players in Guardiola’s squad like Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan, none of those players enjoyed a particularly positive campaign and so can’t be considered automatic starters next season. Foden and Silva are primarily selected in wider areas these days, anyway.

Should Reijnders sign on the dotted line, City will have spent close to €300m on transfers in the past year, and the vast majority are over six feet in height.

Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Juma Bah are all 6ft-plus, with only Savinho and Gundogan under that level.

Guardiola’s towering starting XI

Let us go through a likely starting XI for Man City next season:

Ederson; O’Reilly, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol; Rodri, Nico, Reijnders; Marmoush, Savinho, Haaland

A staggering nine out of those 11 players stand at six feet or higher.

When you consider that, at Barca’s prime under Guardiola, their front five players - Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Messi, David Villa - were all under that height, it presents a remarkable turnaround in outlook for the Catalan.

Has Guardiola moved with the times, or are the times following him, again?