One of the biggest criticisms against Pep Guardiola's Barcelona was its so-called "boring" game, a result of patience and domination. Nevertheless, what the critics missed was the mathematical necessity that called for composure.

Of course, you may argue that there can be no mathematical necessity in football since it is based on entertainment. But this game is more entertaining when you play it better and eventually you have to embrace mathematics. Thus, what Guardiola did was he literally took football to a higher level and continues to do so at Manchester City, but with a little twist.

To briefly summarize his game, it is based on traditional passing, dominance and counterattack. However, the latter deserves a bit more detailed explanation. If Guardiola had planned around the only cross and long balls in the final stage, believe me, City would not have scored even two goals in a game. But I understand the logic behind his counterattacking style because almost all goals come from what can be called an unusual organization, rather than full spectrum dominance. It was almost a quasi-Jupp Heynckes strategy, something I strongly oppose. But if we look deeper into it, we would see Guardiola is deploying organized chaos.

As my fellow colleague, Ali Fikri Işık explained, "The difference between a counterattacking game and Guardiola's strategy against any team is the positioning. In counterattacking you position yourself defensively but Guardiola reaches a counterattacking pace while building a mature game. All players know where they have to stand and what they have to do, thus it is not chaotic, rather it was totally organized."

This difference is so crucial since the other option would destroy all of Guardiola's historical practices. Given the main purpose of dominance is to not only tire the opponent but also come closer to the opponent's final third with more men. But reducing all the process to a single long ball is highly dangerous since it could lead to an imbalanced and impatient game.

Although I appreciate Guardiola's new approach, understanding and the need for a direct gameplay, I still vote for Barcelona's way of finding and creating opportunities. A lot of people would find the new way more fun and promise but it does not change the fact that there is always a risk against more dominant teams. Seeing as patience and dominance is always more rewarding in terms of rationality, this is not a matter of taste but mathematics.