Pep Guardiola

[linetty]

The boss has spoken

 

[Behrox]

Pep Guardiola: "Beckenbauer should be telling war-time stories to children instead of telling me how to coach my team" (Bild).


If true

"How to put armchair manger legends in their place" by Pep Guardiola

 

[Ryu Hayabusa]

There's nothing of the sort on bild.de

 

[hardyboy]

don't mess with the boss

 

[serghei]

Well let's first say that only 3 teams (Chelsea, Atletico, maybe Real at times) in Europe can successfully park the bus at the moment anyway. That's also why I said total football is a FORMAT as in a system that can be adjusted to fit a style of play. Pep needs to learn that the total control domination style can't work in every single game (even tiki taka should be done more quickly to ensure more penetration; quickness in tiki taka always correlates with a LOT more chances). It's good to have a side that's more vertical, cedes possession on occasion, and has a unified counterattacking phase for those teams that are ultra-defensive or try to play that way.

I agree. In my mind, this fault in Pep's tactics was most visible in the Meazza game, 0-1 for Barca and we somehow managed to concede 3 goals on the counter. Pep fell in the trap of Mourinho in that game and by the looks of it, he hasn't learned the lesson. In Italy, when Pedro scored for 0-1, that should have been the key to winning the game. It shouldn't have ended with a worse result than 1-1, and that with some luck for Inter. It ended 1-3, and that was on Pep. Have we been more careful in the first leg vs Inter, we would have made the final.

To say that the style is dead or that we can never play that way anymore is close minded because one ONLY thinks about the "tiki taka" version of total football. There are many other sides and styles to implement it (Arrigo Sacchi's Milan side had it yet they didn't play like Barca, even Simeone's Atletico side has the unity and shape for it). Total football is essentially just a tactical system in which the side has perfectly balanced team shape (no scattered players, distance between lines/teammates is fairly even), is high in movement (a static team simply cannot play total football no matter what), and presses in defense (space is covered, it should be very difficult to find a way through). It's unification and uniformity in a team at it's best. Every transition between phases (both attacking and defensive) is perfectly natural and fluid, the players have the system supporting them to perform at their best. Often the two formations to do this are 4-4-2 or 4-3-3.

Basically, people look at this tiki-taka (btw, I hate the term) as a substitute for possesion. It isn't true. Tiki-taka is a way of playing as a tight unit, making every player a piece of the machine. The team wins the games, not one player. But in order for tiki-taka to work, you have to have off the ball movement -- and that requires effort, that's why it doesn't work with static formations or with unmotivated players. The book on tiki-taka should start with Barcelona - Real 5-0 and should continue with Madrid - Barcelona 2-6 and Barcelona - Manchester 3-1. Those were near perfect matches, with high effort, high passing accuracy and even high efficiency as far as putting the ball into the net is concerned. The moment Pep's Barcelona started to crumble a little was when our midfield -- most notably, Xavi -- was no longer able to unlock tight defence blocks. We've never had the greatest defence at soaking up pressure or stopping lethal counter-attacks, but we almost always created more chances than the opponent. It all comes down to speed and off the ball movement. We lack both of them today, because we are static and we are willing to work a lot less to get a win.

The question that remains is whether Pep can mature to the point where he understands Total football in a holistic way rather than the one dimension of controlling play. If he can, then he could create a side that's flexible and unified. For a 4-3-3, the Thiago-Martinez-Lahm midfield is best. If he were to go outside his comfort zone and play a 4-4-2 on a vertical counterattack, Schweinsteiger-Martinez would be ideal. He has the squad to do so, it's just a matter of him relinquishing his ego and going back to the 'learning' aspect of tactics and how to use them.

Pep won't ever change, but I expect him to evaluate his players the right way and know whether they could fit his tactics or not. To me, the tiki-taka is a system of high creativity and diverse combinations. Bayern are renown for their simplicity and cut-to-the-chase nature. To put it differently, sometimes you have the wrong material to design the perfect dress. When you need silk and you only have cotton, the dress might not turn out as nice as you want it to be. If you have cotton on your hands, maybe you should adapt and think about a sweather instead of a gala dress. But Pep is stubborn and not flexible. He will try to impose his style and he will probably fail, because Bayern are not used to play the way we wants. In a perfect world Pep should come back to Barcelona and Barcelona should keep him for as long as United kept Ferguson or Arsenal kept Wenger -- 'cause these are perfect fits, ones you very rarely find. If Pep is the one who wants changes, then he should integrate Bayern philosophy into his tactics, not the other way around. Nobody likes dictators. Except when they win.

 

[Chainsaw]

The boss has spoken

EDIT : Bild just confirmed its fake.

 

[Kinlejus]

If it wasn't, he would have been shown door exit by now

 

[Ursegor]

EDIT : Bild just confirmed its fake.

Can't believe people thought Pep would be talking like that. What the fuck (I wrote it out)?!

 

[beautifulgame]

pep just a good manager, Am i reading this stuff right?

pep's biggest issue, is a simple one and is the same issue we are now having, which is our susceptibility to the counter. this is the case primarily because bayern lost the balance in defense, by playing two attacking fullbacks. so once the team win the ball and counter, they attack down the flanks, that in turns drags either the CB or DM out of position and opens up space down the middle after that its just a matter of delivering the right ball.

the importance of abidal to our system, is constantly over looked, and while alaba and lahm or better defensively that our current fullbacks, possession football pulls them out of position more consistently, than the counter attacking system, where they once timed their attacking runs to deadly effect, with possession football they essentially living in the oppositions half.

with abidal and busquets we always had the back covered and could better guard against the counter attacking team scoring the first goal, and if you can stop that type of team from scoring the first goal, the job is almost done.

thats his main issue, the fact that bayern were off form didn't help. in away it would have been better for them to be in a league title fight to keep them on top of their toes. they have been on cruise mood since February, up until that point everyone was calling pep the greatest thing since slice bread.

with us he knew he has madrid waiting for the team to make a mistake so we played to the end of the season and peaked from February to may, bayern were on vacation by then.

no worries he is a smart guy he will figure it out, i'm sure he will win the CL with bayern in his three years there

Biggest issue is bayern wasn't totally bought in recently.. They don't make support behind the ball. That is more important than who pep plays and where period. a team that does that exceptionally well is Atleti.

 

[Meitux]

Not so stable

 

[te amo barca]

He's clearly past it

 

[Flavia]

Lol, what was that?

 

[DonAK]

He was impersonating Sergio Ramos.

 

[Chainsaw]

He looks sweaty

 

[Ryan_Cule]