Authors: Martí Perarnau
18
‘IT’S NOT POSSESSION THAT MATTERS, BUT THE INTENTION BEHIND IT.’
Munich, July 30, 2013
DURING HIS BRILLIANT 2012-2013 treble-winning season, Jupp Heynckes kept his defensive line 36.1 metres from Manuel Neuer’s goal line. Or at least this is the average distance from goal of his four defenders, most often Lahm, Boateng, Dante and Alaba. In his first month of competition, and with almost the same four men, Pep’s Bayern advances no less than seven metres higher up the pitch, according to an article written by Christoph Gschossmann on the German league’s official website, bundesliga.de. In fact, Pep’s defenders will work, on average, 43.5 metres from Neuer and Bayern will be, by a long way, the Bundesliga team that defends the farthest away from goal: Wolfsburg are 41.2 metres out and Borussia Dortmund 39.4 metres.
This is no mere accident, but the result of Guardiola’s tireless work to accomplish one of his main tactical aims: to have his defenders playing close to the centre circle line and, if possible, moving into the opposition’s half for as long as they can. He wants his players to close the opposition down in their own area. The aim is to be tightly packed, bar the wingers, and able to press the opposition, thus cutting off counter attacks.
It won’t be quite so easy to put these ideas into practice when the league season starts – at least not without taking risks and making mistakes, but there are still 10 days before the Bundesliga kicks off; no one yet knows how complex and slow the implementation of this strategy will be.
I am sitting with Guardiola outside the door to the Munich dressing room and Bayern’s coach is explaining three fundamental concepts: the defensive line; the 15-pass build-up, and coping with the free man.
THE DEFENSIVE LINE
The position of the ball determines where the defensive line is. The defender who is closest to the ball is the one who sets the line, irrespective of whether it’s the full-back or the centre-half. If it’s the full-back, the nearest central defender needs to watch his back, the second centre-back needs to cover his partner and he, in turn will be covered by the furthest away full-back. In the latter case the danger is minimised because the ball is far away. Guardiola explains: ‘The four need to move constantly like links in a chain to prevent the channels becoming too wide or long. They must prevent it being easy for an attacker or the ball to get through those channels. When one centre-half attacks the ball, that’s the precise moment the other centre-back must slot into that vacated space and the
pivote
must drop in to cover him. The movements must be automatic, like the tightening and unfolding of a folding screen, or the folds in an accordion – instant and always linked.’
THE
15-
PASS BUILD-UP
Possession is only a means to an end. It’s a tool, not an objective or an end goal. Or, as Pep puts it: ‘If there isn’t a sequence of 15 passes first, it’s impossible to carry out the transition between attack and defence. Impossible. But it’s not possession or one-touch passing that matters, but the intention behind it. The percentage of possession a team has or the number of passes that the group or an individual makes is irrelevant in itself. What’s crucial is the reason they are doing these things, what they’re aiming to achieve and what the team plans to do when they have the ball. That’s what matters!
‘Having the ball is important if you are going for 15 consecutive passes in the middle of the field in order to maintain your shape, whilst at the same time upsetting the opposition’s organisation. How do you disorganise them? With fast, tight, focused passing as part of this 15-move sequence. You need most of your men working as a unit, although some of them will need to maintain a bit of distance from each other in order to stretch out the rival team. And whilst you make those 15 moves and organise yourselves, your opponents are chasing you all over the park, trying to get the ball from you. In the process, without realising it, they’ll have lost all organisation.
‘If you lose the ball, if they get it off you, then the player who takes it will probably be alone and surrounded by your players, who will then get it back easily or, at the very least, ensure that rival team can’t manoeuvre quickly. It’s these 15 passes that prevent your rival from making any kind of co-ordinated transition.’
MANAGING THE FREE MAN
In football there are basically two propositions: one based on ball possession and the other on managing space on the pitch. ‘If you want to win by dominating the ball you have to cover each other and look out for free men, what’s called the
Palomero
in basketball. The guy who hangs around by your hoop waiting to take a pass and score easily,’ says Pep.
He sees four specific ways to defend against such a threat: don’t lose the ball in key midfield areas where it’s easiest for the opposition to mount a dangerous counter; use 15 passes to make sure that your team is well positioned and close together at the point where a move might break down, so that it’s easier to press and win the ball back swiftly; put high, effective pressure on the first opponent (the free man) who receives the ball after your possession breaks down – anticipate who the free man will be and react more quickly than him. In all of this the central defender, and his vigilance, is vital.
Guardiola: ‘For a team which wants to dominate the ball and be the game’s protagonist, managing the free or open opponent is the principal defensive objective.’
The evening is drawing to a close at Bayern’s training ground. Robben’s children have gone home for dinner and the rest of the players are getting ready to leave. Guardiola has explained the three pillars of his defensive philosophy. We could go on all night, but Estiarte arrives to save Guardiola – from himself. In the event Estiarte can’t resist the temptation to address the question of whether Pep is a defensive coach or not: ‘I don’t think so, more a very complete coach. He works a lot on both his defensive and offensive strategy. He believes that the key is to bring his most talented players towards the centre of the pitch, so that his team can dominate from there.’
It’s getting dark now, but Pep comes back from the dressing room. He has just remembered that he left one important question hanging: How and where did he learn these defensive concepts? Was it in Italy, during his time as a player there? ‘No way, I didn’t pick these things up in Italy. You learn by watching and thinking. I have always been very interested in defence, because it takes practice and a lot of hard work. Attack is more based on innate talent, defence is about the work that you put into it. That’s why I spend so much time on defensive organisation and movements. You’ll see how throughout the year, every few weeks, we’ll go over these defensive concepts again. The team that stops doing this is lost. But if you’re asking me where I developed my creative approach to defensive strategy, the secret’s very simple: I have always made a point of observing and reflecting on the things I see.’
19
‘I DON’T HAVE ANY MIDFIELDERS.’
Munich, July 31, 2013
PEP GUARDIOLA ARRIVES at 8am and Manuel Pellegrini at nine. It is match day and Bayern’s training ground quickly fills with footballers. Today the Audi Cup, Munich’s traditional summer tournament, begins and Manchester City and Bayern are training in the morning as preparation for the semi-finals in the evening. The English team has drawn AC Milan; the Bavarian side will play Sao Paulo from Brazil, so at the moment they aren’t paying each other too much attention. On training pitch No.3, City are practising corners and free-kicks and Manuel Pellegrini is correcting his players’ work. On training pitch No.1, Guardiola pays no attention to him because he is engrossed in a long conversation with Jérôme Boateng.
He is enthused by what he has discovered: Boateng is totally self-taught. The young German defender has been explaining that no one has ever shown him how to defend. In fact, Boateng confesses that he did not even know that the defensive line could be organised. He thought that every player defended instinctively. Guardiola is enchanted with Boateng’s wide-eyed innocence on this point and realises that he has a pearl on his hands. This is someone with an enormous amount of potential as well as a clear willingness to learn. He is a player Pep can polish and the coach’s intuition tells him that, if the central defender maintains his current level of dedication, then he could take a significant step forward over the next few months.
Pep therefore spends a few minutes every day going over the fundamental principles of defensive organisation with him. Until the end of the season, Guardiola and Boateng will go over the set moves many times. This training process will continue for the next 10 months, through all the defender’s ups and downs, because the coach is convinced that this is a player of real potential. Whenever he finds a footballer like this, Guardiola reacts with single-minded determination. He believes this kind of daily input impacts hugely on the quality of a player’s performance and always uses Éric Abidal as an example. At Barcelona, the French defender went through a comprehensive technical-tactical transformation at the age of 30. No longer a player distinguished for his physical strength alone, he grew into the complete footballer, a defender with exquisite technique and an impressive understanding of the game.
Lorenzo Buenaventura explains why this kind of progression is possible: ‘There are aspects of your game you can improve at any age and one of them is basic technique. Paco Seirul.lo and I have talked about this a lot. When players come to Barça for the first time, they often struggle to adapt to that way of working. I remember David Villa’s early training sessions. He’s a quick, high-octane kind of guy, who already knew eight or nine players from the Spain team, yet he still battled to understand the dynamics of that particular group. There’s no doubt that players over 30 can still improve their technique and tactical sense. This is also true for the physical side of things. You may think that improvement is impossible, but the body is like a sponge and here at Bayern it’s happening all the time. English and German football is all about doing long runs, but if you focus on a very different working style, like ours, with the ball, you can achieve significant physical improvements – most of all in terms of the collective dynamic. If you change the kind of movements they’re making and add strength and ball work you can make immense improvements.’
Guardiola is committed to his work with Boateng. He believes that the player has the potential to become a great defender and he will not give up as long as the player shows the same level of dedication. And that’s the thing. When a player says enough is enough, when his determination to improve falters, when he stops believing in his own ability to progress or abandons the idea altogether, then the coach throws in the towel too. It’s over. If the player is not willing to put all his energy into the task then Guardiola certainly won’t insist. He reckons that as grown-up sportsmen, surrounded by advisors, analysts, and people who manage their careers, it is up to them to decide if they want to make progress or not.
What is happening with Thomas Müller is different. The coach feels that the Bavarian forward could easily take on the position of midfielder. Although lacking the technical ability of Kroos or Thiago, he is fast, aggressive, mobile, elusive and completely tenacious in his pressing of opponents. Despite all this, whenever he has included him as a midfielder, Müller’s performance has been disappointing. It is not about a lack of will or effort; Müller is a conscientious team member who is ready to try anything. As Gab Ruiz, a technical analyst for the Spanish channel Digital Plus, puts it: ‘Müller is the paradigm of the Bavarian player: ordered, serious, persistent, self-sacrificing. He obeys orders. He is prepared to work his fingers to the bone to comply with what is being asked of him.’
Yet Müller is not capable of achieving the level Pep demands of him in the centre of the pitch. He abandons his position when he should be maintaining it or he stays still just when he should be moving. It is not about obeying or disobeying orders, but about his difficulty in understanding what the team needs in every instance, an essential characteristic for a midfielder. Pep will push for a few weeks more, but will finally accept that it is not possible to turn this forward into a midfielder.
When Manchester City withdraw to the showers, the Bayern players, whose game starts two hours after the English team’s, start the
rondos
, which by now have become a symbol of their training work. The
rondo
was a core part of Barcelona’s identity under Johan Cruyff and there is no team in the world that does it better.
The Bayern players first tried the
rondos
on June 26, during their first training session with Guardiola, and in the last five weeks there has been a notable improvement in their performance, as Buenaventura explains: ‘There has been an enormous change in every aspect of their game in this first month, not just in the
rondos
. Any drill you have to carry out in a reduced space when there are two or three different objectives and all the team is involved is tough to learn. But there has been a huge improvement in the
rondos
, the positional work and in working with the ball.’
Nevertheless, Bayern’s best
rondos
are still those in which Guardiola himself participates, explaining and demonstrating as he goes. As the months go by, however, the differences in quality will gradually disappear and the Munich players will make unprecedented progress in this area. By the spring of 2014, Bayern’s
rondos
will be a thing of beauty and will also have become a core part of their identity.
The morning training session is restricted to the
rondos
. Only Thiago does some extra work. Just as Schweinsteiger did yesterday, he does nine sets of 70-metre runs with 20 seconds’ recuperation time in between each set. When he’s finished, he does seven 40-metre sprints. He is still limping and although he insists that he would like to play in the afternoon’s game, his performance in the running exercises Buenaventura has set him makes this impossible. Thiago will be in the stands today.