Authors: Martí Perarnau
Guardiola scratches his head: ‘I don’t have any midfielders. Only Kroos is fit. Schweinsteiger still can’t turn, Müller is no good in that position, Thiago is half lame. Just as well we brought him! Now it is up to Lahm to play in the middle.’
Pep is referring to the impression people have got that this is a Bayern of midfielders. He likes this idea, only at the moment he doesn’t have any midfielders with which to put it into action. Injuries have decimated his team, and it is going to get even worse in the coming weeks when most of his players fall victim to injury or aggravate their current problems. Pep will not be able to carry out a training session with his full squad fit and well until February 5, 2014.
The medical team at Bayern is very efficient, but Pep is still not used to their way of working. For example, there are no doctors at the Säbener Strasse training sessions. If something happens, the physiotherapists see to the players. If it’s serious, they have to be moved to Doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller Wohlfhart’s private clinic in the centre of the city. The doctor has a worldwide reputation and has spent more than 30 years at Bayern. Despite this, Guardiola is used to having a medic present at training sessions and this issue will keep cropping up throughout the season. The coach announced yesterday at a press conference that Mario Götze came through a set of sprints with no problems and would join the team in two days’ time. However, this morning Guardiola has been informed that it will be best to wait one more week. Pep is disconcerted by all of this. He has not yet assimilated what happened in the German Super Cup, where he was prevented from using Neuer or Ribéry, who then recovered full fitness 40 hours later.
Injuries will continue to dog him for the rest of the season.
20
‘WE’RE TRYING TO DO THIS RIGHT, NOT JUST WIN TITLES.’
Munich, August 1, 2013
MANCHESTER CITY SCORED five goals in the first 35 minutes of the game. They were astounding, an attacking, goalscoring machine. Then, within the next six minutes, they conceded three goals to Milan. The defensive weakness of Manuel Pellegrini’s team was surprising. It was 5-3 at half-time and this would be the final score of the first semi-final of the Audi Cup. City’s elimination of Milan had revealed their strengths and weaknesses, both of which would continue to be obvious throughout the season: powerful finishing and an inadequate defence. A team with personality.
In the second semi-final, Bayern fielded more or less their best available team. Of course, Neuer and Ribéry were showing no trace of their injuries. Pizarro started as a forward, a choice which hinted at Guardiola’s dissatisfaction with Mandžukić’s current form, and Javi Martínez, fresh from the master class in defending, started as a central defender. It was not a brilliant match for Bayern, although they completely dominated Sao Paulo, whom they beat 2-0 after having generated plenty of opportunities. Bayern’s attacking prowess meant that the veteran Brazilian goalkeeper, Rogério Ceni, had to save 12 shots on goal, making him the star performer of the match. Already there were signs of Bayern’s poor finishing, an unfamiliar weakness for them and something which would become an issue over the coming months.
Javi Martínez and Dante spent the game watching each other as they worked to protect the defensive line, continuously talking and exchanging advice. Javi seemed unsure of himself, but Dante was full of praise for his team-mate: ‘Javi is a marvellous player and is very intelligent. If we get paired up in the future, I’ll be more than happy to have him with me in defence.’
The tournament final, on Thursday, August 1, saw Guardiola and Pellegrini go head-to-head for the ninth time. In their eight previous meetings, the Chilean coach had managed only one draw (3-3, in the Camp Nou when he was coaching Villarreal). The Catalan had accumulated seven victories. Despite the balance being so much in his favour, Pep respects and values the Manchester City coach: ‘I know Pellegrini well and he is a great coach. He has fantastic players.’
Although perhaps something of a cliché, his words are genuine and Guardiola has already marked City down as one of his great rivals in the battle for the Champions League.
He was asked about Mandžukić’s reaction after scoring against Sao Paulo. The Croatian forward, who replaced Pizarro after the break, made a defiant gesture towards the bench: ‘Mandžukić is a great penalty-box player, a great finisher. I didn’t notice any reaction after the goal.’
The coach’s relationship with Mandžukić has been tense for a couple of weeks. The Croatian forward’s skills were highly prized by his team-mates, particularly his willingness to fight, press and throw himself 100% into a game. This kind of aggression can have its down sides, though, and whenever there was tension or any kind of a skirmish during training, Mandžukić was usually at the centre of it. Guardiola and his coaching staff had doubts about the Croatian, although certainly not for his playing style. They admired his finishing and all the work that he did for the team in the box, but they worried about his constant raging against the world and his reluctance to learn a new style of play.
Robert Lewandowski, Borussia Dortmund’s centre-forward, seems a definite target for Bayern for the following season, and this does nothing to alleviate the sense of impermanence that surrounds Mandžukić. The conflict has little in common with Thomas Müller’s situation. Müller, whose attitude is perfect, just needs to adapt to being a forward rather than a midfielder. In Mandžukić’s case, his performance on the pitch is superb and it is his attitude that is the problem.
In Munich, word has got out that Bayern are going to play like Barça. There are three reasons for this: Thiago’s signing, the 4-3-3 formation and the use of the false No.9 position. In fact, Guardiola has no intention of turning Bayern into another Barça, given that the players in the respective teams are so different. And he just laughs at the talk of formations: ‘Those schematics are nothing more than telephone numbers. It certainly isn’t the most important thing, it isn’t meaningful. I like the type of player who’s comfortable on the ball and who’ll dominate the centre of the pitch. I’m very surprised by the high level of tactical ability these players possess as well as the amount they have learned during the short time we’ve been working together.’
In the morning training session on August 1, Arjen Robben gives us a preview of what will happen that evening during the final: ‘My legs are really heavy …’
Bayern play superbly for half an hour and then collapse. While Manchester City have made nine changes to the previous day’s line-up, Bayern make two: Thiago comes in for Rafinha and Müller for Pizarro. Javi Martínez plays as a central defender again; Thiago and Kroos as attacking midfielders and Mandžukić stays on the bench. It’s probably true that if Guardiola had been able to use Mario Götze, he would have fielded his ideal line-up.
For 35 minutes, they are the Bayern that Pep has been dreaming of. They play calmly out from the back, draw the opposition in, over-run them all over the pitch and plant themselves on the edge of the City penalty area – all stemming from superiority of numbers in midfield. From there Robben and Ribéry cause panic, both running wide and cutting inside to help the attacking midfielders. The first half an hour is just a festival of football – and of chances. Bayern have nine shots in 30 minutes but once again lack the killer touch. Right now it’s a small detail but the following weeks will see it become a chronic problem. Guardiola is so pleased that he barely makes a couple of shouted adjustments to Javi Martínez – telling him to be more aggressive in how he brings the ball out and to push higher, towards the centre circle. Pep wants him to be bold in breaking through the opponents’ lines when he has the ball.
In general, Pep takes an interventionist approach from his position on the bench and the German fans and press will continue to be rather shocked by the sight, until they get used to the Catalan’s mannerisms. He waves his arms about so much because he is passionate about football. He’s obsessed. Whenever he starts talking about the game he is perfectly capable of losing all sense of time and hours can pass without him noticing. He could be discussing something as prosaic as the movement of a full-back when he is attacking an opposition winger and, as long as nothing interrupts him, could spend an age analysing these movements. And he doesn’t do it at a leisurely pace. He jumps to his feet and starts to move his arms to demonstrate the positions of the players, fingers held up to indicate every new position they have to cover, waving arms about behind him to indicate space left vacant on the pitch. In the end, he’ll have explained the 40 movements required to produce this one action and he’ll have taken only a minute to do it.
It happens every day in training. He moves, gesticulates, waves his arms, points out hypothetical lines and uses his hands and arms to demonstrate possible moves his players or their opponents might make. Bayern’s footballers are used to this code of signals and gestures. They already know that if he wants a player to do something, Guardiola calls him over and enthusiastically runs through his whole repertoire of vigorous gestures. He puts his arms round him, grabs him by his shoulders to modify his position or dances round him, giving him instructions about a specific action. To congratulate someone on a good play, he will probably give him a slap on the back or a kick up his behind, something which Robben discovered early on.
Having been a player himself, he knows that the players can’t hear him when they are out on the pitch, which is why he likes to use sign language. He’ll use his arms, putting them behind his back to indicate the areas which need covering or the defensive line which he wants held. In general he’ll spend about 70% of the game gesticulating as he issues his instructions.
In the first 30 minutes of the match against City, Pep is silent and still. He likes what he sees, except the lack of cutting edge in front of goal, and has nothing to add.
After 35 minutes, Bayern’s legs start to give way, just as Robben had hinted at. City turn up the heat and everything changes. Pellegrini’s men start to pressurise Javi and Dante and create a string of opportunities until Alvaro Negredo gets the equaliser for the English team on the hour. Guardiola has already changed his three midfielders and now he is using Kirchhoff, Lahm and Shaqiri in the middle. It’s an unusual, surprising trio, who demonstrate that the ‘Bayern of midfielders’ is yet to be born.
The Munich team rally and in the end win the final 2-1 playing completely differently from the first half. Their football bears no resemblance to what Guardiola wants. They go for lots of long, diagonal balls to the wings, crosses into the box and headed chances on goal. For the first time Pep doesn’t seem terribly bothered by his players employing a different style from his own. He undoubtedly prefers the way they have played in the first half, but he is also starting to feel comfortable with this other style. He seems pleased at the end of the match: ‘I am happy with my players. They have all worked very hard, and people like Schweinsteiger, Dante and Javi Martínez, who only had a week’s preparation time, have done well. The season will be very long and we can certainly improve. I am surprised by the team. I didn’t expect them to be so good at so many things. The German game is very different from the football at Barcelona and we have to refine things and build understanding between players.’
He is asked again about Mandžukić, who came on an hour into the game and scored the winning goal. Because it’s a friendly, Pep has made seven changes: ‘It’s very important to have a forward who is strong and tall at the front. He has a fantastic attitude and the team needs him. He was hugely important to the victory.’
Many months later, when it is already evident that the forward will not be staying for the following season, I ask Pep about him: ‘Look, I’d go to war with Mandžukić because he supports the team like no one else when he plays. He presses constantly and works till he drops. But when he isn’t playing, well…’
They also ask him about Javi Martínez’s performance. Today the Spaniard has been chosen by Pep for the starting pairing at the back with Dante, ahead of Boateng. ‘I’m very pleased with him. Yesterday he played very well and today it has been harder because City are a great team. Javi has only had five training sessions and isn’t in great shape, but with a bit more practice he’ll find more co-ordination with Dante.’
Gaurdiola’s comments as he leaves the Allianz Arena show that he is concerned with much more than winning: ‘What makes a coach great is what the players say about him at the end. If I can convince these players to play this way and manage to help them grow and get even better, I will be very happy. That will be my greatest source of satisfaction. We are going to try to do this thing right, not just win titles.’
In the vast Munich stadium, Manuel Pellegrini is waiting for us in the changing rooms: ‘I have no doubt that Pep is going to impose his style on Bayern. It’s a style they’re going to like because it involves a lot of possession and it’s good football. In the first half an hour, this Bayern reminded me of Barcelona in the way they touched the ball and dominated the centre pitch. They had a lot of possession in that period, although they didn’t manage to convert many chances. There is no question that the ball belonged to Bayern tonight and we need to accept that we didn’t do too well. We lost the ball very quickly. They got it back too easily. And, as we all know, getting the ball back quickly and easily is one of the main features of Guardiola’s teams.’
Neither of the two men anticipated that they would be facing each other again in less than two months’ time, in no less a competition than the Champions League.
21
‘BRING THE BALL OUT WELL AND YOU WILL PLAY WELL.’
Munich, August 9, 2013
‘WINNING THE BUNDESLIGA. That’s the main objective. Winning the Bundesliga,’ Estiarte reminds me as the league season starts.
Pep has a new office inside the Allianz Arena. The players’ dressing room is a spacious rectangle with a grey floor and scarlet lockers for kit and boots. There’s a basic wooden bench and each player has his photo on his locker. Ribéry changes beside Robben, Shaqiri next to Schweinsteiger, Neuer beside Starke and Javi Martínez alongside Dante. The shower cubicles, decorated with plain white tiles, are at one end and the physios’ massage tables at the other. Beyond them is the place Jupp Heynckes used to work, up to a few months ago, seated behind a translucent screen.