Authors: Martí Perarnau
Lorenzo Buenaventura tells us more about Pep’s approach: ‘Sometimes Pep will spend 10 minutes of the team talk explaining exactly what they have to do. Then, once he’s given them this in-depth tutorial, he’ll say, “Okay lads, forget everything I’ve just said and do this instead…”’ [Buenaventura cracks up laughing here]. ‘He teaches the lesson but only he knows when it’s the right time to actually apply it.’
Having won the Intercontinental Cup in 1976 and 2001, Bayern’s win in Marrakech represents their third world title and gives Guardiola, champion in 2009, 2011 and 2013, his 16th trophy from the 22 he has contested as a coach. He won 14 out of a possible 19 with Barcelona, two out of three so far with Bayern, plus (let’s not forget), the Third Division title with Barça B. Pep has lifted the World Club Cup with two different clubs (until now only Carlos Bianchi held this honour). What’s more, he has also won all of the international finals he has contested: two Champions Leagues, three European Super Cups and three World Club Cups.
2013 has indeed been a prodigious year for Bayern. Under Jupp Heynckes they had won the three most-coveted trophies: the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League. Guardiola has now added the European Super Cup and the World Club Cup. Only their defeat in Dortmund has prevented them from achieving a clean sweep. The Munich club is now firmly established as the dominant power in football, although high expectations will bring unprecedented levels of pressure in 2014.
Pep celebrates his victory with close friends, among them the economist Xavier Sala i Martín, and the filmmaker David Trueba, who used Pep’s dad, Valentí Guardiola, in his film
Living is Easy with Eyes Closed
, which triumphed at the annual Spanish cinema awards. They all travel to Barcelona in a private jet.
Pep has now entered a new phase and anything that he wins in 2014 will be completely unrelated to Heynckes’ success. All Bayern’s trophies from now on will be the fruit of Pep’s own work.
If for the rest of Bayern, the year had been one of unimaginable success (with five trophies and only three defeats in 12 months), for Pep there was still room for improvement. There had been a lack of consistency in his six months in charge, notwithstanding the sublime moments. The team had also suffered an epidemic of injury problems which had prevented him from fully implementing his ideas. In other words, despite his outstanding results so far (just two defeats in 29 matches) Pep is still not satisfied. As he travels home, already relaxing into holiday mode, he is straightforward about his ambitions. ‘We have to play better. Much, much better.’
PART FOUR
THE LEAGUE IN MARCH
‘People are very open-minded about new things – as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.’
CHARLES KETTERING
42
‘IN SIX MONTHS HERE PEP HAS TRIED MORE THINGS THAN IN FOUR YEARS AT BARÇA.’
Doha, January 12, 2014
‘PEP’S CHANGING BAYERN and Germany’s changing Pep.’
Lorenzo Buenaventura isn’t referring to the couple of kilos which Pep has put on over the Christmas holidays. As he is introducing his DNA to Bayern, he is also going through a metamorphosis. Physically he appears to be just the same guy who landed in Munich last June, but life in Germany has had a powerful influence on his character.
Pep feels free and happy in Germany. He gets a huge amount of affection and support from the club which, in the case of the president, Hoeness, has developed into a firm friendship. Such a contrast from the sour relations over two years with the former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell.
The way Bayern support him is remarkable. Pep is less in charge than he was at Barcelona. Here he’s just the coach, but instead of making him feel uncomfortable, this ‘lesser’ role has been a liberation. His friend, Xavier Sala i Martín, puts it like this: ‘The burnout factor for Pep in Munich is less than at Barcelona because there he had to step into roles which shouldn’t really have been his, due to the lack of leadership there. There were moments when he seemed almost to be the president of Catalunya, the coach of FC Barcelona and the club spokesman. He had to fight accusations of doping, battle Mourinho and deal with UEFA. His work in Munich is much more normal.’
Pep loves his players’ immediate pre-disposition to hard work, the care with which Markus Hörwick prepares the press conferences, the minute detail to which team delegate Kathleen Krüger dedicates herself, the affability with which Hermann Gerland is teaching him about the variety of characteristics the Bundesliga exhibits, the outright passion of Matthias Sammer…
Germany is moulding Pep, who now seems more open, more serene, more disposed to new initiatives with every passing day. He’s not just conceding interviews to the club magazine and television station, but happily lends himself to some of Bayern’s publicity drives. He knows that the business of transfer policy is taken care of in the offices of Rummenigge and Hoeness and he’s just fine with that. ‘Here I’m the coach, full stop, which is very different from Barça. I coach the players, I try to drive the team towards the best results and I’ve got Sammer’s support, which is very important. He’s the key.’
His kids are learning German swiftly, they never miss a Bayern home match, even the night games, and have made good friends at school. Cristina, Pep’s wife, is still running her clothes shop and has probably visited every art gallery in the city. The Guardiola family feels the same peace of mind here as Pep does. As Sala i Martín explains: ‘They’re all happy in Munich. There’s no homesickness at all. Pep’s kids are the most important factor for him. He’s obsessed with the importance of them studying abroad and learning lots of languages. He always insists that the best thing he can do for them is give them a good education and lots of language learning.’
German football is in his blood now. While he is trying to correct small but important details in his team, he is soaking up the influence of a very different kind of football – quicker, more aggressive and full of lightning-fast counter-attacks. Whatever tactical deficiencies exist in German football, they are compensated for with aggression, teamwork and effort. So, as he alters Bayern, the Bundesliga alters him.
‘He’s full of re-invention – in six months here Pep has tried more things than in four years at Barça,’ says Domenèc Torrent, who still shares the bench with him, having begun together at Barça B back in 2007.
In terms of tactics, there have been six areas of big development during the first six months.
1:
THE DEFENSIVE LINE
Pep has moved it forward from a starting point of 45 metres in front of the keeper. If Bayern are fully on the attack high up the pitch then he wants the two centre-halves to take up positions 56 metres ahead of Neuer – in the opposition half.
2:
PLAYING AND MOVING FORWARD FROM THE BACK, IN TOTAL UNISON
The team has got this: it’s a journey they must take together. How they play out from the back is of absolute importance to how things then develop in the attacking phase.
3:
ORDER IN THE PLAY
The passing sequences need to balance the team’s positioning. If properly effected, from beginning to end it means their attack will be ordered and if the ball is lost it can be won back quickly, with little wasted effort.
4:
SUPERIORITY IN MIDFIELD
This is the essence of Pep’s playing philosophy. He always wants his team to have midfield superiority, whether numerical or positional. Achieving this guarantees his team will dominate the game.
5:
FALSE ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS
This is the big tactical innovation within Pep’s first season. Given the powerful wing play of Robben and Ribéry and also the need to immediately cut off the counter-attacks of opponents high up the pitch, Pep has decided to position his full-backs almost as old-fashioned inside-forwards, right alongside the other attacking midfielders, high up the pitch.
6:
PLAYING WITHOUT THE FALSE
9
From being the absolute key figure at Barcelona, the false 9 is now just one more potential tactic for Bayern. It will be used sporadically, depending on the specific needs of a particular match or phase within a game.
From what he has learned from German football, Pep most values five things:
1:
COUNTER-ATTACKS
He has sometimes branded it the Bundesliga-counter, based on the efficacy and speed of the counters he has had to plan for. The efficacy, particularly, has fascinated him. And he’s loved it when Bayern have been capable of employing it themselves. Nevertheless, one of the great tasks of his season has been working out how to counter the counter.
2:
AERIAL PLAY – OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES
The physical qualities of the players in German football make aerial tactics essential, both from set plays and open play. His Barça team was full of little guys, but Bayern have height and this has meant a new coaching approach to the strategy of the aerial ball.
3:
AGGRESSIVE PRESSING
Against the power of the Bundesliga counter-attack, it’s vital to have a high, effective and aggressive pressing game – particularly if Bayern lose the ball high up the pitch. It was a tactic at Barcelona, but in Munich the coach has needed to augment the collective aggression and intensity of this action.
4:
DOUBLE
PIVOTE
Although he’s been the flag bearer for using just one organisational midfielder throughout his coaching career, Pep has accepted the need to renounce this commandment on occasion, if it will bring an improvement in his team’s midfield play. He will often ignore the single-
pivote
concept in the latter part of this season.
5:
WIDTH
At Barça, the ball was played wide with pretty much the sole intention of distracting and confusing the opposition so that it could then be slotted back into the inside-forward positions in and around the box, in search of the breakthrough pass or a shot on goal. At Bayern, with the two full-backs often pushed up, it becomes essential for the wingers to maintain width.
So what’s on Pep’s menu as 2014 begins? Just what you’d imagine – a combination of his old ideas and the innovations he has picked up in Germany.
Torrent explains: ‘He’ll maintain the essence of his philosophy: moving the ball as a device to keep the team’s positional play organised and strategically as far as about three-quarters of the way upfield; keeping a very high defensive line and always looking to achieve an extra man in midfield – however that’s achieved. But you can’t any longer expect a fixed tactical system from him, nor a fixed starting XI. These will both change from match to match. And the analysis of our rivals will become increasingly more crucial.’
The January training camp in Doha will be a turning point. The players have been through their learning period. They have been acquiring knowledge and are flying in the Bundesliga. With two more trophies in the bag (the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup) confidence in Guardiola is at a peak. He is no longer the charismatic and legendary coach at Barcelona who had the advantage of already having done it all there as a player. Now he is his own coach – the guy who leads all the training sessions, rain or shine or snow, with the kids, the substitutes or the first team. Unlike at Barcelona, he’s not automatically a reverential figure. In this environment he is flesh and blood – the boss who has got a smile, a joke, a kick up the backside, a growl of anger, a row – and bundles of technical and tactical ideas. Pep hasn’t simply won his first couple of trophies with his new club, he has won over the majority of his players.
In Doha the hard work starts all over again. The training camp comes after two full weeks off. The rest was badly needed. Leg muscles have relaxed and the players have cleared their minds after what has been a prodigious but utterly exhausting year. Guardiola comes back from the Christmas break carrying two extra kilos. His technical staff watch him do all the same running as the players, doing the sit-ups and turning down pasta for plates of salad instead. Pep is very fussy about his appearance.
In Doha, they prepare for round two. This is a crucial moment in the battle for the title and the winter break has been a real blessing.
‘This break is fantastic for everyone, physically and mentally,’ Lorenzo Buenaventura points out. ‘You only have to talk to the medics and the physios. In England they do the opposite. They have games every two days during the Christmas break and any doctor will tell you how hard that is on the body. By the middle of January the players are all struggling badly. After the intense programme of matches Bayern has played in 2013, two weeks of holiday, plus three of pre-season training, are an absolute blessing.’
The technical staff programme the work similarly to the pre-season in Trentino last July, but there is an important difference: this isn’t the same team any more. These guys have put in hundreds of hours of work and assimilated new concepts. Pep has installed a new kind of software in them and, after some early gremlins, his men have adapted to his ideas. They now speak a different football language.
TZ online
puts out a video of training in Doha and it’s a surprise to anyone who has not had the good fortune to see Pep’s Bayern sessions in person. It whizzes round the world and gives a taste of what daily life is like working under Pep – the intensity he puts into ensuring that his players implement the correct moves and reactions, every second of the session. Each session is as intense and focused as this. Eighty minutes of maximum effort, every time, in search of the correct moves – moves which will mean a qualitative improvement in the players and the team as a whole.
I quiz Manel Estiarte about this change in Guardiola, something which the fans and the German journalists probably aren’t even aware of, but which is apparent to anyone who knew him at Barcelona.
‘There’s no fuss, fanfare or luxury here at Bayern but there’s absolutely everything a professional needs to do his work well. Fundamentally, it’s full of good professionals. And there’s an enormous respect for work ethic. Yesterday I said to Pep, “we’re in precisely the right place at exactly the right time. It may or may not be the club where we win the most trophies, but I struggle to imagine anywhere else right now with such ideal conditions. The players individually and collectively are determined to progress and improve. They are hungry to learn and just as hungry to win. It means that right now, thanks to the union of the club and the squad, this is an unparalleled environment for us. Perhaps in a few seasons it won’t be, but right now it definitely is”.