Authors: Martí Perarnau
‘Never again. From now on, if I mess up I will at least have stayed true to my own ideas.’
Cristina and the kids are at the training session. It’s a holiday and she wants to give her husband some support. Their eldest daughter, Maria leaves an affectionate message for her dad on the whiteboard in his office, writing underneath it, in English: Do not wipe off. The players are trying to put it all behind them but Robben, amongst others, is obviously still very down.
Not everyone reacted the same way to the defeat, although the majority of players were completely behind the coach and appreciated his willingness to take the blame after such a tough night. Rafinha, who hadn’t actually played, burst into tears in the dressing room when the coach, breaking with tradition, came down to comfort them and accept the blame. Javi gave Pep a hug and almost all the players were clearly concerned for the boss.
After today’s training session Pep and Lahm have their longest conversation of the whole year on Pitch No.2. Over 60 minutes, Pep apologises to his captain and explains why he changed his mind about playing with three at the back. He then tells Lahm that he is convinced they need to reinforce and develop the playing style that has dominated this year. Lahm listens and doesn’t say much, but when he does respond it’s with a definite: ‘We’re behind you all the way Pep. All the way.’
The captain is speaking for the vast majority of his team-mates. They believe in Pep and are equally convinced that his playing style will bring them more success in the future. The rest of the conversation remains private, but Lahm’s words stay with Pep: ‘We’re behind you all the way.’
When he has done playing with Valentina and Màrius, who love kicking balls at a miniature goal, Guardiola reflects: ‘I’m not here to change German football culture, nor even Bayern’s culture. That’s not my objective. But neither can I teach my players something I don’t believe in. I’m sorry but I have my own ideas and that’s what I’m going to use next season. I understand and accept the criticism for what happened with Madrid, but I am not some kind of Taliban, I’m not totally inflexible. I like to listen and watch. I am happy to evolve, but please don’t ask me to do something I don’t believe in. Otherwise Bayern would suffer and the players would stop trusting me. I know that this is Germany and I am adapting. Whilst here I’ve played with one, sometimes even two out-and-out strikers. I’ve done things I would never have done at Barcelona and I’ve never tried to make Bayern play like Barça. The players are just too different, as you know. But I can’t plan according to the players’ ideas, because every one of them would be asking for a different thing.’
‘Will the club support you?’
‘Look, we have had a magnificent league campaign using my ideas. And we played well in the Bernabéu, despite losing. I want the best for this club and its players. I am proud to be part of Bayern and am doing the best job I can. I will continue to give this job 100% until my very last day here, but with my own ideas. The directors? All football coaches everywhere are dependent on their results. And it’s not really about whether they are convinced or not. I can’t get bogged down in looking for reassurance from the directors or the players. You have to start each day afresh, particularly after a defeat. Such a dreadful defeat will stay with me forever, mentally and emotionally but, at the same time, it has also reinforced my belief in my own ideas and instincts. It hasn’t knocked me off course, quite the reverse in fact. There’s only one way to win and that’s to play the kind of good football I understand best – over-run the middle of the pitch and pass the ball even more. Whenever we’ve played that way and done it well, we’ve almost always won.’
On Tuesday he will meet with Rummenigge, Sammer and Dreesen. They’ll work out who is definitely leaving, the role of the established players and the new signings required. He’ll find out then if the club is backing him in word and deed. Pep has come to a watershed moment in his career. The political correctness has to go.
64
‘ALL TEAMS GO THROUGH DIFFERENT PHASES’
Munich, May 15, 2014
THEY PLAY BORUSSIA Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal final on Saturday, the last match of a season which fate has dictated should start and end with Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp contesting a final. And, just as in last July, Dortmund are currently in better shape than Bayern, although Pep’s men have rallied since the Real Madrid debacle. There has been a positive shift in the group dynamic over the last two weeks and the majority of Pep’s men have united even more closely around him, forming a solid block of mutual support.
Whenever I comment on this to any of the players, they all say similar things. ‘We’re right behind Pep.’
‘We’ll fight to the death with the boss.’
‘We’ve learned our lesson.’
‘We have our game plan and we’re not going to deviate from it.’
But it’s a majority, not the whole squad. One player is feeling overlooked and has become more of a detached observer. Another is not convinced by Pep and his ideas and is also waiting and watching. Yet another makes no attempt to hide the tension that has been simmering between himself and the coach all year. But the majority are behind him, to the death. They understand that there is no going back. But more than that, they believe that they can go far playing this kind of football. They see in front of them not only triumphs and trophies but stability, consistency and the potential to remain at the elite level of world football for a long time to come. A rough count on the training pitch yields at least 15 players who I know are completely committed to this football. Eleven of them will start the DFB-Pokal final.
Borussia Dortmund are in their best form of the entire season. Since they were beaten 3-0 by Real Madrid in the Bernabéu on April 2, they have not lost a single match and are playing mesmerisingly fast, direct football. They’ve played eight games in the last five weeks, winning seven and drawing one – 22 goals scored, seven conceded. Spectacular results. They’ve beaten Madrid 2-0 in Dortmund and trounced Bayern 3-0 at the Allianz Arena. They have twice defeated Wolfsburg (in the league and the DFB-Pokal) and put in superb performances against Mainz (4-2) and Hertha in Berlin (4-0). Dortmund come into this Cup final in peak form and as out-and-out favourites.
Pep, however, has other ideas. The hammer blow delivered by Madrid has actually made him stronger. He talks with even more conviction, as if it has convinced him to doubt himself less and believe more in his own ideas. Five days before the final, on Monday morning, he already has his team list. Robben will play down the middle, there will be three at the back, a diamond formation in the middle of the pitch and young Højbjerg will be in the starting XI. Mandžukić is dropped altogether.
Pep has had a look at all Dortmund’s recent matches and his analysis is clear: ‘When they beat us 3-0 in the Allianz they won only two corners. On Saturday they beat Hertha away, 4-0, and took only one corner. That’s no fluke.’
It is possible to conclude that this means Dortmund aren’t looking to open teams up down the wing and cross into the box. Instead they appear to be hunting for the ball, waiting for the break down and then piling forward down the inside channels in counter-attacks. What’s more, they always seem to finish a move with an effort on goal. This seems to account for the fact that Dortmund are winning so few corners. Inside channels and shots on goal. Dortmund have trained repeatedly and well on this. They close ranks defensively, try to bottle the rival up in the middle of the pitch, rob possession via clusters of pressing and then erupt into a fast counter-attack and a shot on goal.
Guardiola has thought up a very clear game plan for this final: three at the back, tight together to close the inside channels and the full-backs higher up, either side of Lahm at
pivote
. Kroos, Højbjerg and Götze will form a diamond shape ahead of those three with the latter asked to work hard flitting between the wing and a No.10 position.
Robben will be centre-forward. ‘Arjen must be sharp – very, very sharp. I don’t want him chasing the ball and pressing and running out of energy. And I don’t want any of this asking for the ball to feet – I want us running into space and demanding the ball there.’
On Monday, with his players fully recovered from their league title celebrations, Pep starts to rehearse the game plan with his men. Pizarro’s goal in the last second of the Bayern-Stuttgart match ended the Bundesliga campaign with a final victory to add to their record-breaking total of 29, with three draws and two defeats. They scored 94 goals and conceded 23 for a total of 90 points, 19 more than runners-up Dortmund and 26 more than third-placed Schalke.
They celebrated the title win in Munich on May 10, although it had been won in Berlin seven weeks earlier. So much has happened since then that the Hertha Berlin game feels like a distant memory but nothing can dampen the players’ euphoria as they celebrate with their traditional ‘beer shower’. Guardiola is the principal victim and he has put on his favourite red top for the occasion. Jerôme Boateng is the first to spray him with beer and Pep is only too happy to be drenched in the stuff: ‘I wanted us to celebrate big time. We deserved it. I loved every minute of that shower because of what it symbolised: we are the champions. No mean feat! This is my first Bundesliga and I am over the moon!’
A few minutes later, holding the trophy (just before it slips out of his hands onto the grass) Pep is drenched again, this time by Van Buyten, who has no qualms about chucking the beer at him from over two metres away.
Pep and all his players are soaked through, although Domènec Torrent somehow escapes the worst of it. Manel Estiarte manages to avoid the ‘beer shower’ altogether by sneakily attaching himself to Pep’s three kids. David Alaba comes towards him, beer in hand, but has to stop himself for the sake of the children. Estiarte has escaped his fate today, but if Bayern win the DFB-Pokal, it will be a whole different story.
Bayern party on and thousands of fans are treated to the spectacle of their players at their most jubilant. Pep speaks briefly from the balcony of the new rathaus (council buildings): ‘
Ich liebe euch. Ich bin ein Münchener.’
I love you. I’m a Munich man now.
He is following no pre-arranged script. This city has welcomed Guardiola with open arms and he is speaking from the heart.
By Monday the beer has all been washed away and it is business as usual – preparing for the final. Thiago joins the squad and instantly looks brilliant in the positional drills. The technical team are planning a few minutes’ match time for him.
Pep’s dream ticket is this diamond composed of Lahm, Kroos, Thiago and Götze. In February and March the latter two in combination had made the team soar. But, in the last move of the last training exercise, Thiago collapses. It’s his knee ligaments, which had seemed completely restored after four weeks of treatment in Barcelona followed by two weeks with the physios at Säbener Strasse. Things had been looking up for the player – he had been pre-selected by Spain for the World Cup and it looked like he could manage the last half hour of the DFB-Pokal final. But now there will be no Cup final, no World Cup for Thiago. All he has to look forward to is another operation. Behind him lies a year which had been full of possibilities, ruined by serious ankle and knee injuries caused by clashes with opponents. We have not seen the best of Thiago (he started 19 games) but the whole team has witnessed his determination not to give up and his commitment to help the team regardless of the personal consequences.
With neither Thiago nor Schweinsteiger (who has a damaged tendon in his knee), the coach picks Højbjerg to start the game against Dortmund. Ten months have passed since the pre-season training camp in Trentino, where Pep first spotted the young Dane’s potential.
He has worked intensively with the player throughout the year and now his time has come. During the last 10 months Højbjerg had not disappointed him once. Some days he had even turned up unannounced at the first team’s dressing room, pretending that he’d wandered over absent-mindedly. On those occasions Pep always gave him a hug and sent him out to train anyway. Fiercely loyal and desperate to learn, Højbjerg’s respect and passion for the coach is obvious.
‘Pep thinks about training in the now and for the future,’ says Højbjerg. ‘He wants to win today but he wants to keep winning tomorrow and that’s why he shows so much interest in us young players. It’s like he’s injecting his own tactical ideas in the team’s bloodstream. It’s not just about this week but for the future as well. In that respect he has gone much further than Heynckes. Pep doesn’t reduce his planning to mere preparation for the next game. Everything he does is underpinned by his passion and his philosophy. Heynckes was all about winning. Pep, too, wants to win today, but he wants the club to still be winning in years to come. And the team knows that we can be sure of great success over the next five years. We have the right mentality, the right character and we just need to learn to be more emotional if we want to play even better.’
In the last few weeks Højbjerg has been performing brilliantly and has been called up to play for Denmark in two friendlies, against Hungary and Sweden.
‘Can you believe it? Playing against Zlatan [Ibrahimovic]! And in my home city, Copenhagen! I can’t wait! And you know, there’s a little chapel I used to go to with my dad [his father passed away one month ago] just behind the stadium. My mum is delighted. And she’s coming to watch the Cup final in Berlin.’
At this point Højbjerg still didn’t know that Pep had decided to put him in his starting line-up against Dortmund, although it was pretty evident in the training sessions. Lorenzo Buenaventura had recently introduced strength-resistance exercises, but the training sessions were focused on tactics as the final drew near.
‘Pep is the best thing that could have happened to Bayern,’ Højbjerg says. ‘Last year the team was amazing and I was wondering how Bayern could get any better. Yet Pep has taught us new and better tactics in every training session, every day, in every video and team talk. We all knew that the team could play football, but if you improve tactically then your control of the ball gets even better. Bayern were at 99% of our full potential and Pep has added that crucial 1%.’