„Sit down, nobody talk!“
"Sit down!“
But... we need to talk!
"Sit down!"
...about Pep Guardiola.
Pep is the best coach in the world. I think we would all agree on that.
Do we? Really?
It might be a coincidence that it didn’t work out so far in the Champions League.
But what if it wasn't a coincidence?
What if there was a reason for Pep losing the most important games.
Like ManCity losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League recently?
A game so important where teams need to push past their limits and outdo themselves.
If there was a reason, wouldn't that mean that we´ve been overestimating Pep all along?
Antonio Conte has described you this week as the best coach in the world.
...and that Pep is right when he says...
Thank you so much, but I'm not.
Now, there's one thing we all agree on: Pep Guardiola is a winner.
He just won his 32nd title by beating Liverpool to the Premier League trophy.
The 4th in 5 years.
32 titles! Only three coaches have ever won more.
Sir Alex Ferguson,
Mircea Lucescu,
and Valerij Lobanowski.
But unlike Pep, it took them their entire careers to collect so many titles.
Pep is still in full swing. In his 14 years as coach, he´s become a champion 10 times,
3 times at Barcelona.
3 times at Bayern.
4 times at ManCity. And he's not finished yet - so he'll top them all!
But does the number of titles make a great coach? Or does it take more?
Because these legends of the game don´t just have numerous titles.
They´ve written the history of their clubs:
Ferguson at Aberdeen FC and Manchester United
Mircea Lucescu at Shakhtar Donetsk
and the great Valerij Lobanowski at Dinamo Kiew.
And Pep Guardiola? Isn't he just writing his own personal history?
And simply continuing the history of his clubs?
That, too, is an achievement, to perpetuate success. But a feat?
Not when you've spent a transfer budget of 1.6 billion euros in 14 years!
Then...titles are a must.
If you always have the best ingredients,
you SHOULD be able to prepare a delicious meal, shouldn´t you?
But that's the thing as well. When we talk about, oh, it's easy because you can go and buy some of the best players out there.
It's not just getting these players. I'm ruthless with them. I want more.
And that's the standards that he continues to set at the club.
That's why Guardiola teams always prevail over a long season.
Machines with top components that perfectionist Pep has under control.
Don’t make faces. It’s the only thing I don’t want in my team.
I try to do my best, that’s all.
In a few years you can be a manager and you can do it. No problem.
But until now, guys. I am the boss and I decide.
The players are only required to implement his plan!
He leads them like pawns on a chessboard.
But that's also the problem: that the pawns remain pawns at decisive moments
when kings are needed.
They rarely rise above themselves. Always expecting Papa Pep to fix it.
And so, year after year, Pep Guardiola loses
knockout games of the Champions League.
Semifinal exit with Barca
Semifinal exit with Bayern
another semifinal exit with Bayern
and another one
first City, year it was over in the round of 16
then in the quarter finals
quarter finals
Once he reached the final
and the semis this year.
After the defeat in Madrid, the ex-City player and current TV pundit Didi Hamann said
Ancelotti and Klopp? Guardiola's leadership style differs from these two like day from night, doesn't it?
Could you imagine either one behaving like Pep did in this situation?
A company whose CEO is Guardiola!
A company with rather passive "man management".
Three days after the nightmare semi-final in Madrid, it looked like this:
You know these players really, really well.
What have you said to them in the last couple of days to encourage them I guess,
to put that behind them, what have you said to them?
Nothing, we didn’t speak.
You said nothing at all to them?
No...
No words can help to feel what everyone of us can feel.
So it’s just a question of time.
Guardiola leaves it to time to process defeats.
Others use these setbacks precisely to talk and grow together as a team.
A simple question you could ask yourself: who would you rather play for?
For Jürgen Klopp?
„Pep Guardiola is coming!“
For Pep?
Tomorrow I invite you. Tomorrow, because you have to rest.
In the evening with your families, switch on the TV and see Crystal Palace vs Arsenal.
...or for his arch-rival?
If you make a lot of noise I give one more day off!
My problem in Barcelona was one man and that’s the philosopher ...
... he was my problem.
I can just say, with Mourinho...I could go out and kill for Mourinho.
That’s the motivation he gave me, how he stimulated me
and with the other one, I mean, it was football, football but …
Yes, „football, football but …“
Eto’o said...
and Cesc Fabregas went...
Or in Munich. Dante...
The Frenchman Franck Ribery said ...
and Thomas Mueller reported...
Here at Bayern, even Dr. Müller-Wohlfahrt,
the long-time team doctor and Bayern legend, quit because of Guardiola,
only to resume his job under successor Jupp Heynckes after Guardiola had left.
Pep has clear ideas about what everyone should do and not do.
He's so relentless and ruthless in everything that he does.
He would not allow any of those players to be in a comfort zone.
...until his system is implemented.
And that system is always the same.
When I started to train in Barcelona in the second team, after Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now, the fundamentals are the same.
I win the ball and when they have the ball,
I go to win the ball as quick as possible.
Not all coaches put their system above everything like Pep.
Many colleagues don't need to.
Some simply take what they get. And make something out of it. Who, for example?
Do you remember the great Otto Rehagel, who turned a bunch of Greeks into European champions
and a newly promoted team into German champions?
Or the great Claudio Ranieri,
who led underdog Leicester City to the Premier League title, against all odds.
But could Pep Guardiola, promote Magdeburg from League 3 to League 2,
even though the squad is worth exactly 0 euros in transfer fees?
No, Pep Guardiola has never had to achieve against all odds.
He´s never had to make something out of nothing.
On the contrary, Guardiola can afford to throw away top quality ingredients,
like Yaya Toure, who he got rid of...
… first at Barcelona and then at Manchester City.
Or Joe Hart. Guardiola replaced his regular keeper ...
... with Claudio Bravo - who was then replaced ...
by Ederson after just one season.
It’s business...
...Pep would say.
Only he gets away with letting promising junior talents go.
...and with letting expensive players rot on the bench.
And after the whole world courted Erling Haaland for ages,
Guardiola's reaction could almost be understood as a threat to their new signing.
I´m pretty sure he’s going to adapt quick the way we want to play.
Have you spoken to him?
No…, not yet.
No contact? No chat about how Haaland, the classic number 9 striker, will fit into Pep's short passing system?
How will this work without communication? Will Haaland integrate?
Or will he become another very prominent Pep victim?
Isn't it funny that the two haven't spoken?
Well - maybe tomorrow.
So is Pep the greatest coach in the world?
Or ... is he just spoiled?
Like his idol Johan Cruyff, Guardiola started as a coach right at the top- at Barca, one of the biggest clubs in the world.
One could think, he might have benefitted from the struggle of the lower leagues…
Years that truly great managers have had, such as Rinus Michels,
FIFA's coach of the century and inventor of 'total football'.
He has coached in the amateur leagues for 12 years before joining Ajax.
Or Arrigo Sacchi, the inventor of pressing and ball-oriented spatial coverage.
It took him 24 years to master the leap from the amateurs and semi-professionals
to the big football stage at AC Milan.
Guardiola hasn't invented anything yet, not even his tiki-taka, he's just improved it.
Has Guardiola ever surprised us? Positively surprised us?
No, he's a one-trick pony who succeeds at super-rich clubs primed for success.
In domestic leagues that is. Beyond those, success is far less.
For big European competitions "Pep´s System" is not enough. .
WTF!