Skoorb
Alert Team
Having attempted to consolidate these profile threads and failed miserably I will have to revert to re-posting them independently.
The time is near. Pep Guardiola will soon be making his first team selection for Manchester City F.C. and so here, posted earlier in the close season, are the series of threads on the background of our new manager.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After the recent wave of Maureen-mania by a media obsessed with the narcissistic, self-absorbed, egotistical, arrogant, smug man who finds himself in charge of a team from just outside Manchester and out of the Champions League, it is perhaps a good time to continue VMC's profile of City's new coach.
He may be a perfectionist but once again he is a nicer man by far.
Pep Guardiola - a profile
Part Three - Outside the comfort zone: The sabbatical & Bayern Munich (2013-16)
After departing from Barcelona, the club where he had spent 28 years as a player and coach, Guardiola moved to New York where he undertook a year long sabbatical.
He had been in charge of one Europe’s top clubs for four years during which he achieved an unprecedented level of success in a pressure cooker environment. It was hardly a surprise that he needed to take a break from football and in Pep’s words “recharge my batteries”.
With his wife, former model Cristina Serra & their three children, Marius, Maria and Valentina he enjoyed a year away from ‘the beautiful game’ in a city which offered many distractions. Not least of these was because New York was distant from the relative intensity of the football faith and one of the few places in the world where he was not well known ensuring that he was genuinely able to spend more time with his family.
In January 2013 he announced that he had signed a three year contract with the most successful club in German football, Bayern Munich. This was no small step. Bayern Munich was a club that was run in the main by former players with long histories of attachment to the club and which had a clearly defined identity both on and off the field. The question was - could he do at Bayern what he had done at Barcelona?
The doubters cited that at his former club he had stumbled upon a spectacularly talented set of players - “with that lot, who couldn’t succeed?” went the familiar jibe. But the core of the team he inherited had done nothing for two years & his legacy on his departure was unparalleled - 14 trophies in the four years, a brand of football that blew the world away, founded on a team spirit which doesn’t just evolve out of thin air. He had pulled off an astonishing feat at Barcelona achieving what every coach at every level knows to be the real measure of success: extracting the very best from what you have and making your players even better. Could he do that again away from the comfort zone of the club he had been at since the age of 13?
His tenure in the Bundesliga had a mixed start with defeat against Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup (the equivalent of the Community Shield) but victory over Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea to secure the UEFA Super Cup. By Christmas he had won the Club World Cup for the third time and was on his way to breaking records in the league and at the club achieving the longest winning streak in Bundesliga history - 28 games (part of a 53 games undefeated streak) - on his way to delivering the league title with seven matches remaining beating the record set by his predecessor, Jupp Heynckes. They finished the league campaign on 91 points - 25 points ahead of their nearest rivals Dortmund. This first season in charge did not end in European glory as it had done at Barcelona. Drawn against Real Madrid in the semi finals of the Champions League Guardiola tasted the bitterness of defeat in both legs and in doing so lost for the first time at the Bernabeu stadium. He took responsibility for the loss citing a decision to play 4-2-4 in the second leg when he had not deployed the team in that formation previously all season.
The 2014/15 season started in the same way as his first at the club - with defeat to main Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup. His team went on to secure the league title for the second season in a row again ahead of Dortmund who had narrowed the gap to 19 points….. Taking the club to their fourth consecutive Champions League final Guardiola found himself faced with his old club Barcelona. Once again he was unable to deliver success losing the away leg 3-0 with his side failing to get a shot on target and then the home leg 3-2. He had coached his previous side too well it seems, again gambled with a change in the system his team was to play in deploying three defenders against Suarez, Messi and Neymar. It was a harsh lesson to learn.
His final season in charge at Bayern saw them once again secure the league (this time only 10 points ahead of Dortmund) not losing a game in all competitions until late October and remaining unbeaten in the league until early December. But once again Guardiola was to taste defeat in the Champions League semi final and for the second year running against Spanish opposition in the shape of Atletico Madrid. Despite his domestic success to many Bayern Munich fan the inability to take their club to the final of Europe’s elite club competition will probably see many of them recognising his achievement as being. sufficient but not stellar. Whilst at Bayern Guardiola won three league titles, a German Cup, the World Club Cup, the Uefa Super Cup and has reached the last four of the Champions League three times. It’s an impressive record but not everyone agrees that it is a job well done. They would argue that Bayern are expected to win the league and cup most seasons and point out that few fans are truly excited by the World Club Cup and the Uefa Super Cup. For Bayern and a few other clubs, success is – rightly or wrongly – measured on the Champions League, and for some onlookers, three semi-finals constituted a failure.
But in his time at the German club Guardiola has shown that he can adapt as a coach. Stripped of the talents of the incomparable Messi he worked with the players that he had available to him and emphasised a wing-based attack rather then the centrally focused passing that had been employed at Barcelona. Developing Ribery, Robben, Lahm & Goetze he also brought in players such as Lewandowski - an outstanding talent and now one of the most coveted strikers in Europe - whose role included dropping deeper to help in build up and move laterally creating space. He looked to move the ball more quickly to attacking players whose job was to isolate & beat defenders one-on-one. He rejuvenated Xabi Alonso’s career utilising his passing ability from a deep lying position to this effect and brought in young, dynamic wingers such as Diego Costa and Kinglsey Komen. This approach was backed up on an aggressiveness in regaining the ball and overall possession requiring a work ethic that requires serious effort from players but also risks a high injury rate. It created a domination of the ball as a defensive tool - keeping the ball away from the opposition as long as possible and when this possession is lost, isolating opponents and putting them under pressure so that they cannot create opportunities to attack.
Can Guardiola bring to City what he brought to Bayern and Barcelona before that: a maximisation of the team's strengths and protection from its weaknesses?
Strange formations. Lots of goals. A high possession rate. Fluid play that requires intense effort. Manic episodes on the touchline (a bit of a hark back to the Mancini era following the calmness exhibited by Pellegrini). Domestic titles. And barring another match-up against Barcelona, a possible Champions League victory.
Manchester City FC have taken perhaps their most significant turn on the roadmap laid out by the owners after they took over the club in 2008. They have acquired the services of one of the most coveted coaches in world football.
The question is - what can the club, players and fans expect when Pep Guardiola arrives to take over at the Etihad?
In the final profile in this series of articles on City’s new coach we will look at his footballing philosophy and what drives him to success.
Exciting times Blues!
The time is near. Pep Guardiola will soon be making his first team selection for Manchester City F.C. and so here, posted earlier in the close season, are the series of threads on the background of our new manager.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After the recent wave of Maureen-mania by a media obsessed with the narcissistic, self-absorbed, egotistical, arrogant, smug man who finds himself in charge of a team from just outside Manchester and out of the Champions League, it is perhaps a good time to continue VMC's profile of City's new coach.
He may be a perfectionist but once again he is a nicer man by far.
Pep Guardiola - a profile
Part Three - Outside the comfort zone: The sabbatical & Bayern Munich (2013-16)
After departing from Barcelona, the club where he had spent 28 years as a player and coach, Guardiola moved to New York where he undertook a year long sabbatical.
He had been in charge of one Europe’s top clubs for four years during which he achieved an unprecedented level of success in a pressure cooker environment. It was hardly a surprise that he needed to take a break from football and in Pep’s words “recharge my batteries”.
With his wife, former model Cristina Serra & their three children, Marius, Maria and Valentina he enjoyed a year away from ‘the beautiful game’ in a city which offered many distractions. Not least of these was because New York was distant from the relative intensity of the football faith and one of the few places in the world where he was not well known ensuring that he was genuinely able to spend more time with his family.
In January 2013 he announced that he had signed a three year contract with the most successful club in German football, Bayern Munich. This was no small step. Bayern Munich was a club that was run in the main by former players with long histories of attachment to the club and which had a clearly defined identity both on and off the field. The question was - could he do at Bayern what he had done at Barcelona?
The doubters cited that at his former club he had stumbled upon a spectacularly talented set of players - “with that lot, who couldn’t succeed?” went the familiar jibe. But the core of the team he inherited had done nothing for two years & his legacy on his departure was unparalleled - 14 trophies in the four years, a brand of football that blew the world away, founded on a team spirit which doesn’t just evolve out of thin air. He had pulled off an astonishing feat at Barcelona achieving what every coach at every level knows to be the real measure of success: extracting the very best from what you have and making your players even better. Could he do that again away from the comfort zone of the club he had been at since the age of 13?
His tenure in the Bundesliga had a mixed start with defeat against Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup (the equivalent of the Community Shield) but victory over Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea to secure the UEFA Super Cup. By Christmas he had won the Club World Cup for the third time and was on his way to breaking records in the league and at the club achieving the longest winning streak in Bundesliga history - 28 games (part of a 53 games undefeated streak) - on his way to delivering the league title with seven matches remaining beating the record set by his predecessor, Jupp Heynckes. They finished the league campaign on 91 points - 25 points ahead of their nearest rivals Dortmund. This first season in charge did not end in European glory as it had done at Barcelona. Drawn against Real Madrid in the semi finals of the Champions League Guardiola tasted the bitterness of defeat in both legs and in doing so lost for the first time at the Bernabeu stadium. He took responsibility for the loss citing a decision to play 4-2-4 in the second leg when he had not deployed the team in that formation previously all season.
The 2014/15 season started in the same way as his first at the club - with defeat to main Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup. His team went on to secure the league title for the second season in a row again ahead of Dortmund who had narrowed the gap to 19 points….. Taking the club to their fourth consecutive Champions League final Guardiola found himself faced with his old club Barcelona. Once again he was unable to deliver success losing the away leg 3-0 with his side failing to get a shot on target and then the home leg 3-2. He had coached his previous side too well it seems, again gambled with a change in the system his team was to play in deploying three defenders against Suarez, Messi and Neymar. It was a harsh lesson to learn.
His final season in charge at Bayern saw them once again secure the league (this time only 10 points ahead of Dortmund) not losing a game in all competitions until late October and remaining unbeaten in the league until early December. But once again Guardiola was to taste defeat in the Champions League semi final and for the second year running against Spanish opposition in the shape of Atletico Madrid. Despite his domestic success to many Bayern Munich fan the inability to take their club to the final of Europe’s elite club competition will probably see many of them recognising his achievement as being. sufficient but not stellar. Whilst at Bayern Guardiola won three league titles, a German Cup, the World Club Cup, the Uefa Super Cup and has reached the last four of the Champions League three times. It’s an impressive record but not everyone agrees that it is a job well done. They would argue that Bayern are expected to win the league and cup most seasons and point out that few fans are truly excited by the World Club Cup and the Uefa Super Cup. For Bayern and a few other clubs, success is – rightly or wrongly – measured on the Champions League, and for some onlookers, three semi-finals constituted a failure.
But in his time at the German club Guardiola has shown that he can adapt as a coach. Stripped of the talents of the incomparable Messi he worked with the players that he had available to him and emphasised a wing-based attack rather then the centrally focused passing that had been employed at Barcelona. Developing Ribery, Robben, Lahm & Goetze he also brought in players such as Lewandowski - an outstanding talent and now one of the most coveted strikers in Europe - whose role included dropping deeper to help in build up and move laterally creating space. He looked to move the ball more quickly to attacking players whose job was to isolate & beat defenders one-on-one. He rejuvenated Xabi Alonso’s career utilising his passing ability from a deep lying position to this effect and brought in young, dynamic wingers such as Diego Costa and Kinglsey Komen. This approach was backed up on an aggressiveness in regaining the ball and overall possession requiring a work ethic that requires serious effort from players but also risks a high injury rate. It created a domination of the ball as a defensive tool - keeping the ball away from the opposition as long as possible and when this possession is lost, isolating opponents and putting them under pressure so that they cannot create opportunities to attack.
Can Guardiola bring to City what he brought to Bayern and Barcelona before that: a maximisation of the team's strengths and protection from its weaknesses?
Strange formations. Lots of goals. A high possession rate. Fluid play that requires intense effort. Manic episodes on the touchline (a bit of a hark back to the Mancini era following the calmness exhibited by Pellegrini). Domestic titles. And barring another match-up against Barcelona, a possible Champions League victory.
Manchester City FC have taken perhaps their most significant turn on the roadmap laid out by the owners after they took over the club in 2008. They have acquired the services of one of the most coveted coaches in world football.
The question is - what can the club, players and fans expect when Pep Guardiola arrives to take over at the Etihad?
In the final profile in this series of articles on City’s new coach we will look at his footballing philosophy and what drives him to success.
Exciting times Blues!
