pep guardiola

[supercrystal7]

Bayern's twitter quoting what Pep said about the match.

"The reason we lost is that we didn't play with the ball enough amongst ourselves.”

 

[lancs blue]

Bayern's twitter quoting what Pep said about the match.

"The reason we lost is that we didn't play with the ball enough amongst ourselves.”

They had 69% possession FFS - who exactly were they playing the ball amongst - the ball boys??

 

[nowantads]

He struggled with moyes' bus and you guys want him here? After he showed that he won't change the tactic no matter what?? Do you need reminder how half of the league play against city?

 

[Worst Case Ontario]

I am so glad they lost. Some weirdos started to believe that he is better than Mourinho, Ancelotti, Rednose and so on. All because he was lucky to have Messi in team that already had best players in world. And after that poor bastard was thrown into best club side in world, unbelievable coach indeed

 

[BigOscar]

He has gone backwards as a manager, getting too fixated on the possesion and not enough on the pressing that made Barca so good. For me, his best Barca team was the one that had physicality and directness with Eto'o, Henry and Messi as the front 3, then Yaya in midfield and the excellent Abidal at LB. He had success after that, but that was his best team imo, much harder to deal with than his more recent teams.

His complete disregard for any defensive structure beyond not letting the opposition have the ball is starting to make him look very one dimensional and very beatable. It makes you wonder what the rest of the Bundesliga is up to, do the worse off teams not park the bus? We get it every other week!

 

[ROCKET80]

Bayern were setup as a very direct team under Heynckes. Similar to Liverpool this season albeit with by far better players. IIRC Bayern met only 1 team who ‘parked the bus’ against them last season and that was BATE who beat them 3-1 in the group stage. The signs were also there the season before, in the manner of their defeat v Chelsea in the previous CL final.

When we met Bayern early in the season they were still playing direct football and we were adjusting to a new system and high defensive line. Our game in Munich almost mirrors that of the one at Anfield. They came flying out of the traps and went 2-0 up, after 20mins we were very much the better team only this time we went on to win (I’m sure we’d have won at Anfield too if not for Kompany’s mistake).

Bayern are weak in the middle of their defence (especially since the absence of Badstuber), they have no creative threat through the middle and lack a world class striker. Ancellotti is a very good manager and would have seen how a naff but well organised United side nullified Bayern and that they are prone to the counter. If Welbeck can cause them problems imagine what Ronaldo and Bale would do (and did).

I expect Guardiola to address a few issues with them during the summer, mainly at the back and add a creative midfielder. The striker situation has already been addressed with Lewandowski joining them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see both Muller and Robben leave as they don’t suit Peps system. Put players like Kompany and Silva in the positions I’ve highlighted below and they’d be phenomenal.

Neuer
Lahm Martinez CH? Alalab
Thiago Sweinsteiger
Goetze AM? Ribery
Lewandowski

 

[supercrystal7]

He has gone backwards as a manager, getting too fixated on the possesion and not enough on the pressing that made Barca so good. For me, his best Barca team was the one that had physicality and directness with Eto'o, Henry and Messi as the front 3, then Yaya in midfield and the excellent Abidal at LB. He had success after that, but that was his best team imo, much harder to deal with than his more recent teams.

His complete disregard for any defensive structure beyond not letting the opposition have the ball is starting to make him look very one dimensional and very beatable. It makes you wonder what the rest of the Bundesliga is up to, do the worse off teams not park the bus? We get it every other week!

Sadly the big clubs (not Dortmund obviously) are in the hands of awful managers like Keller. Bayern also had an incredible aura of invincibility so players panicked when they got chances and missed them. Even so the teams with good managers like Mainz and Gladbach run them close. It was clear that if the weaker teams in the Bundesliga could do that against them then a top CL team would destroy them.

I fully agree about the 2009 team being Pep's best team, but even then they required almost blatant match fixing to get past Chelsea. I wrote a long article about how he set about weakening Barca with his tactics and his buys after this point. Pep retuning to manage Guardiola would be like the Goat returning to manage City, except much more successful as a player. The clubs, players and fans were all on a high. Rjikaard's problems with the team were about motivation, discipline etc which Pep could fix. He also had the benefit of Rjikaard having bled Iniesta and Messi, 2/5 best players in the world.

 

[supercrystal7]

Bayern were setup as a very direct team under Heynckes. Similar to Liverpool this season albeit with by far better players. IIRC Bayern met only 1 team who ‘parked the bus’ against them last season and that was BATE who beat them 3-1 in the group stage. The signs were also there the season before, in the manner of their defeat v Chelsea in the previous CL final.

When we met Bayern early in the season they were still playing direct football and we were adjusting to a new system and high defensive line. Our game in Munich almost mirrors that of the one at Anfield. They came flying out of the traps and went 2-0 up, after 20mins we were very much the better team only this time we went on to win (I’m sure we’d have won at Anfield too if not for Kompany’s mistake).

Bayern are weak in the middle of their defence (especially since the absence of Badstuber), they have no creative threat through the middle and lack a world class striker. Ancellotti is a very good manager and would have seen how a naff but well organised United side nullified Bayern and that they are prone to the counter. If Welbeck can cause them problems imagine what Ronaldo and Bale would do (and did).

I expect Guardiola to address a few issues with them during the summer, mainly at the back and add a creative midfielder. The striker situation has already been addressed with Lewandowski joining them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see both Muller and Robben leave as they don’t suit Peps system. Put players like Kompany and Silva in the positions I’ve highlighted below and they’d be phenomenal.

Neuer
Lahm Martinez CH? Alalab
Thiago Sweinsteiger
Goetze AM? Ribery
Lewandowski

A lot wrong with his post.
Parking the bus did not work against Bayern last season for numerous reasons.
1. They were not afraid to shoot from range and having Shaqiri, Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Robben and Ribery meant you did not want them shooting
2. They passed the ball very quickly with great movement to open teams up
3. They had great width from the full backs and power in the box.

Bayern were nothing like Liverpool. People get carried away with the Barca game, which seems to be one of the few times they watched Bayern last season. They played a counter attacking game against Barca, but dominated possession in many others. They switched their tactics to beat the opposition that was in front of them.

Bayern have more than enough creative threat down the middle. They have Gotze, Schweinsteir and Kroos. Moving Kroos deeper is not a bad idea, but Pep took him too far back as a defensive midfielder. Pep also does not want them to play risky passes in case they lose the ball, which makes them look less creative.

Martinez is an awful centre back, just awful, but arguably the best defensive midfielder in the world. The team you put together is not only very weak, but would be destroyed down the middle.

They should have bought a centre back this year and kept Gomez. Should also have kept Gustavo and never bought Thiago.

Sadly Muller and Kroos will go and this Bayern team will be destroyed. The core German centre will be gone and Pep will leave next season leaving someone else to pick up the pieces.

 

[JGL07]

Bayern are effectively the architects of their own downfall.

They have systematically eliminated all domestic competition by picking off the best players from their rivals . They are now in an uncompetitive league and have deteriorated as a consequence.

Look at the competition in the Premier League and the Spanish League by comparison. It is quite possible that both championships could end up being the top two teams tied on points and settled by goal difference and head to head. Even with their recent wobbles, Bayern are 19 points clear of Borussia Dortmund.

 

[noise]

Bayern's twitter quoting what Pep said about the match.

"The reason we lost is that we didn't play with the ball enough amongst ourselves.”

They had 69% possession FFS - who exactly were they playing the ball amongst - the ball boys??

It's madness, I mean he took Mandzukic off at half time when they were 0:3 down as if they needed more ball possession. The opposite what he should have done which is doubled down on strikers. Then 26 minutes later he puts Pizzaro in? (Mario Gomez would have come in handy too had he not sold him).

Guardiola is obsessed with tiki taka. He took over a great team which won the treble (only team in history to do so), cherry picked players from rival teams and converted the team into a one trick pony which relies only on possession for both defense and offense. Playing such a team can be demoralizing to opposition and he probably gets a kick out of it so much so that he never even bother thinking about a plan B.

Ancelotti countered it with lightning transition and counter attack with: Benzema, Ronaldo, Bale, DiMaria and Modric and Bayern simply couldn't cope. They aren't faced with that much quality and speed on a regular basis and they just couldn't handle it, once they conceded from a set piece, it was almost too easy.