Jupp Heynckes signed off as Bayern Munich manager by completing the German treble, and winning the best club competition in the world, the Champions League. Pep Guardiola will be his replacement, a year after leaving Barcelona.
Guardiola’s record is immense, winning three La Liga titles, two Copa del Reys and two Champions Leagues, as well as a handful of other trophies in just four years. During his first season as Barcelona manager in 2009, he led the Catalan club to the first ever Spanish treble, and had been named as La Liga Manager of the Year for every season as Barcelona boss between 2009-2012.
However, whilst his accomplishments cannot be argued, you cannot ignore the quality of the squad he had at his disposal. Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Samuel Eto’o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic all played under Guardiola, and a team including players such as these should imaginably be winning at least one trophy a season.
During Guardiola’s tenure as Barcelona manager, Messi was named as World Player of the Year every year, and in 2010, the top three players were Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. You’d imagine it’d be hard not to win championships with players like this, playing the way they were three years ago. So who won Barcelona all their trophies, the players or Guardiola?
When Guardiola replaced Frank Rijkaard in 2008, he implemented his own brand of football; it has since been called “tiki taka”. One could analyse it as stifling the opposition with so much possession, they’d have no choice to crack under all the pressure and ultimately you’d get plenty of opportunities to score.
Although this style of play is sometimes boring, it was effective and perfected at the Nou Camp, and combined with the quality of players at the Catalan club, it helped them dominate European football. So it is fair to say that Guardiola got his tactics right at Barcelona.
But Bayern Munich don’t play that way, and under Heynckes, played with a 4-2-3-1 formation opposed to Guardiola’s preferred 4-3-3. They are an attacking side that look to get the ball in the opposition’s half and penalty area as soon as they can. Bayern also have greedy players who hog the ball, like Arjen Robben, who don’t always look to help the team. Getting Bayern’s current players to adapt to Guardiola’s preferred style may be challenging, but it is rumoured that he will have a large transfer budget, so may bring in players that suit his style.
One area that Guardiola did not quite master was controlling the egos at Barcelona. Instead of working to help an egotistical player, he simply sold them. Two names spring to mind; Ronaldinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It can be argued that neither Ronaldinho or Ibrahimovic perfectly fit Guardiola’s style of play, but by instantly selling Ronaldinho, it proved he wasn’t willing to work with him. Ibrahimovic was never going to fit Guardiola’s style, no matter how good a player he is. Zlatan claims he and Guardiola had heated rows at the Nou Camp, and despite the striker’s efforts, he and Guardiola never saw eye-to-eye.
So when it came to certain players, Guardiola’s man-management skills weren’t exactly great. However, he was adored by many of the Barcelona faithful, particularly those who were at the club when Guardiola was still a player. One of Guardiola’s first acts as Barcelona manager was to allow Messi to join the Argentina squad at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This helped Messi and Guardiola form an early friendship, and Guardiola had other friendships with those who had played with him previously at Barcelona and Spain.
When he arrives at the Allianz Arena though, Guardiola will be a stranger to all the players, and won’t have the instant hero status that may have helped him at Barcelona. When he does join though, he’ll inherit a seemingly unstoppable squad, and with a reported large transfer budget, could improve the current champions of Europe. When he joined Barcelona, he again inherited a great squad, including a couple of players that were to drastically improve (Messi and Iniesta). He is yet to manage a team without world-class players in it, so it is hard to measure whether or not he is a great manager, or just an average one who has been lucky to manage teams with superstar players.
His resume is incredible, but there are doubts about the ability of Pep Guardiola as a manager. Jupp Heynckes has set an almost unbeatable standard for Guardiola to match or eclipse thanks to the treble, and if Guardiola is unable to defend the Bundesliga and puts in a poor defence of Bayern’s Champions League, questions will certainly be asked about his coaching.
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