Former Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri has taken a swipe at Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola’s style of play and has claimed it’s not for everybody.
Speaking to Corriere della Serra (reported via Goal.com), the 52-year-old suggested you cannot be truly successful playing that way without the likes of Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Lionel Messi in your team.
“I’m seeing a great return for the counter-attack. We mistakenly followed Guardiola for 20 years. Guardiola’s football was not for everyone. You have to have Iniesta, Xavi and Messi. We took a subject that related only to them as a lesson for everyone.
Is Guardiola the greatest of all time?
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“When I hear [Arrigo] Sacchi talking bout keeping the ball and having pro-active attitudes, I don’t understand what he’s saying and it annoys me. Why should playing vertically not be pro-active football?
“I saw the games of Sacchi 20 times. I remember the one at San Siro in which Milan scored five goals against Real. They played direct. It was a vertical Milan, counter-attacking, which is not easy to do but when you manage it, it’s a great spectacle.
“Today I travel around, I see boy’s football, amateur football, I speak with the coaches and I hear things that scare me. They speak like printed books, like televisions. If the philosophies are good, why not use them? The problem is the result, which is the reality.”
TIF Tactics – Does Allegri have a point?
Given we have seen Pep Guardiola largely replicate his preferred style of football (that which we saw at Barcelona) with Bayern Munich and Manchester City, there were always going to be subtle differences simply because he hasn’t been able to take the same group of individuals with him.
Guardiola’s reign in Munich is often criticised based on his failure to lead them to Champions League glory but he did guide them to three Bundesliga championships and two German cups. At Manchester City, he has won two Premier League titles to date and led the Cityzen’s to three domestic trophies. It seems his philosophy is one that can indeed be successful even without the players Allegri mentioned – making the comments from the unemployed man wide of the mark.