Kieran said:
He is a great coach, he's a maestro at setting up a side to stifle teams, but creatively, he's not remarkable. Having said that, I totally agree, this is a limited Chelsea side and he has major restructuring to do. Whether he's up to that or not, I don't know. The shine has long gone off The Special One, and his schtick is starting to look old.
By the way, they had a very good discussion about Pep on the Irish TV panel tonight, and the difficulty he faces at Bayern trying to make the tika taka work with players who are better deployed in a different way. Pep has brought Bayern backwards and he insists his "philosophy" won't change.
Full backs charging into the opposition penalty area and sauntering casually back when Bayern lose possession? :nono
Barcelona didn't lose possession so much. He either needs to change - or he needs to change the players, because what he's attempting is incompatible with the way these men play.
Both Jose and Pep are facing very interesting second seasons at their clubs...
Great points about Guardiola. My issues with him now are the same issues I've always had with him. He's a great coach, obviously. He is great at implementing a system and having players follow it, but as far as in match adjustments go, and tactical decisions, he leaves a lot to be desired. In other words, he only knows how to play one way and one way only. Admittedly, it's extremely difficult for teams to deal with it since they barely get a sniff of the ball, but once a team actually figures out how to play him, Guardiola is out of ideas and doesn't make any adjustments.
We've seen it throughout the years, with teams like Chelsea, Inter and even Mourinho's Real Madrid frustrating Barcelona only for Pep to insist on playing the same way, instead of trying a more direct approach.
Defensively, he's just not a great coach. It's not a coincidence that Bayern are all of a sudden vulnerable to set pieces. Anyone who's watched Barca for the past few years would note that they had the same problem (and still do). Moreover, Guardiola teams will always play with a high defensive line, leaving them extremely vulnerable on the counter (and Real Madrid tore Bayern to pieces in that regard). It doesn't help that he doesn't really know how to apply the offside trap properly. Additionally, Guardiola's insistence of relieving full backs of defensive responsibilities is a big problem, especially when you're playing against a team that possesses perhaps the two best wingers in the world in Ronaldo and Bale, and certainly the two quickest.
Guardiola's biggest problem, in my mind, is his dislike for traditional defensive midfielders. In modern Football, they are a must, especially if you're going to play such an offensive game and leave yourself vulnerable at the back. You need that one player that is going to cut the opponent off before they can really get on the counter, and you need that one (or even two) player that will cover for the full backs when they're out of position once the other team intercepts the ball and gets on the counter.
That's why defensive midfielders play such an important tactical role, but Guardiola prefers to ditch them in favors of more technically solid players who are better with the ball at their feet. The problem is, this creates imbalance. When you already have technically gifted players like Iniesta, Xavi and Messi, it's OK to have a defensive midfielder who's not quite as good with the ball. Guardiola's biggest mistake in Barca was letting Yaya Toure go. He gave them such balance (and actually turned into an absolutely world class player with City). Yes, Sergio Busquets is a great Footballer, but defensively, he's slow, has a poor sense of marking, and lacks the physical strength of someone like Toure. In some matches, Toure was badly needed for defensive cover and Busquets was exposed in that role. Case in point, taking Javier Mascherano -- one of the premier defensive midfielders in the world -- and turning him into a central defender just because Guardiola hates defensive midfielders and didn't want to bench him the entire season.
The same problem is now happening at Bayern, with Guardiola benching Javi Martinez (who was instrumental last year) in favor of more technically gifted midfield players. As a result, Madrid had a field day on the counter attack. I chuckled when Guardiola introduced Martinez at half time on Tuesday night. Here he was down 0-3 (0-4 on aggregate), and had to introduce a defensive midfielder (in place of a striker, Mandzukic), in fear of further humiliation. Well, how about starting him then, in order to try and avoid that humiliation to begin with?
As far as tiki-taka goes, you're absolutely right. Just because tiki-taka worked at Barcelona (and even there it was eventually figured out by many teams), it doesn't mean it will work at Bayern. Bayern are a phenomenal team. Their team last year is one of the best in history, both in terms of results and quality (I've rarely seen such ruthless efficiency). Yet Guardiola changed that, and had them play a less direct, slower possession based Football, thus limiting the effectiveness of players like Ribery and Robben (his two star players). As good as Bayern are, they're not technically on the level of Xavi, Iniesta or Messi, so tiki-taka is just not going to work as well (those short quick pass exchanges on the edge of the box in order to cut through a defense are nowhere to be found, for instance).
To be clear, I don't want to sound like I'm too negative on Pep. From 2009 up until the beginning of 2012, Barcelona were absolutely breathtaking. It was one of the most eye-pleasing brands of Football ever seen. But tiki-taka has its shortcomings, and Pep refuses to address them.
