Pep Confidential (18 page)

Instead Pep has asked for a small office separate from the dressing room and the club has provided him with one, a dozen metres away. It’s a spartan box with a red carpet, a little grey couch and a black desk. A small television and a whiteboard adorn the walls, which are otherwise totally bare. Before every match, water will be left in an ice bucket for him and there will be a bottle of white wine waiting after the match. There’s no paperwork on the desk, nor is there a computer. Pep keeps everything on his laptop. The room is small and austere, very much like his office at the Camp Nou. He has always preferred his work space to be separate from the players because he considers the dressing room their territory. In fact he only ever goes into the dressing room during the half-time break, when he makes a brief analysis of what has happened and explains what he wants in the rest of the match. You will never see him in there at any other time. Not before or after the game. As a player he was never happy when the boss invaded his space in the dressing room and since becoming a coach has held true to that principle.

Guardiola also likes some peace and calm before a match and appreciates being cut off from the boisterous atmosphere in the dressing room. He prefers to maintain a bit of distance whilst the physios bandage up ankles and Lorenzo Buenaventura leads the warm-up, always short and intense. Never longer than 20 minutes, it follows a strict sequence of exercises. Minutes before kick-off, Pep comes out of his office, goes down a short white corridor lined with enormous photographs of current players (Alaba and Thiago are first in line), goes down the 22 stairs in the long tunnel and finally climbs the last 15 steps to the bench.

His first Bundesliga has started.

The first game of the German league always takes place in the reigning champion’s ground. Today, Bayern’s opponents are Borussia Mönchengladbach. This has been chosen by the German Football League as the most attractive fixture for the first match of the new season. Jupp Heynckes was a legendary player for Borussia Mönchengladbach, and they were also Bayern’s opponents for his last match as coach. Now that Pep has taken over, the Bundesliga has decided to make a symbolic gesture by having the two sides meet for his league debut.

Guardiola is immaculately dressed in a grey suit. The checked shirt he has worn for his last few matches has been left at home today – an indication that his wife, Cristina, must already be installed in Munich. Over the months, we’ll share a few jokes on this very subject. Pep’s famous sartorial elegance is mainly down to his wife, heiress to the family-owned clothing boutique Serra Claret.

In planning the line-up that will kick off Bayern’s league campaign, Guardiola has had to bear in mind a couple of factors. Firstly, that Javi Martínez has started to experience discomfort on the left of his groin and probably should not start the game today. His second consideration is the fact that Thiago has had to manage his own pre-season training regime. The player arrived at Bayern with the minimum of physical preparation and then pushed himself too hard for the German Super Cup. Lorenzo Buenaventura has suggested that the midfielder spend three weeks in August getting fit and as a result he is not even part of the squad today. Left with too few midfielders once again, Guardiola has reluctantly turned to Müller. Bayern’s line-up as the Bundesliga kicks off is: Neuer; Lahm, Boateng, Dante, Alaba; Schweinsteiger, Müller, Kroos; Robben, Mandžukić and Ribéry. Bayern make up for the absence of Müller’s attacking power by placing the captain, Lahm, high up the pitch. The team is using a 3-3-3-1 formation, with Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Kroos in the centre of the pitch.

The men from Munich make a confident start and within 15 minutes are leading 2-0. Robben gets the first goal, a deft touch on a Ribéry ‘
allez oop’
. The second goal is Mandžukić’s. Robben takes a free-kick from the touchline, eight Mönchengladbach players defend three Bayern players in the box.

This symbolizes another of Pep’s idea. Arrive in the penalty box, don’t crowd it. With his team in flying form Pep gets a surprise. There isn’t a Bundesliga rival who is not excellent on the counter-attack. With half an hour gone, Neuer saves a powerful Max Kruse shot and then Dante knocks in an own-goal off a Juan Arango cross. The first goal against Bayern goes past Neuer from a team-mate. The result isn’t really in jeopardy, but Guardiola’s defence still leaves the coach less than content – particularly Alaba. Every time he is attacked he drops back and allows the opposition to get into the Bayern half without the least resistance, instead of pressing to rob possession. He is doing exactly the opposite of what Guardiola has asked for during the last seven weeks: cut off counter-attacks at the source so that the opposition don’t make it into Neuer’s area. One of his best defenders seems to have forgotten everything he’s learned and it will take weeks for him to correct his mistakes. Alaba then converts a penalty for another goal. By then it’s playground football with both teams streaming up and down the pitch.

Pep keeps scratching his head. He asked for control and intelligence, nous until reaching the middle of the pitch and then direct, speedy attacking.

Bayern are not controlling the game or the ball and instead are running helter-skelter up and down the park. It is enough to beat Mönchengladbach comfortably, but it leaves the coach with a bitter taste in his mouth. This is not what he expected from his men.

Bayern win two penalties. The nominated taker, Müller, takes the first. Ter Stegan guesses which way he is going to shoot and saves. But the Spanish defender Álvaro Domínguez, who gave away the first penalty by using his right arm, now uses his other arm to divert the ball and this time Alaba scores from the spot, inaugurating an era during which penalties will be a much-talked about subject at Bayern.

Guardiola, though not terribly happy, has won his debut Bundesliga match, just as he won his first cup game a few days ago, 5-0 at BSV Rehden in Osnabrück. He will also take a victory from the friendly against Hungarian champions, Györi ETO next Sunday, when Mario Götze will make his first brief appearance of the season. After that the internationals in his squad will be called up to play the traditional mid-August friendlies. Pep will spend those days working with the youngsters in the second team and reflecting on how to improve the dynamics of the first team.

His second Bundesliga match is not much of an improvement. Bayern beat Eintracht in Frankfurt with a majestic volley from Mandžukić, the 39th consecutive game in which they have scored. Although they have beaten the club record of 27 games without losing (which dates back to the 1985-86 season) they continue to allow the opposition to easily move the ball into attacking positions without the high, aggressive pressing which Guardiola is looking for.

This time the coach tries Shaqiri in midfield with Schweinsteiger and Kroos, but it’s no better in terms of controlling the possession or the match. While Bayern batter their opponent’s goal, brilliantly defended by Kevin Trapp, they give away cheap counter-attacks and look fragile defensively.

The coach is not at all happy, despite the scores. Bayern have not yet managed to achieve a consistent, steady rhythm of play. Guardiola seeks this control as it leaves less to chance. He likes his men to be running exactly where he has planned so that the whole team are completely secure about what is happening and risk is reduced to a minimum. This is the reason he insists on concepts like playing out from the back, and pressing a counter-attack instantly.

Playing out from the back is not about passing the ball for its own sake, it is to advance the lines of the team. Right now Bayern are almost always passing the ball without advancing, the ball’s movement drawing out a U shape: from Lahm to Boateng to Dante to Alaba, sometimes with Schweinsteiger back amongst them, five of them passing the ball to each other without advancing the team or pushing the opposition back. For Guardiola, playing out from the back implies aggression – crossing the opponents’ lines without fear of the big space Bayern’s back four are leaving behind them. For Guardiola this is essential. He learned it from Johan Cruyff. ‘If you bring the ball out well initially,’ the Dutchman would say, ‘then you’ll play well. If you don’t do that then there’s no chance of playing well.’

Cruyff always believed that equilibrium in team play resided in control of the ball. Lose the ball less and there will be equilibrium in your play. For Pep it’s a precept. His team must drive forward from the back – as one, without fear – to try to breach the opponents’ lines of attack and midfield without losing possession.

Guardiola is asking a lot. In fact, he wants it all.

He leaves Frankfurt frustrated and feeling that he still has a long way to go. The players give the impression that they understand what their coach wants but are not managing to implement his instructions consistently. If they play it out from the back, perhaps they won’t be capable of pressing high up and avoiding the counter.

They start concentrating on holding on to the ball, but then lose their aggression. Guardiola keeps scratching his head, which is what he does when he is worried. As they’re travelling back to Säbener Strasse, a member of the technical team reminds him of what they were talking about 10 days ago.

‘Winning the Bundesliga. That’s the season’s objective. Winning the Bundesliga.’

22

‘I LOATHE ALL THAT PASSING – THAT
TIQUITACA
.’

Munich, August 24, 2013

PEP TUCKS INTO a a starter of pureed potatoes, with obvious pleasure. He looks like he hasn’t eaten anything since last night and, when I ask, he nods. He can’t eat a thing on matchdays.

It’s Saturday night and it’s pouring. We are having dinner with his first group of visitors: some friends from New York and others from Barcelona. They’ve all been to the Allianz Arena to watch Bayern beat Nürnberg in a bad-tempered Munich derby. It was a strange match, generating ambivalent feelings. A match in which Götze made his debut and Thiago was badly injured. He just phoned to ask us to wait for him before we eat, but then 12 minutes later calls back to tell us he won’t make it. His foot is too painful for him to come out and he’s going to stay in the hotel. He’ll undergo an ankle operation within a matter of hours.

Bayern were dreadful in the first half. It’s as if the players want to please Pep by making sure they pass the ball, one of the group remarks, which immediately sets the coach off on one of his long explanations. ‘I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that
tiquitaca
. It’s so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition’s goal. It’s not about passing for the sake of it.’

Pep’s three kids and the children from New York are all hungry, but they have to make do with the pureed potatoes. Their father has told them that they must wait for their Barcelona friends to arrive. This is the first visit he’s received, apart from family members, since he arrived in Munich two months ago. This strikes me as pretty surprising and emphasises the apparent indifference towards Guardiola now felt by a Barcelona that once idiolised him. This situation won’t change much throughout the season, either in terms of Pep’s friends and acquaintances or the Spanish and Catalan press who are not sufficiently interested to send journalists to Munich to find out first-hand what the coach is doing.

Pep spends much of the dinner sharing his thoughts and feelings. He talks about the similarities and differences between Barça and Bayern, enjoying the opportunity to express the worries he was struggling with two months ago. The Nürnberg match has been the perfect culture medium for him: dreadful at the start and explosive at the end. Everyone at the table wants to know what he said to his players at half-time to make them completely change the quality of their game. ‘Not very much. Just four words: What
are
you DOING!?’

He told them to loosen up and let themselves go and reminded them that not once in his two months in charge had he asked them to play like Barça. He insisted that he had never asked them to play like that just to please him, and pointed out that the people they needed to please were the 71,000 fans who fill the Allianz week in, week out. All Pep asked his players to do was lose any self-consciousness and be themselves.

‘I just want them to start off moving forward together for a few metres so that, if we lose the ball, the opposition can’t take advantage of our lack of unity. Every team in Germany is capable of mounting a counter-attack before you’ve had the chance to even breathe and if we lose our unity it gives them a chance to break through and make chances.

‘The only thing I want is that if Dante hits a long, diagonal ball to Robben, he doesn’t attempt it from in or around our own penalty box, but from a position around the centre of the field, once we’ve played up there. If Robben then loses the ball we are all up there relatively close to him and we can win it right back without a problem. But if Dante launches the ball too soon and Robben loses it then we are all straggled out and – pam! pam! – the opposition will certainly hit us with an effective counter-attack.’

As he talks, Pep throws his arms about just as he does when he’s on the bench. It feels like he might at any minute demand that we all get up and take our positions on the imaginary football pitch, here in the restaurant. He grabs his American friend by the arm and says, ‘Bastian’s [Schweinsteiger] DNA is pure Bayern. You can see his body demanding that he keep running up and down the pitch. I love that.’

‘But in that case,’ interrupts one of his Barcelona pals ‘how do you get the nous and patience in the play you want, with that very same German DNA?’

Guardiola replies: ‘Once they’ve moved as a unit to the middle of the field, that’s when I want them to be more Bayern than ever. I want them to dig into that DNA, let themselves go, run, liberate themselves. That’s where they excel. They like running, they love it. And I love to see them doing it. Let them run. Let them open up the wing play and cross into the box. Not necessarily to hit the goal every time on the volley – that’s hard to achieve – but so that we can take advantage of rebounds off the keeper, of the second ball – that is where we create most danger. If we play like that jointly then the rebounds will fall to us and the extra danger we create is that the defenders are wrong footed and on the turn while we are running on to the chance. That’s what I’ve told them to do. That’s what I want.’