Pep Confidential (41 page)

Minutes later Thiago phones Buenaventura from the hospital with the diagnosis. ‘Nearly a total rupture of the ligaments, minimum eight weeks out. Bye bye World Cup.’

The fitness coach passes the news to Javi Martínez and they head directly to Thiago’s home to console him. Meanwhile there’s a misunderstanding which, even at this dark hour, causes a few smiles. Thiago calls his dad, Mazinho, a World Cup winner with Brazil in 1994, and tells him the diagnosis, but Mazinho doesn’t quite grasp the message and then phones Buenaventura, with whom he’s great friends, and says in a tearful voice: ‘Loren, I’m in pieces! Thiago’s injury is really, really serious – six to eight months out!’

Mazinho had understood the injury to be cruciate ligament damage, something which would take over six months to heal. Somehow it all makes Buenaventura and Thiago laugh at the mix-up and they calm Mazinho down, explaining that it’s not six months, but about six weeks. It is the only upbeat moment of a pretty dire evening. On the morning of Sunday, March 30, those players who drew 3-3 with Hoffenheim divide into two groups in training. One stays on the pitch, including Pizarro, who has slept badly. It was his first full 90 minutes of the season and he suffered bad cramps as a result. Others like Ribéry, Van Buyten, Schweinsteiger, Götze and Shaqiri get on their bikes and head round the city’s cycle tracks for half an hour.

Thiago and Pep meet with Doctor Müller-Wohlfhart to talk about the correct rehab for the injury. The doctor sets Thiago’s leg in a cast but the player insists that his treatment must be with his old surgeon, Ramon Cugat in Barcelona. There will be growth factor injected directly into the ligament.

‘I know that it hurts when this happens because it makes you feel like your skin is burning,’ Thiago says. ‘But I’ll just have to put up with the pain.’

On leaving the dressing room his team-mates wish him a speedy recovery. ‘Don’t be long Thiago, we need you,’ Neuer tells him.

‘It’s been a real bummer,’ says Thiago. ‘I was completely down in the dumps last night. But I found my strength again this morning. I’ve been here for breakfast with the rest of the team and my attitude is: “that’s one day less until I’m back.” Your mental attitude makes a big difference in how quickly you recuperate from something like this and now my head is in the right place. They tell me six-to-eight weeks, but I want to make it back in five.’

Pep makes Thiago a promise that he’ll make sure the team does everything to make it to the finals of the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League for him and Thiago promises that he’ll try to be back and ready for both dates. Of course, it’s not going to be easy for either to fulfil his promise.

55

‘ALWAYS PICK THE GOOD ONES. ALWAYS.’

Munich, March 29, 2014

THIS IS GUARDIOLA at his fascinating, volcanic best – post-match Pep.

Immediately after dealing with the media he goes to the players’ restaurant in the Allianz, takes a glass of champagne, spears a few cubes of parmesan cheese and spends the next half hour talking about the match.

Usually he stays on his feet or occasionally sits down at one of the tables. But, although he won’t have eaten all day, he’s nowhere near ready to eat yet. Once the game finishes he’s voraciously hungry but he’s still not in the right frame of mind to relax and eat the dish of marinated salmon he loves so much. First he needs at least 30 minutes to burn off the adrenalin accumulated not just during the match but over the previous couple of days. So he gets right down to it. He talks almost incessantly about everything that has happened during the match. Everything has stuck in his memory. ‘Did you see what Rafinha did in the 18th minute? He moved two metres inside and closed off the channel where they were queuing up to attack us.’

No, I hadn’t noticed any of that. Pep is blessed with an almost photographic memory which allows him to remember and analyse everything that has happened in the match. In this he resembles Rafa Nadal, a tennis star capable of recalling every shot and every point of his matches, his level of dominance or the error he or his opponent made and which moment was most significant. And all of this remains with him long after the match is over. Similarly, Guardiola remembers every move: how it developed, what happened, which players got involved and what the consequences were. On the other hand, he pays no attention to stats.

‘You didn’t have nearly as much possession – only 63%,’ I say to him.

‘Yeah, really? Wow.’

‘But Starke had more touches on the ball than any one of the Hoffenheim players!’

‘Wow. No way. That’s really good.’

Statistics don’t turn him on. What gets him passionate is the play itself and his post-match analysis of it.

‘Have you seen how smart Philipp [Lahm] is? How the guy turns and protects possession and also splits the opposition?’

Or: ‘I’ll have to speak to Kroos because against [Manchester] United he definitely won’t be able to try that move where he controls and turns to the right, because they’ll anticipate, rob him and start a counter-attack.’

He calls Planchart over to the table: ‘Carles, tomorrow morning get me a video of the 36th minute – the thing you mentioned to me. I want to show the centre-half how better to position himself.’

During this pretty amazing half hour, standing in his corner of the restaurant, gesturing wildly as if he’s still mid-match, Pep reproduces most of the preceding game. He breaks it down and it’s like he’s performing an autopsy. The skeleton is stripped of every muscle and tendon. He’ll analyse his players, the opposition, each phase of the game, every important move. He goes over how the goals happened – this involves him recalling exactly how the move started and developed and then tracking it right up to the point the ball actually went in.

Then his thoughts will turn to other matches. While he’s still doing his replay of this match, he’ll start to explain what the next one will be like, how he’s going to coach the team during the week, who is going to be rested – then he’ll spool back a bit, still eating chunks of cheese but with the champagne almost untouched, and he’ll agree with Torrent that before the next game they’ll have to practise a specific free-kick. There’s a hug for Robben, who has come over to say goodbye with his three lovely blonde kids. Pep reminds the Dutchman of the sharp little movement he produced with his right foot 10 minutes before the end and tells him to ‘do it more often please’.

Seconds later he’s praising the work of the Red Bull Salzburg coach Roger Schmidt and breaking down the way in which the Austrian champions play. How the forwards press, how the full-backs push on and the positions the attacking midfielders take up.

All the while he’s explaining this in such detail that you’d think his team is playing Salzburg tomorrow and I’m wondering why on earth he has gone off on this tangent.

But this is Pep, and two minutes later he’s changed tack and is talking about the little forward chip Iniesta used to put the ball over the two centre-halves and make them turn during the Barça-Espanyol game earlier this evening.

‘But when did you see that move?’ I ask him.

‘When I was waiting in the hall. What a marvel Andrés is. He’s a genius.’

This is Pep at his most passionate, and it is a joy to be around him. This half hour of champagne and cheese is the manifestation of his passion for football but it is also a lesson in foresight and pragmatism.

One night I’m accompanied by Patricia González, the very young coach of the Azerbaijan Under-19 women’s team. During the dinner Pep gazes at her and says: ‘Patricia, I’ll give you some advice: always pick the good ones. Always!’

The young coach then asks him a really good question. ‘Pep, who are the good ones? Is it the most famous players?’

‘No. The really good players are the ones who never lose the ball. Those who know how to pass it and who never lose it. They are the good ones. And that’s who you must always use, even if they are lower-profile than the rest.’

56

‘THE ESSENCE OF FOOTBALL IS WORKING OUT THE BEST WAY TO ATTACK YOUR OPPONENTS.’

Manchester, April 1, 2014

THIS IS THE third time this season Bayern have travelled to England on Champions League duty. In Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium they put on an exhibition of football, winning 3-1, and in Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, although they had struggled for the first seven minutes, they found their rhythm and won 2-0.

Bayern also dominate at Old Trafford, but victory eludes them. Manchester United have had a difficult season but today they defend with courage and pride and hold the German team to a 1-1 draw.

Bayern have got United holed-up in their own penalty area with six men behind the ball, which leaves them almost no chance of mounting counter-attacks. In one of the few they do achieve, Danny Welbeck gets a chance to run at Boateng, who is the last man. Boateng hesitates, perhaps conscious of the instruction Guardiola has given him about red-card tackles, and Welbeck is one-on-one with Neuer. Crucially, the German comes out on top.

With Lahm in central midfield and with Kroos and Schweinsteiger either side of him, Bayern take total control of the game. But they show some recognisably bad habits: the domination of the ball translates into too few clear chances; and Bayern’s capacity to finish those chances is far too low, a season-long tendency which is encouraged by the fact that so many of Bayern’s opponents pack their defence and leave precious little space. Ribéry is going through a quiet spell, leaving all the emphasis on the right side and Robben. Meanwhile, Schweinsteiger is much more important for his goals (another here marks his fourth in six games) than for his midfield play, which sometimes slows down Bayern’s game.

These are small indications that all is not well and overall Bayern storm through the game only conceding, somewhat surprisingly, a Nemanja Vidic header from a corner. ‘Surprisingly’ because up till now Bayern have lost only three goals from corner kicks all season: to Hertha striker Adrián Ramos, to Niklas Süle, Hoffenheim’s defender who puts away a rebound after a Neuer mistake, and Rafinha’s own-goal against Schalke. Three goals lost to corners in 45 competitive matches using one of Pep’s defining football principles, the zonal marking defence. ‘It makes your defence much stronger because each player just has to take care of his own zone and watch the back of the team-mate in front of him,’ says the coach.

Bayern are now accustomed to facing corners either with a 4-3-2-1 or 5-3-1-1 formation, depending on the rival. Lahm will usually push out to stop the opponent taking a short corner. The first defensive zone will always be occupied by those who are best aerially – normally Martínez and Mandžukić. Next the two central defenders and finally, at the back post, Alaba, who is the best at following the ball if he has to run backwards because the corner is taken long. Of course, this approach to defending is not foolproof and has its flaws, but Pep believes in it and certainly prefers it to man marking. ‘If you are man-marking, four opponents can make runs to drag your defence to the back post then they sneak someone in to score at the front post – or vice-versa. If you defend zonally this won’t happen to you.’

For Guardiola, this concept extends to the team’s entire playing style. ‘Zonal defending is much more effective than man marking. It’s so much simpler for a player to stick to his own zone. He knows he’s responsible for that area and that sense of individual responsibility then becomes collective responsibility and in turn strengthens team solidarity.’

For Pep, defending well is based upon about half-a-dozen good habits which, if trained repetitively, become automatic.

‘The essence of football consists of working out the best way to attack your opponent. You have to start the play, building from the back, with crystal clear understanding of how your rival likes to defend and attack.

‘You have to go over and over the most important ideas. Like, for example, how to defend against a particular opponent. We spend 20 minutes on this before every important game and tell the players how the other team will attack as well as instructing them on how to find spaces and where we can do some damage. The players trust the technical team completely because we’re usually absolutely correct in our predictions.’

In reality, Vidic’s goal is the culmination of a series of tiny mistakes on the part of the Bayern players and one player in particular fails to stick to the zonal marking system. It’s a symptom of the occasional lapses in attention creeping into Bayern’s game which, within weeks, will culminate in a catastrophic encounter with Real Madrid. United, however, concede a goal nine minutes later scored by Schweinsteiger, who finishes after Rafinha’s cross is knocked down for him by Mandžukić in the penalty area.

So Bayern leave Old Trafford with a result which bears little resemblance to the one which had been on offer to them. They firmly dominate the match but put away only one of the 15 chances they create. All the same, the game shows two interesting defensive innovations: for United’s throw-ins Lahm becomes a third centre-half while the full-back on the opposite side tucks in very tight, so that the half of the pitch nearest the throw-in is packed with Bayern players. Secondly, when United try to organise an attack Bayern push them towards one of the touchlines to shut them in via a pressing move which consists of players in the shape of an imaginary triangle, with Robben at the tip. Pep is willing to mob United’s ball carrier and leave the remainder of the pitch empty because he doesn’t think there is any danger of United exploiting it.

And so, the conquerors of the Etihad and the Emirates leave Old Trafford once more unbeaten and, with the league secured, inevitably begin to envisage another treble-winning season. But can they pull off this dream, this unprecedented utopia? No team in history has achieved two treble-winning seasons. Only Celtic, Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, Barcelona, Inter and Bayern have succeeded in winning the league, their domestic cup and the European Cup in the same season. And none of them have done it more than once. Neither, across two decades of competition, has any club managed to win the Champions League two years running.