Pep Confidential (47 page)

MP: ‘Pep has two more years on his contract. What do you expect of him during this time?’

KHR: ‘I believe that he can help change German football culture, regardless of the last three weeks and the fact that people have begun to try to devalue what he has achieved. Public opinion, which has always been behind him, is suddenly dragging him down amid claims that his philosophy is just not good enough. For me, the opposite is true. I’ve spoken to our longest-serving players, the guys who have had between five and seven coaches in as many years and they all say the same thing: Pep stands out – in a positive way. He has brought a rich variety of new ideas. This coach has complete credibility in the eyes of his players.’

MP: ‘Given the culture clash we’ve talked about, isn’t it strange that it has been the German players who have adapted best to Pep’s ideas? I’m thinking of Lahm, Kroos, Boateng, Neuer and Götze.

KHR: ‘Pep has already changed German football philosophy a little. I would have loved him to win everything this year for one reason – it would have convinced the public that his is a winning philosophy. It may be that German football has been too simple until now and football certainly can’t only be judged in terms of trophies. That approach can only be harmful. Two years ago we were runners-up in three competitions – the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League, despite the fact that we played the final at home. We ended up with nothing, but even back then I was not prepared to say that Heynckes had done a bad job. And then, of course, Jupp went on to win the lot the very next season. Only then did people say that he’d done a good job, because he had won everything. So what about the year before? You know, I was lucky enough to live and play in Italy for five years and I learned a completely different kind of football there.’

MP: ‘Are Bayern satisfied with Guardiola’s first year?’

KHR: ‘When I look back at the whole year, I am very pleased with the association between Pep and Bayern. First and foremost because I believe he is a great coach. He has clear ideas, a definite plan, his own philosophy and a range of tactics. And all those things have meant that he has achieved something we would not normally expect the year after winning the treble. The year after a successful season is always tough because the players are a bit weary and a lot less motivated. In 2001, after we had won the Champions League by beating Valencia the previous year, we really struggled. We ended up in third place in the league, were kicked out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals and didn’t even make it to the Cup final. That was such a disappointing season and Pep has made sure that we have avoided the same fate this year. Usually players’ motivation and desire dip after periods of great success but thanks to Pep we remained as hungry as ever. Of course, at the difficult times, like last Tuesday when we lost against Real Madrid, people are sorely disappointed and the press starts to criticise. But I don’t think we should pay too much attention to all of that. It’s important to maintain a global perspective on the whole season. Let’s not forget that just four weeks ago when we won the league title in Berlin, the same journalists were writing that the league had become boring since Bayern had been playing so well and were out of reach as opponents. And now suddenly we’re no good at all. We have certainly dipped in psychological terms and that has resulted in defeats. Obviously Tuesday’s result was painful but these things happen and they are understandable.’

MP: ‘Does that defeat inevitably affect your view of the whole season?’

KHR: ‘There’s a law in football which says that whoever won the Champions League last season cannot win it this year. Nobody knows why but that is the way it has been for 22 years now. We had hoped to change all that and rewrite the history books but it was not to be. To my mind the extent of a team’s stability is seen in their game, although obviously their successes – how far they go in the competition – are also important. Barcelona, during Pep’s era, and even before, were always a benchmark for me. They made it to the semis of the Champions League almost every year. And they tended to be in the finals of all the other competitions. That’s what really matters. And there’s something else. At the moment there are many teams performing at more or less the same level and there’s a fine line between success and failure. It can be as narrow as a missed call on a penalty by the referee, the tiniest mistake or the fact that a key player is injured. So really, as long as a team consistently makes it to the semi-finals of the competitions, then you know it’s a great team. Statistically speaking we’ve played 38 Champions League games in the last three years. We are No.1. Neither Real Madrid, nor Barcelona, nor Manchester United nor Chelsea have played more games than us.’

MP: ‘During the last three years the actual stats are: Bayern 38 games, Real Madrid 37, Barcelona 34, Chelsea 29 and United 24. If we look at the last five years we see that Bayern and Barcelona are drawn on 59 games against 57 for Real Madrid and 47 each for Chelsea and United.’

KHR: ‘The number of games is a good indicator of the team’s solidity. And we have done well this season, too, despite the awful defeat. Obviously the Madrid game is going to affect our judgment, but it’s also important for me to look at how we played against City and United in Manchester, against Arsenal in London and in the Bernabéu against Madrid. All of that is important, too. We need to be much more rational about these things. I’m delighted to have Pep as coach. He is enormously talented. I completely understand why he was so down after the Madrid game, but he is still a great, great coach.’

MP: ‘The 2015 Champions League final will be played in Germany [in Berlin]. Do you see 2014-15’s main objective as the Bundesliga?’

KHR: ‘Definitely. The most important trophy in any season is the league title, whether it’s in Germany, Spain, Italy, England or anywhere else. You have to play 34 games in the Bundesliga, so winning it proves your true worth. With the quality of football nowadays, all it takes is one bad day and you’re out of the Champions League. That’s what has happened here. In the league you could lose a game 4-0, but if you’re in good shape you can then go on to win the next 10 games. In the Champions League, it’s much more cut-throat. It’s certainly the biggest and most glamorous title, but the most relevant championship will always be the league.’

MP: ‘Bayern will have to take a decision: either maintain the team which has already won everything and has gone on winning or bring in fresh blood.’

KHR: ‘We need to be subtle about any changes we make. It will take sensitivity and intelligence. Sammer, our sports director, the coach and I have always tried to reach a consensus. We need to bear in mind the club’s financial responsibilities and proceed with caution. It would be foolish to allow our judgment to be affected by this latest defeat. If you had asked me that question five weeks ago I would have told you that there was very little we needed to change because the team was working well. We had won the league in record-breaking style; we were defending our Champions League title and were in the DFB-Pokal final. Now after this defeat the question has changed slightly, but I have always believed that when things go wrong, it’s better to go home, sleep on it and then come back to solve the problem quietly and calmly together.’

MP: ‘It’s clear that signing Robert Lewandowski will not be enough. You need another top-level player, a signing which will reinforce Bayern’s status as a behemoth nobody else can challenge – particularly within Germany.’

KHR: ‘Over the last 10 years Bayern have won half of the league titles and obviously there have been other champions. Dortmund have won it twice, Wolfsburg have won it, as has Stuttgart, a team who this year flirted with the relegation positions. Bayern are a powerful club and we work hard to maintain that strength and power in everything we do. We have a solid financial basis from which to develop and will therefore be able to make significant signings. But if a club allows a player to leave thanks to a previously-agreed clause, that’s not our problem. We are a bit unusual in Germany, it’s true. If we sign a Dortmund or a Schalke player or, in years gone by, a Bremen player, everyone writes the same thing: Bayern’s signing policy isn’t about reinforcement, it’s an attempt to weaken the opposition. But that’s just not true. Where else are you likely to find good players in Germany? Well, at the moment, in Dortmund and Schalke, in the teams that are strong enough to fight for the league title. It’s only logical and I’m sure the same thing happens in other countries. It happens every year, but I’m not going to keep justifying it. If a player like Lewandowski becomes free, it would be madness not to sign him. Otherwise he would have left Dortmund for England, Spain or elsewhere. We managed to convince him that Bayern was the best place for him. It would have been stupid not to approach Lewandowski.’

MP: ‘Is it true that Real Madrid tried to sign Lewandowski?’

KHR: ‘Yes, they tried to make a deal at the end of December 2013. We heard about it and immediately moved to close our deal. He is a talented striker and will be a great addition to the squad.’

MP: ‘If Bayern are shopping in the transfer market, does that mean your youth academy lacks quality players?’

KHR: ‘We like our youth-development players in Germany and we have our fair share here – Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Müller, Badstuber – homegrown players whom the fans adore. Pep will always look for in-house youngsters in order to realise his philosophy of the game, but our problem is that at the moment we don’t have six youth team players who are good enough to make the move up. In fact, we only have two right now. We need to improve what we’re doing so that those kinds of players emerge. That would be great for the team – in financial terms, too.’

Although Guardiola would explain later that next season’s planning will start after the DFB-Pokal final, he and Rummenigge met five days later, on May 6. Along with Matthias Sammer and financial director, Jan-Christian Dreesen, they would decide which players would be leaving and who they wanted to sign to continue their campaign to win as many trophies as possible.

63

MEA CULPA

Munich, May 1, 2014

VALENTINA IS PLAYING with a ball out on the grass at Säbener Strasse. It is the only light note of this Thursday afternoon. The team is back together after the disaster and, as is to be expected, all the faces are much more solemn than usual. The session is conducted with the same level of intensity as always. It’s about working to build strength in reactive movements and a game of the tiring double area drill which, after what has felt like an endless recovery process, Holger Badstuber joins. Thiago trains separately, doing sprints and turns over a short distance to strengthen his knee. From a distance you could be fooled into thinking that this is just another day.

Pep’s moment of fragility is over. Tuesday’s demoralised coach has disappeared and he is obviously feeling much better. ‘There are only two ways to react to this kind of situation. Either you let it throw you off your stride and are effectively finished, or you pick yourself up and make yourself even stronger than before. I’m going to go forward with more energy and conviction. I believe in this style of football even more now.’

He then spends the next few minutes delivering his
mea culpa
. I have told him that Tuesday’s game plan was a betrayal of his own philosophy, and, throwing caution to the wind, added that the resulting criticisms had been spot-on. He had left the key centre-of-the-pitch zone too empty and played in a manner which was contradictory to his firmly held ideas.

‘You’re absolutely right,’ he agrees. ‘That’s what happened and it was my fault. Instead of going with my own game plan, I went with the players’ suggestion, and I was wrong. It’s the second time I’ve done something like this. I did it in 2010 for the Barça-Inter game. I put a star player before my own game plan, thinking about the €60million he had cost us instead of following through on my own ideas. We would probably have lost to Madrid anyway because they are in peak form at the moment, but at least we would have played according to our philosophy and not produced such a mess.’

The coach takes all the responsibility and refuses to blame his players. It’s true that at least seven or eight had suggested that they approach the task of overturning the first leg 1-0 deficit by playing an all-guns-blazing attack. Pep recognises that his mistake was to agree with their suggestion: he had betrayed his own philosophy. On the most important day of the year he had used a game plan he didn’t believe in. ‘I can’t coach any other way,’ he insists. ‘These are my beliefs and although I don’t claim that they’re the best, at least they’re mine. And it’s my job to convince my players that we can achieve more using these ideas, as we have done this year in the league and elsewhere.’

However, as well as imposing his ideas, a coach has to take the decisions and can’t afford to worry about political correctness. Pep, at times, is too politically correct. As Philipp Lahm’s agent, Roman Grill said, you have to be prepared to shake up the established hierarchy in a team. You need to pick the guys who improve the whole team’s performance, as opposed to the big-name stars. Pep needs to make changes now, not next year, regardless of what people outside the club might say. To bring his proposition of positional play to fruition and to achieve maximum benefit he needs his midfielders to control and pass the ball still more rapidly and avoid holding on to it. He also needs his strikers to score more regularly when the play takes them into the opponents’ penalty box.

And if the club doesn’t support him in achieving these specific aims then the future won’t be as glittering as it had promised to be. ‘Next season, not only are we not going to take a step back from the demands of positional play, there’ll be even more of it,’ Bayern’s coach promises.

The defeat has been a disaster but it does not necessarily cast doubt on the efficacy of Pep’s playing style. They didn’t play like they had in Manchester and Leverkusen, nor like they had in February and March. Pep betrayed his own philosophy. He remembers how on the plane back from Madrid he had been happy with Bayern’s excellent performance (although they had been dreadful in the opponents’ penalty box). At that stage the plan for the return leg was to play with three central defenders and four in midfield. The 3-4-3. Then, once he had arrived in Munich, he began to think that a 4-2-3-1, which had worked well until April, would be better. And finally, on the Monday before the match, he had been carried away by all the positive energy at the club and agreed the suicidal 4-2-4 formation. The coach scribbles each plan on a piece of paper which he then rips into pieces as if he’d like it all to have been a bad dream.