Pep Guardiola's Bayern

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Surely they won't sack him? His record is ridiculous, it was just a really bad game in what is, seemingly, a poor run of form. They were looking unbeatable until around the time we faced them in the CL. Then they seemed to dip a little bit. Either way, I find it incredibly tedious to watch. The lack of Messi is probably significant. They just have no real penetration. Ribery is out of form so that doesn't help. He definitely needs to improve his CBs and his defensive system. I get his way of defending is to keep the ball and to press really high when they lose it, but he needs to cover his two CBs better - they get exposed badly.
 
Surely they won't sack him? His record is ridiculous, it was just a really bad game in what is, seemingly, a poor run of form. They were looking unbeatable until around the time we faced them in the CL. Then they seemed to dip a little bit. Either way, I find it incredibly tedious to watch. The lack of Messi is probably significant. They just have no real penetration. Ribery is out of form so that doesn't help. He definitely needs to improve his CBs and his defensive system. I get his way of defending is to keep the ball and to press really high when they lose it, but he needs to cover his two CBs better - they get exposed badly.

According to UEFA statistics, they were restively sluggish last night. They run 10km less than their peak, and 5km less than there average, which includes matches against GS cannon fodder and a game against 10-man Arsenal.


http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/ucl/2014/2011881_ts.pdf
 
@Balu

Do you think Pep will remain Bayern Munich manager for next season? I think he will not, everyone is blaming him for the humiliation.
I think Atletico will win the double, Real will fire Ancelotti for loosing the CL final and the league, Chelsea will fire Mourinho for playing boring football and winning nothing, Bayern will announce tomorrow, that it was a huge misunderstanding and Guardiola will leave at the end of the season. And all three managers will cry when Ferguson announces that United made the decision to keep Giggs as the longterm manager.
 
I think Atletico will win the double, Real will fire Ancelotti for loosing the CL final and the league, Chelsea will fire Mourinho for playing boring football and winning nothing, Bayern will announce tomorrow, that it was a huge misunderstanding and Guardiola will leave at the end of the season. And all three managers will cry when Ferguson announces that United made the decision to keep Giggs as the longterm manager.

Why no Klopp cry :mad:
 
Why no Klopp cry :mad:
Why would Dortmund fire Klopp after his team destroyed Bayern in the cup final? Giggs is the man to make those 2 time CL winning managers cry.
 
Nobody will sack Guardiola. wtf are some of the caftards thinking? Nobody from the club is scapegoating him either. They are already rallied behind him. The season isnt bad at all, especially when we can win the cup final against Dortmund. The semifinal in the CL is no "OMG so great" mind-blow achievement, but realistically speaking its a success. There are about 8-12 clubs who want to get to this round and only 4 can do it. No reason to be ashamed. We lost against a better team.

the two main reason why we lost today:
1) Real played great. They deserve to be in the final.
2) Many of our players played far from their best. Schweinsteiger, Ribery, Mandzukic, Müller, Boateng and to some extend Lahm underperformed. Robben alone cant do it.
Its annoying, that the performance drop came at the wrong time, but its not really surprising either. The team performed since the "Finale dahoam" (CL final at home/AllianzArena) campaign (11/12) on a incredible level. Most players dont even perform a whole season at their best level.

Yes there are also some minor tactical things, that Pep should think about (at least in my mind), but to write of "TikiTaka" is ridiculous.

Probably already been said, but despite it being a feat and a half, the winning of the Bundesliga so early was Bayern's downfall in my opinion. You hadn't played enough competitive games since and probably suffered a little bit from believing all the hype around Bayern being the greatest club the world may ever have seen. Against what was essentially a very below par United, you struggled to break us down and were reliant on United's individual errors to provide you good goal scoring opportunities. Real made no such errors and played a perfect game last night which Bayern had absolutely no answer to. There was no urgency to Bayern's game last night and the incessant possession and probing got nowhere against a far better disciplined defensive team than was the case in the previous round.
 
I think Atletico will win the double, Real will fire Ancelotti for loosing the CL final and the league, Chelsea will fire Mourinho for playing boring football and winning nothing, Bayern will announce tomorrow, that it was a huge misunderstanding and Guardiola will leave at the end of the season. And all three managers will cry when Ferguson announces that United made the decision to keep Giggs as the longterm manager.

Moyes for Bayern manager?
 
I think Atletico will win the double, Real will fire Ancelotti for loosing the CL final and the league, Chelsea will fire Mourinho for playing boring football and winning nothing, Bayern will announce tomorrow, that it was a huge misunderstanding and Guardiola will leave at the end of the season. And all three managers will cry when Ferguson announces that United made the decision to keep Giggs as the longterm manager.

That would be hilarious. :lol:

Sorry about last night's defeat, mate. If you gave Real space, and reverted back to last season's tactics than you would have stood a better chance. I know hindsight is 20/20 but starting Martinez instead of Kroos to help the defense and thwart Real's counter would have been my choice last night.
 
Probably already been said, but despite it being a feat and a half, the winning of the Bundesliga so early was Bayern's downfall in my opinion. You hadn't played enough competitive games since and probably suffered a little bit from believing all the hype around Bayern being the greatest club the world may ever have seen. Against what was essentially a very below par United, you struggled to break us down and were reliant on United's individual errors to provide you good goal scoring opportunities. Real made no such errors and played a perfect game last night which Bayern had absolutely no answer to. There was no urgency to Bayern's game last night and the incessant possession and probing got nowhere against a far better disciplined defensive team than was the case in the previous round.

I agree with the previous poster who said that after performing so strongly for so long, a relative drop in form was bound to happen, and it happened at a bad time. Another reason is that they also believed all the hype around them, which made them underestimate Real Madrid, a rather stupid thing to do, as you have rightly pointed out. The third reason is that Real Madrid are a rather good team, something that many seem to have missed. No mystery here.
 
As good as their team is, they don't have the players to perform the style Pep wants.

Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Muller, Lahm, Martinez, Thiago - whichever 3 are used - are not as good as Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets in 2011,

Not to mention they haven't got a Messi. Mandzukic sucks.
 
As good as their team is, they don't have the players to perform the style Pep wants.

Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Muller, Lahm, Martinez, Thiago - whichever 3 are used - are not as good as Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets in 2011,

Not to mention they haven't got a Messi. Mandzukic sucks.

Why would he sign him if he doesn't fit the way Pep doesn't want to play? I agree that they aren't at the Barca player levels though.
 
Why would Dortmund fire Klopp after his team destroyed Bayern in the cup final? Giggs is the man to make those 2 time CL winning managers cry.

He'l resign to take over the job only for us to give it to Giggsy :drool:
 
For those who like to repeat ad nauseam that possession football is done and dusted, let me remind that a nadir Barca with 3 midgets in its back four, a 34-going-on-35 Xavi in its midfield, and an out of position Cesc, beat this same Ancellotti Real Madrid twice in the league, even if slightly fortuitously.
 
Why would he sign him if he doesn't fit the way Pep doesn't want to play? I agree that they aren't at the Barca player levels though.

'Cause he's a really good player who has the Barca mentality instilled within him. In fact, they've suffered without Thiago, he brought a much needed dynamism to the midfield. Still, as a collective midfield unit, that Bayern team is nowhere near Barca in their pomp. I mean surely Pep should have realised that Schweinsteiger and Kroos just aren't tiki-taka players ...
 
For those who like to repeat ad nauseam that possession football is done and dusted, let me remind that a nadir Barca with 3 midgets in its back four, a 34-going-on-35 Xavi in its midfield, and an out of position Cesc, beat this same Ancellotti Real Madrid twice in the league, even if slightly fortuitously.

Come on, Barca won in spite of their possession game. They've not pulled it off effectively for about 3 years now.

Real Madrid put Barca to the sword barely two weeks ago.
 
Come on, Barca won in spite of their possession game. They've not pulled it off effectively for about 3 years now.

Real Madrid put Barca to the sword barely two weeks ago.

And I am guessing, but perhaps they won these games following a bit of magic by Messi? He's the difference - what makes that style so effective I think.
 
God how much I hate the phrase 'they believed their own hype and then underestimated the opponent'. It's such a huge load of nonsense. Real Madrid spent so much money, has a team full of superstars, got a manager who found tactics which get the best out of all of them and played two brilliant tactically disciplined games. In that form, they can beat every team on the planet whatever way they play. I highly doubt Ribery lost his form because he underestimated Real or Neuer had his worst game in forever because he lost focus against such a weak opponent.
 
What I wrote in July:

The team won't be improved even though individually the squad might be better. Last season was easily best of all time stuff, never to be repeated again and I doubt anyone at the club expects a treble again. Hoeness, Sammer and Rummenigge aren't idiots, they have played football themselves and know how much luck is involved in the game, especially in the CL. I doubt anyone thought Heynckes could repeat it, if he stayed another season. I agree that it looks like Pep might change too much and it might backfire, but so far the players look excited about his ideas and downplay the changes, we have to wait if it's really Barca 2.0 or a great mix between Bayern 12/13 and Barca 1.0. Van Gaal already teached a lot of the necessary basics for Guardiola's work in his two years at the club, that should help a lot, imo.

The goal for the season is probably something like 80-85 points in the league, CL quarter finals and winning the cup. If Dortmund wins the league with more than 85 points (let's not forget, before last season the point record was set by Dortmund with 81 in 11/12), fair enough, not much you can do about it. If we draw a tough opponent in the CL quarter finals and go out despite playing great, fair enough, happens. I doubt Pep will get into trouble, if these things happen.

I stand by that, even though the CL exit wasn't pretty. Making it to a CL semifinal is still a brilliant achievement and Sammer, Rummenigge and Hoeness know that.
 
@Balu

I think that Bayern have been under cooked in the knockout stages of the Champions League this season. The lack of competition in the Bundesliga for your players seems to be making the step up a bit of a shock for them.

To use a boxing analogy: the lack of quality sparring partners is leaving Bayern unprepared for a big fight.

I think wrapping up the league so quickly has had an adverse effect too. The players can lose that constant adrenaline and resulting sharpness that comes from being in a title race.
 
What I wrote in July:



I stand by that, even though the CL exit wasn't pretty. Making it to a CL semifinal is still a brilliant achievement and Sammer, Rummenigge and Hoeness know that.

Beating Arsenal and United is hardly a brilliant achievement for a team of Bayern's quality.
 
I am not asking for his sacking, nor do I think he is responsible for the defeat f Bayern tonight. First and foremost, it was Bayern who lost, not Pep. Pep just picks the team, from there on then it's the players that are on the pitch, not the managers. The thing is that he is being made the scapegoat by Munich fans as well as the German press, who seem to have convinced themselves that one season suddenly turned the German clubs (who have been struggling in Europe for more than a decade to be honest) into indestructible machines. Let them pick another manager and see if they can do better next season.
The idea that the only job manager has is to pick players is so wrong.
 
With all due respect, the players were good enough to win the domestic league and get to this stage in the CL. Guardiola's inability to recognize personal strengths and weaknesses is obvious. In my opinion he is just stubborn and has been lucky to manage great talents that hide his inability to react and adapt for every single match.

Managing that Barca team and this Bayern and losing to the same type of football shows that he hasn't learned anything. I am convinced of that and i can even go further and say that if Bayern's players managed themselves, they would do better.

It was obvious for the whole world that Real would play like this and Pep was the only one that didn't do anything to counter their tactics.

I want to see what he can do managing a mid-table club with less skilled players. If he succeeds I would take my words back.
 
Losing 4-0 at home in the CL is some Kind of disaster and not scoring even 1 goal against RM over two legs with the squad Bayern have isn't pretty either.

But let's not write off Guardiola. Everyone has bad defeats. SAF got some hammerings over the years, Mourinho got hammered 5-0 by Guardiola, Guardiola also gave Madrid other hammerings (6-2), ...

His philosophy when it works is out of this world, but for this you need the players Barca had. Even then it didn't always work. But most of the time it did. However, no Bayern player (actually probably no player in the world) is even individually better in their position than Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets. But the combination of them when they are on their game is just unbeatable. Then there's also the small matter of Messi.

Guardiola has to find out now how he can stay loyal to his philosophy but still adapt it to different players and clubs. He will do it without doubt, why shouldn't he, he is a footballing genius! He hasn't figured it out yet, I knew after they hardly created dangerous chances against us, that if RM turn up they will be in big trouble. But he will get it right, if not with Bayern then with his next club. He has already won it all more than once, and is still so young, younger than Simeone!

Btw, Bayern won't get rid, but if they want to, I would take him without a shadow of doubt. I would love our players to be able to keep the ball a bit for once, we would also need to buy some more players who fit into his ideas, but they can hardly be bad players then. He would need to mix it up and be more direct, but that's a minor issue which as I said Pep would get it right sooner rather than later.
 
Come on, Barca won in spite of their possession game. They've not pulled it off effectively for about 3 years now.

Real Madrid put Barca to the sword barely two weeks ago.

What does "in spite of their possession game" even mean? So you think that from now on, anyone who has more than 50% possession will be at an inherent and automatic disadvantage?

And I think that Barcelona have beaten quite a few teams with their possession game in the past 3 years, despite not lifting the CL trophy. That includes many victories over Mourinho/Carlo Real Madrid, Simeone Atleti, PL champions-to-be Man City, a mauling of AC Milan etc... Spain NT, also want to say hi...

Real Madrid put Barca to the sword when Barca had Pinto (:lol:) in goal, and where at their worst. Still Neymar came an inch away from taking it to extra time.

If I get what you are saying correctly, when Barcelona win is in spite of their style of play, and when they lose it's because of their style of play. OK. That seems fair.
 
The idea that the only job manager has is to pick players is so wrong.

I was exaggerating there mate, but my point was that most people have completely concentrated their fire against Pep (I am not saying he may not be partly to blame) but have forgotten about the individual performances of several Munich players who were rather poor last night. In the case of Neuer, and maybe Dante, one could easily claim that they have been atrocious.
 
God how much I hate the phrase 'they believed their own hype and then underestimated the opponent'. It's such a huge load of nonsense. Real Madrid spent so much money, has a team full of superstars, got a manager who found tactics which get the best out of all of them and played two brilliant tactically disciplined games. In that form, they can beat every team on the planet whatever way they play. I highly doubt Ribery lost his form because he underestimated Real or Neuer had his worst game in forever because he lost focus against such a weak opponent.

Judging by the reactions of some Munich players, the press, and some statements (Robben: "I expected more from Madrid") I think there was some kind of arrogance in the minds of Bayern players in relation to the tie. It's only natural though, with great success, it is impossible to keep your feet firmly on the ground. United were arrogant in 2009, Barca have been arrogant for some time now (even after failures) and now Bayern. It's just stupid human nature.
 
What does "in spite of their possession game" even mean? So you think that from now on, anyone who has more than 50% possession will be at an inherent and automatic disadvantage?

And I think that Barcelona have beaten quite a few teams with their possession game in the past 3 years, despite not lifting the CL trophy. That includes many victories over Mourinho/Carlo Real Madrid, Simeone Atleti, PL champions-to-be Man City, a mauling of AC Milan etc... Spain NT, also want to say hi...

Real Madrid put Barca to the sword when Barca had Pinto (:lol:) in goal, and where at their worst. Still Neymar came an inch away from taking it to extra time.

If I get what you are saying correctly, when Barcelona win is in spite of their style of play, and when they lose it's because of their style of play. OK. That seems fair.

"In spite of" means that their shit, dull, slow, procedural way of playing at the moment is not the thing that's winning them games. It's moments of luck (two own goals against Villareal, getting Ramos sent off etc.) and having Messi.

Do you honestly think Barcelona are playing well? They're playing so well that they're third in the league, defeated by Madrid in the Copa del Rey final and went out, after being 'mauled' (despite the scoreline) by Simeone's Atletico, in the QFs of the CL.
 
I was exaggerating there mate, but my point was that most people have completely concentrated their fire against Pep (I am not saying he may not be partly to blame) but have forgotten about the individual performances of several Munich players who were rather poor last night. In the case of Neuer, and maybe Dante, one could easily claim that they have been atrocious.
Once they let the first goal in it was done, poor defending and it made it virtually impossible for them to qualify. Second followed quickly and from then on it was only a matter of how many Madrid would put past them, players' heads had gone. Good job at damage limitation in the second half, if they hadn't changed it'd have finished 7-0 to Madrid instead of 4-0.
 
@Balu

I think that Bayern have been under cooked in the knockout stages of the Champions League this season. The lack of competition in the Bundesliga for your players seems to be making the step up a bit of a shock for them.

To use a boxing analogy: the lack of quality sparring partners is leaving Bayern unprepared for a big fight.

I think wrapping up the league so quickly has had an adverse effect too. The players can lose that constant adrenaline and resulting sharpness that comes from being in a title race.
It happens time and time again when a team wins the title early they lose their edge for the remainder of the season. And once it's switched off, it's not easy to fire it back on again. But that's something elite clubs will have to deal with more often as they become increasingly dominant within their own leagues.
 
Say what you will, but for me the problems lie in the middle of the pitch. It has actually become pretty interesting, the whole situation at Bayern i mean, because this is the first time in his managerial career that Guardiola made a team worse while trying to instill his footballing philosophy.

But that doesn't mean he will not get it right eventually. I have to say i'm surprised to see all this hate about Pep, possession football and Barca's tiki taka. I understand that we have many reasons not to "like" them since we have lost two CL finals to them, but i think we could all try to calm down and see things more objectively.

Back to Bayern now. It's true that they were by far the best team in Europe last season under Heynckes. Their players were in excellent physical condition and they were all focused 100% at the task ahead of them due to that undeserved defeat from Chelsea. It's also true that they were using a more direct passing style, they were using the wings to attack a lot (with Ribery and Robben initiating attacking moves from deep wide areas and with the full backs doing overlaps all the time), and guess what: they had their midfielders making runs in the box.

So, what has changed? Imo Pep's 3 man midfield is dysfunctional. We had seen that against Arsenal and Manchester United. Yet, neither of us presented a real threat to this Bayern side. We couldn't ask the questions Real Madrid did. Let's discuss the first leg at OT. In theory, Lahm was the holding midfielder with Kroos and Schweinsteiger slightly ahead of him. But what we really saw on the pitch was Kroos playing in a deeper position than the others and slightly left, Schweinsteiger was the holding midfielder and Lahm was the one going forward. In the second half Lahm and Schweinsteiger swapped positions and Bayern, though they did not improve much, got the goal they needed. Pep used the latter tactics at Bernabeu, but to no avail.

It really makes you wonder why Guardiola insists on not using Kroos in the role behind the forward. He was perfect there last season (till his injury). It's the role he knows best and i hope that if he joins us in the summer we won't try to turn him into a deep lying play maker. Right now he is facing the same problems as Fabregas at Barcelona.

In the first leg versus Real Madrid Lahm, Kroos and Bastien enjoyed plenty of possession, had a very high percentage in passing, but they never looked threatening when they had the ball, their presence in the final third was minimal and most importantly they were too damn slow in building up attacks. That's where the problem lies. Bayern know all about possession football and how it works, but they are playing at the 50% of the speed it needs to be effective. Possession, as a statistic, means nothing if you're building up attacking movements slowly and give your opponent the opportunity to always defend with two banks of four. It means nothing without the proper off the ball movement and penetration from the midfielders. Pep's 3 man midfield can't so nothing of these prerequisites at top level.

I left out yesterday's game cause i think Guardiola, in his desperation to create attacking options, really messed things up. That midfield was an absolute travesty. Playing with no DM against Ronaldo, Bale, Di Maria and Benzema. He was outclassed by Ancelotti. 4-4-2 with Ronaldo and Benzema looking for those 1v1 situations against the CBs when the full backs where out of position. It was brilliant and it punished Bayern for playing with a high defense.

But to say this is the end of Pep's tiki taka and that we saw the superiority of traditional counter attacking football? Come on, only Gary Neville must believe that. You see Guardiola made a fundamental mistake yesterday. As we all know he is fan of Total Football. And the father of Total Football, Rinus Michels has said that you must always have one more defender than your opponent's forwards. If they choose a formation with 1 forward, use 2 CBs (4-3-3), if they play with 2 forwards, use 3 CBs (3-4-3). That's why some fans here, who have watched van Gaal, say that he uses many formations, but has one clear plan in his mind. And you also remember the 3-3-4 during Pep's last months at Barcelona.

I'm sure Pep has something in his mind too for next season's Bayern Munich, as he's been trying something that looks like a 2-3-4-1 during the second half of the season. Still it seems absurd that he left his CBs exposed. I also don't understand why Martinez doesn't get first team football. Players like him are usually a blessing for managers who want to play possession football with a high defensive line. Last night he could be the 3rd CB whenever needed.

I believe that Pep is a very good manager, he plays a style of football that can win trophies and be very attractive (yes it can) to the neutrals. He is also very lucky because he manages a club that can offer him everything he needs to achieve his goal. I bet he'll find the right answers.
 
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"In spite of" means that their shit, dull, slow, procedural way of playing at the moment is not the thing that's winning them games. It's moments of luck (two own goals against Villareal, getting Ramos sent off etc.) and having Messi.

Do you honestly think Barcelona are playing well? They're playing so well that they're third in the league, defeated by Madrid in the Copa del Rey final and went out, after being 'mauled' (despite the scoreline) by Simeone's Atletico, in the QFs of the CL.

OK, I now see where you are coming from. No one ever said that Barca are now at the peak of their powers. But you are basically claiming that Barcelona only win because of Messi, own goals, red cards(well I guess when opposition players bring our forwards down when clean through on goal they should be kept on the pitch, since Barca play shit and dull football according to you) and "moments of luck". As if Barca never had moments of bad luck themselves.

Third in the league yes, by the slightest of margins though, something that obviously never occurs to you. Against two teams that will maybe contesting the CL final in May. You might also like to be informed that Barcelona beat Real again in the Nou Camp game, when their opponents had all 11 players on the pitch. You might also wish to have a look at the first game versus Atleti and see how much pressure Barcelona put on Atletico in the last half hour, with Simeone's men barely holding out for a draw after that Diego wonder-goal. But you only see luck when it comes Barca's way.

I have met countless pathological Barca haters through the years, but you are easily one that stands out. We'll be back next season with a new-look team. Hope you don't mind.

;)


Edit: Last time I checked, Messi was a Barcelona player, which means that they are allowed to use him, and he is supposed to help them win games.
 
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Pep Guardiola stands by philosophy despite semi-final defeat

Pep Guardiola defended his philosophy of elaborate possession football after his Bayern Munich side, the European champions, were thrashed by the counter-attacking Real Madrid of Carlo Ancelotti.

"There’s no valid argument for my system after this result and you can say what you want of course," Guardiola said. "But I can’t change what I feel. I like to play with the ball. The reason we lost is we didn't play with the ball. In the second half we played more.

"I want to play with the ball and have many players attacking, instead of what Madrid do which is to counter-attack. We have to think if with these players it’s the best way. It’s what I have to discuss with the club.

"When you play well with the ball, and are concentrated on everything, then things come off for you. We just didn’t play with the ball together. We did it against Arsenal in London and here.

"Against this fantastic team, if you don’t have control, you shouldn’t give them the chance to run. I know that they have many, many players waiting to recover the ball and do a quick break.

"We didn’t show ourselves today because the coach didn’t do a good job. OK, it could be a mistake if the players didn’t want to run but they did. They tried. The players always want to do well. But the reason is we didn’t have possession.’’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...-by-philosophy-despite-semi-final-defeat.html
 
OK, I now see where you are coming from. No one ever said that Barca are now at the peak of their powers. But you are basically claiming that Barcelona only win because of Messi, own goals, red cards(well I guess when opposition players bring our forwards down when clean through on goal they should be kept on the pitch, since Barca play shit and dull football according to you) and "moments of luck". As if Barca never had moments of bad luck themselves.

Third in the league yes, by the slightest of margins though, something that obviously never occurs to you. Against two teams that will maybe contesting the CL final in May. You might also like to be informed that Barcelona beat Real again in the Nou Camp game, when their opponents had all 11 players on the pitch. You might also wish to have a look at the first game versus Atleti and see how much pressure Barcelona put on Atletico in the last half hour, with Simeone's men barely holding out for a draw after that Diego wonder-goal. But you only see luck when it comes Barca's way.

I have met countless pathological Barca haters through the years, but you are easily one that stands out. We'll be back next season with a new-look team. Hope you don't mind.

;)


Edit: Last time I checked, Messi was a Barcelona player, which means that they are allowed to use him, and he is supposed to help them win games.

I'm not a Barcelona hater, I actually like(d) Barcelona. Their football this year is shite, though.

It's an ugly hybrid. How can I analogise their shiteness?

It's like a girl who's got a face like Shrek, but has got a supermodel's body. She's trying, but that face lets her down. Barcelona are trying, but in the end they just can't pull it off anymore.
 
You just feel with this Bayern side that there aren't enough risk takers. If Robben and Ribery don't have a good game then it's hard to see where the magic comes from.

At Barcelona Messi was utterly unplayable and could win the biggest games on his own, Iniesta was capable of sheer brilliance too and the pace from the wide forward positions was fantastic. At Bayern you just feel a few of the players don't fit the system at all.
 
I'm sure Pep has something in his mind too for next season's Bayern Munich, as he's been trying something that looks like a 2-3-4-1 during the second half of the season. Still it seems absurd that he left his CBs exposed. I also don't understand why Martinez doesn't get first team football. Players like him are usually a blessing for managers who want to play possession football with a high defensive line. Last night he could be the 3rd CB whenever needed.
Great post. Pep admitted that he made a mistake by starting without Martinez and changed it for the 2nd half, but it was of course too late. I also think that people often forget about our massive injury crisis in CM. Martinez was injured for about 5 months, Schweinsteiger missed the whole pre-season and then about 3 months from November to February and Thiago only played from November to March. At no point did we have the time to build a well working midfield. Lahm had to be moved around to make up for it, but that also meant a massive drop in quality on the wing.

It was a year in transition with lots of injuries to key players, in which we still played on an incredibly high level for large parts of the season. But there are quite a few worrying signs and Guardiola needs to fix some of the problems in the summer. And he also needs to get key players like Ribery and Götze perform on their best level again. Those two had a shocking drop in form after the winterbreak. With Lewandowski coming in and Thiago and Götze hopefully improving on their first season at the club and not being injured that often, our attacking options should significantly improve.
 
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So they do practice set pieces.

I know every team does, but the amount of goals they concede from set pieces against top teams is shocking!
 

Hm. Interesting quotes.

The problem is that you can't always "play well with the ball together" and attack with the whole team. You'll need TWO Messis and TWO Iniestas to boot in the end. Which is unrealistic. What he says here almost reads like "my philosophy works, I just need top performances from top, top players". Which is...well, I'm sure old Moyesie would've done well with his system too, given excellent performances from excellent players all the time.

There's a disdain for defending in there somewhere, I feel. And I think Pep needs to lose that. He needs to be more versatile, in short. When his Barca were on fire they were virtually unbeatable. But you can't have on-fire players as a basic premise. There's something like an old "rainy night in Stoke" argument which could be thrown at Pep.

They had 70% possession against Real. Same as Barca had against Heynckes' Bayern last year. And zero goals scored. That's an incredible fact - and a very telling one. I almost get the feeling Pep is aiming for 100%. Which would, admittedly, at least guarantee a draw.
 
I am guessing he will not be Bayern manager next season. Surely not...
Enlighten me as to why you think that way? Just the other day Rummenigge said that he thinks Pep might stay for longer and the 3 year contract he signed is testament of that. He won't be sacked, we don't have Abramovich (no disrespect meant). No reason for me to argue over this, others have already explained why.

@Balu I missed your posts last night mate! :(
 
Pep will definitely stay.

Bayern have to stick with him and see out the course of Pep's vision. But in my opinion they made a mistake in bringing a manager who has a different philosophy of a manager won the treble the season before.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
 
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