Sabtu, 02 Januari 2010
Spanish Inquisition: Is Pep Guardiola A Genius Or A Fluke?
Posted on 23.00 by the jack
Frank Rijkaard had Xavi, Josep Guardiola had Xavi. Rijkaard had
Of Barcelona's starting XI against
Guardiola assembled virtually the same set of players and won six titles in one and a half years. Six.
No, this is not to denigrate Rijkaard's legacy at Barcelona - after all, the Dutchman was responsible for the Catalans' first silverware in six years when the Blaugrana won the league in 2005 and also moulded Ronaldinho and Eto'o into world class footballers - but the radical transformation and reformation the club went under Guardiola in the space of just nine or so months is almost spooky. Even
Pep, The Genius
Taught in the school of Total Football and mentored by
A 'Little' Pep Talk Has Done The Trick
Guardiola had to wrap skin on a skeleton - a skeleton on the verge of disseminating into a loose collection of bones perhaps, but a skeleton nevertheless. Which the 38-year-old did to marvellous effects.
Guardiola motivated his players, reinstated their self-conviction and asked them to play the way football is supposed to be played. Because he knew that he had the core of the unit that had bedazzled the world just over two years back. And results came, almost inevitably.
He made Xavi and Iniesta the best midfield partnership in the world, Toure a more intelligent
What made Guardiola the real 'Special One' in European football was his compelling obsession to play football the Barcelona way. Never for a moment did he betray his footballing philosophy and from start to finish in every game, his players were hungry for goals, goals and more goals.
The Help From Beyond
Calling
Moreover, spending €80 million in the 2008 summer had strengthened the side in key areas and also blighted the notion that Barca's triumph came only because of home-grown players. Last summer he gave the green light for possibly the world's most expensive swap deal as Ibrahimovic replaced Eto'o at
Can Barcelona Repeat Their Feat This Season?
All of which is true and so is the fact that history and external factors helped Barcelona. Rarely have Barca and Madrid's successes coincided and in 2007-2008 Los Blancos were in institutional crisis. Their willingness to axe the branch they were sitting on augmented by the injuries to a number of key players contributed to Barcelona's domestic conquest. The game at
The In-Between
Yet Guardiola's achievements in 2009 cannot and should not be undermined. For those claiming that their grandma would have won the league with Barca's current squad should ask themselves whether they or their grandmas would have been able to manage the Blaugrana megastars. Perhaps Guardiola's coaching or managerial genius would be properly tested when he gets a less talented and more disorganised side but it is not easy to coach a team burdened with hopes and expectations either.
Moreover, Madrid's self-capitulation wasn't Barcelona's fault and whatever the conspiracy theorists suggest, Barca did not 'buy the referee' against Chelsea. There were fewer injuries because Guardiola imposed a strict fitness and training regime. He also imported discipline into the dressing room, crippling any germ of 'dissidence'.
But what now for the Santpedor-born? Where does he go from here? His contract with Barcelona expires at the end of the season and there are no discernible hints of a stay beyond the summer. Links with
Or perhaps he should heed the advice of this columnist's friend, who also happens to be a student at a British university: "Call it a day, stop coaching and remain the most successful coach in football history, one who won everything in one year."
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