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Pep Guardiola: - A look in the Past & a Peak in the Future

Pep Guardiola: - A look in the Past & a Peak in the Future

Josep "Pep" Guardiola i Sala (born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish football manager who will become manager of German Bundesliga club Bayern Munich at the start of the 2013–14 season. Guardiola had played as a defensive midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career with FC Barcelona. He was part of Johan Cruyff's "dream team" that won Barcelona's first European Cup.

But it’s the coaching career of Pep which is far more glorious and talked about in the football world. After managing Barcelona B side for a year he took over the post of the Barcelona’s manager in 2008. It was his luck that he had inherited a gold mine of world class players in Messi, Etoo, Xavi, and Iniesta. At the start only he knew which players to keep and which to sell, & hence there were many transfers both incoming & outgoing. Highlights of that transfer season were departure of the likes of Ronaldinho, Deco etc. Josep brought his kind of players in like Daniel Alves, Seydou Keita, and Gerard Pique etc. Tiki taka was the style which was brought in by Guardiola and this now has transformed the football world, with everyone trying to play like Barcelona. The rest is history as you say; as Barcelona went on to win the treble that year. His stint at Barcelona has been laden with trophies and for that he needs to be thankful to the World’s best player in Lionel Messi, whose brilliance was enough to break apart the opponents.

My major concern is that Barcelona did not face much competition in the La Liga with the closest competitor being Real Madrid. In the Champions League they faltered against teams who were tactically very sound at the back. Inter Milan & Chelsea were like thorns and Barcelona were never comfortable against them. It was just luck & very poor refereeing against Chelsea which allowed them into the finals of the champion’s league 2010-2011.

Josep is now going to manage arguably the best team at the present moment in Bayern Munich. The circumstances are drastically different than when he took over Barcelona. Bayern Munich have won the Bundesliga with a record number of games left to be played and are also a part of Champions league final 2012-2013. This will be their 3^rd final in 4 years which shows how consistently good they have been in Europe in the past 5 years.

Even now he inherits a group of players that are to die for. Another similarity which is there is that even here in the domestic league Bayern won’t face much competition other than Borussia Dortmund. There is enough stability in the Bayern boardroom that will provide him with the time to settle in and ring in the changes. There won’t be any problem in signing players as his new team is no short of cash & its recent success will be handy in luring in big names.

Mario Goetze one of the brightest young players around has agreed to be a Bayern Munich player next season, a 37 Million Euro’s price tag making him the most expensive German player ever. This player will suit the formation Bayern play which is of 4-2-3-1. On the other hand Guardiola fancies going with a 4-3-3 formation. It will be interesting to see whether Guardiola goes with the current formation or favors the 4-3-3 still. It won’t be wise to change the system which the players are used to and also are successful playing in it. Rumors are making rounds that Robben and Gomez will be making their way out of the Allianz Arena, with players like Lewandowski & Rooney might be coming in.

A major concern is that Bayern favor a physical approach and a possession type football. So if Guardiola wants to change this style to tiki-taka, it will be difficult and players will take some time to adapt to this new style. Even after this it’s not guaranteed that this style will be successful with this bunch of players. Schweinsteiger & Martinez are very good players but not suited to the tiki-taka style which Xavi and Iniesta are so good at. So this is a major thing to be seen under new era of Guardiola.

Guardiola didn’t have to deal with such a big squad comprising of so many good quality internationals. At Barcelona he played almost the same team day in & day out, with only a couple of changes here & there. At Bayern Munich he will have to tackle all the egos of big players & will have to get used to tinker his squad. May be he can get a few lessons on tinkering the squad from the fellow Spaniard in Rafa Benitez.

Bayern Munich at present are a tremendous team and if they win the Champions League this season then it will be difficult for Pep to follow up this trophy haul with his own the next season.

Next season will be very exciting for the Bayern Munich fans with the arrival of Josep Guardiola and Mario Gotze. Many more exciting players are still yet to come & their main competition Dortmund has weakened with the departure of their no. “10” and also their star striker Lewandowski on the verge of the exit. So the Bavarians are looking for a lot more success in the coming future.

A look at the Bayern Munich team under Pep Guardiola

                                                        

                                                Neuer

Lahm    Boateng/Badstuber                     Dante       Alaba

                      

                         Martinez                         Schweinsteiger

Shaqiri/Muller                      Gotze/Kroos                        Ribery

        

                               Lewandowski/Mandzukic/Gomez

                      

Why Mourinho will triumph once again !!!

 Reasons why Mourinho will be a success at Chelsea!!!

The special one as he is referred to is coming back home, it’s a big family reunion. Abramovich has finally accepted his mistake and is reconciling for it by signing Jose again. It’s very rare when a sacked manager is re-appointed & this shows that his sacking was wrong in the first place. Now let’s analyze why he would be successful again!

·         Firstly there is a major upheaval in the management across both the Manchester clubs. They have always been the competition. David Moyes will take some time to handle such a big team and get them playing according to his style of football. The transfer saga of Wayne Rooney will also be a vital point to Manchester United’s success. Manuel Pellegrini is tipped to boss Manchester City the next season, & his lack of English Premier League football will also benefit Chelsea. With all due respect to Arsenal & Arsene Wenger, I don’t see them winning until and unless they start spending on quality players.

·         Secondly, when Mourinho first joined Chelsea his success was mainly due to the amazing wingers they had in Damien Duff & Arjen Robben. This time around he has got far more quality in Eden Hazard, Juan Mata, Oscar, Moses. Even the services of the wonder kid Kevin de Bruyne will be available if they don’t sell him to Dortmund. Gudjohnsen, Drogba & Kezman were the strikers he had. Now he has Demba Ba, Fernando Torres, & most likely Lukaku. The only weak point remains is of the midfield with Essien only a shadow of what he was before, inconsistency of Mikel doesn’t take him places and Frank Lampard getting old. This time around he doesn’t have a Makelele but has got a very hardworking Ramires & David Luiz can also play the holding midfielder role beautifully. So he has almost got a team he had assembled & can buy a few players also with the money always available at Chelsea.

·         The love & respect that this man commands is far more than any other Chelsea manager could have. All the fans will be after him and so will be the players. This will in turn make the players more coachable and the players would be hungry to win and play beautifully. Chelsea as a club and Mourinho as a manager both are accustomed to winning trophies year in and out. Mourinho has unfinished business with Chelsea, that off winning the UEFA champions league which will make him more determined than ever to bring the trophy to the city he calls home.

·         Discipline is the word that was always used for the Chelsea’s defense under Mourinho, as they used to concede very few goals. If Chelsea used to get a lead under Mourinho then the game used to be over. This hasn’t been the case for the past couple of years with Chelsea conceding more goals than usual. With Mourinho coming back to the bridge it will again get very compact at the back. Although it seems a couple of defenders need to be bought as Luiz could move to the midfield, which means only Cahill, Ivanovic & Terry remain at the back. Terry has also aged and although he is good but not like he was before. Azpilicueta also has had a terrific season in both attacking and defending the right flank. So a couple of good buys like Subotic, Hummels, Dante and Varane etc will make the Chelsea back line formidable.

·         Hazard and Oscar the 2 main players of the Chelsea midfield have had a decent year under their belt, but it would be safe to say that this was their first year of EPL football and now they must have settled in and jelled in properly with the squad. So this only means they would be dangerous this coming season. Chelsea will also look to sign a replacement for the ageing legend Frank Lampard. With all the rumors coming about Rooney, Lewandowski, Falcao & even if one of them were going to join Chelsea it will definitely increase the firepower in front of the goal. This might be it for Fernando Torres but I think he has had his chances and if they sell him then it’s good for both the club and the player. If Mourinho wants physicality in front of goal then he can very well use Ba & Lukaku.

·         Mourinho is smart and so if he is coming again then it might be on his terms, so he will make sure there is minimum interference this time around. Abramovich will certainly give it to him considering it best for the club.

·         Finally I don’t believe in superstitions but Mourinho has won the Champions league with every alternate club since Porto. He won it at Porto but never with Chelsea, then he won it with Inter but lost with Madrid. So the next club could be in line to win a champions league trophy and its going to be Chelsea.

So the probability of Mourinho succeeding at Chelsea is indeed very high. The fans love him, the players love him, tabloids love him, and oppositions hate him (you know why),but certainly nobody ignores him. Here it is to another successful era of Chelsea under Mourinho & this time around its very likely that many trophies will have the name of Chelsea on it, especially the Champions league trophy.