Pep Guardiola: Naive or Without Instructions?

Pep Guardiola: Naive or Without Instructions?

Of the four seasons as coach of Barcelona, ​​Pep Guardiola twice brought the club won the Champions League with Manchester United make it look like the students of football academy in the final. But in the same time period, Pep also twice saw his side knocked out in the fall phase of European football competition.

In 2010, Barcelona lost in the semi-finals with a 2-3 aggregate of Inter Milan. In 2012 Barcelona also lost in the same round with identical aggregate of Chelsea who also became champion.

The common thread of his defeat Pep's Barcelona in 2 chance that is, both Inter and Chelsea implement defensive strategies in a certain degree. Both Inter and Chelsea played cage in the first leg, in which both teams rely on quick counter-attack and win (3-1 at the Giuseppe Meazza and 1-0 at Stamford Bridge). Both park the bus in the second leg to secure a score. Even in conditions down 0-2 at Camp Nou before Ramires scored away goal, Chelsea still accumulate players in front of the penalty box and expect a counterattack.

Pep is not a fool, then he must be aware that the horrible tiki-taka formula that he has perfected does not have an antidote except coordinating solid defensive strategy. If Pep is a programmer who create computer virus, then Jose Mourinho and Roberto Di Matteo is a Norton coding experts who created the heal.

So when Pep is now coached Bayern Munich to meet with a genetic mutation monster in the form of 11 players in blaugrana shirt of Catalan, as the creator of the monster Pep should know how to tame it. Moreover, he had ever seen an example of success in the past how things are done.

But a score of 3-0 in the first leg showed that Pep has not learned from his own experience. Barcelona did not score until the 77th minute and only Lionel Messi magical skill who made the Bayern goal finally collapsed. But actually Pep been counted desperate tactics from the start by putting three defenders behind to conduct man-to-man marking to Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar. Only the reflexes and ability of Manuel Neuer as a goalkeeper who makes Barcelona took so long before scoring.

Pep reckless still visible even after missed two goals. Okay, a pair of goals of Messi can be attributed to individual skills. But in the condition left behind two away goals and with the second leg still waiting, Pep still pressing his team to attack as seen from a high defensive line, a decision which resulted in the third goal for Barcelona.

Score 3-0 to Barcelona is the result of last week. We know that last night Bayern won 3-2 on aggregate even though they lost 3-5. Then why we need to discuss about the previous game instead of the more recent? Because the results of last night's game just merely supplement the material from the first leg which erode Pep Guardiola's reputation as a tactician.

Pep defense himself after the first leg at the Camp Nou by saying that it is impossible he brought Bayern to play defensively. He felt that playing defensive football is not part of the DNA, and his team was not accustomed to park the bus. The football extremists and fundamentalists considers Pep's statement as a noble word. That attitude shows that he has "dignity", unlike the pragmatic coach in general.

Yes, clearly Pep Guardiola is the bearer of attacking football based on possession football, but can a coach called brilliant when he implicitly said did not know how to defend?

Bayern's inability to defend to be seen again in the second leg when after winning quickly through Mehdi Benatia, they conceded two consecutive times through simple goals ala FIFA 15. Just when Barcelona was already pulling the foot off the accelerator and pulled Luis Suarez in the second half, The new Bayern could have scored two goals to turn things around and grabbed a little honor in their own public.

What is displayed Bayern in the Champions League semi-final this year reveals the back accusations against Pep that he had only one method to play and do not have a Plan B if Plan A does not work. An old charges that have been addressed to him since in Barcelona.

If the allegation is considered a poor alternative to reactive, then remember that last year Bayern was humiliated 0-4 by Real Madrid at home in the semi-final party. Bayern disease was similar to last season: not able to defend. Twice failed to hold well in set-piece that made Sergio Ramos scored a pair of goals plus failing to cope with lightning counter-attack trio BBC (Bale, Benzema, Cristiano), the similar but not equal to Barcelona MSN trio.

Since 2008, only one team who eliminated Barcelona in Europe without a parked bus in the second leg and that team is his Jupp Heynckes's Bayern Munich that destroyed Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals in 2013. Pep had resigned from Barcelona at the time and Tito Vilanova becomes coach assisted by Jordi Roura as caretaker assistant.

Do Pep came to the semi-finals of this year with the mentality of wanting to imitate what Heynckes did? Assume so, then Pep forget that not only Barcelona are now much more complete, also his Bayern was not the same as Heynckes's. Let alone in terms of tactics, Bayern squad is now even minus the players with individual skills who can be a differentiator like Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery. (If Bayern had two runners like Robben and Ribery in the first leg, at least they can exploit 2 Barcelona fullback who likes to ride).

It's no secret if Pep did the Barcelona thing at Bayern since his arrival two years ago. The process does not encounter any obstacles in the Bundesliga where Bayern uncontested dominance like a science when dealing with inferior clubs. But how Bayern troubled last two years in a row when dealing with equal club in Europe showed that the Barcelona style is ineffective for Bayern on a larger stage.

The reason? Of course, because Bayern will never be Barcelona. Strategy of pretending to be conducted Barcelona is a successful strategy until Pep must be done to fight the real Barcelona.

We all know that Pep's tiki-taka in Barcelona, ​​in addition to offensive interests, also has the power to defensive. The longer a team holds the ball, the less chance the opponent to attack. In Barcelona, ​​Pep do not have to bother because it strikes as it defend. The match against his former club shows that defending is no longer come with a package of attacking.

Looks like Pep Guardiola must find a way to survive the same edge as he had to find a new club team doctors.