Pep Confidential: Inside Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich

HLV Pep Guardiola trải lòng trong cuốn tự truyện của mình

 

Mùa hè 2013

 

Pep Guardiola cho phép Marti Perarnau, một người bạn và một nhà báo, được tiếp cận đầy đủ với tất cả những chuyện hậu trường của ông với CLB mới trong một năm. Perarnau đã theo Pep như hình với bóng cả trong và ngoài sân cỏ, trải qua vinh quang và cay đắng với ông, để viết nên Pep Confidential. 

Munich, ngày 31/1/2014

 

Đã thành lệ, Guardiola có 3 phiên trao đổi với các cầu thủ trước mỗi trận, mỗi phiên khoảng 15 phút. Ông dùng các hình ảnh để làm rõ quan điểm của mình, các đoạn băng video dài tối đa là 7 phút, và sau đó là thời gian trao đổi. 

Vào ngày trước khi diễn ra trận đấu, Pep sẽ phân tích lối chơi tấn công của đối thủ, chỉ ra những điểm nào là nguy hiểm nhất, tập trung vào các cầu thủ quan trọng. Sau đó ông sẽ hướng dẫn chi tiết về các bước phòng ngự mà Bayern cần để ngăn chặn đối phương. Các cầu thủ của ông sẽ triển khai điều đó ở những buổi tập tiếp theo. 

Guardiola hưởng dẫn Dante cách cản bước đối thủ

 

Phiên trao đổi thứ hai diễn ra trước buổi tập vào buổi sáng diễn ra trận đấu, bao gồm giải thích chi tiết cách đối thủ thực hiện các pha ném biên và đá phạt khi tấn công ra sao. Trợ lý HLV Domenec Torrent đã nghiên cứu 50 pha đá phạt gần nhất của đối thủ và giải thích họ thường hay làm gì nhất.  

Torrent sau đó sẽ nhắc các cầu thủ phải ở vị trí nào trong những tình huống cố định ngay trước khi trận đấu bắt đầu. Sau phiên trao đổi này, đội tập nhẹ các bài tập tấn công và phòng ngự. Pep vẫn chưa quyết định đội hình ra quân, nên tất cả sẽ phải tham gia đầy đủ mọi phiên tập. Nếu đá sân khách thì họ không tập thêm như thế, mà xem băng ghi hình và tập đá phạt. 

Pep thực hiện phiên trao đổi cuối cùng 2 tiếng trước trận ở khách sạn của đội (ông không thích làm điều đó trong phòng thay đồ). Đó sẽ là cuộc nói chuyện để tạo động lực, nhưng cũng gồm một số tổng kết chiến thuật tấn công cho Bayern. Cũng ở phiên trao đổi cuối, ông sẽ công bố đội hình xuất phát. 

Các cầu thủ giờ đều biết chính xác họ phải làm gì, ngay cả việc phải thực hiện quả phạt góc đầu tiên, rồi quả đá phạt đầu tiên, ra sao. 

Guardiola tập trung toàn đội trước khi trận đấu diễn ra 2 tiếng  

Đôi khi, nhưng không phải luôn luôn, Pep sẽ qua các phiên trao đổi cố gắng kích thích các cầu thủ. Chẳng hạn, trong trận lượt về tứ kết Champions League gặp Manchester United đầu tháng 4, Pep bỏ qua phiên trao đổi thứ ba. Ông công bố đội hình xuất phát một ngày trước đó, như thể ông nói ông rất tự tin ở các cầu thủ và không cần phải căn dặn gì thêm. Ngược lại, Bayern tới sân Borrusia Park của Moenchengladbach cho trận đấu ngày 24/1/2014 khi chỉ còn vài phút là khai cuộc, vì phiên trao đổi của Pep dài hơn thường lệ. Ông muốn đảm bảo rằng các cầu thủ của mình không còn lấn cấn gì sau thất bại tan nát 6 ngày trước đó trong một trận giao hữu ở Salzburg: họ đã không chịu chạy và chơi thiếu quyết liệt. 

“Tôi có thể đưa chúng ta tiến rất xa”, ông nói. “Tôi có thể phân tích đối thủ và tận dụng hiểu biết chiến thuật của tôi để giúp các cậu ở vào những vị trí thích hợp nhất. Chẳng hạn hôm nay, David (Alaba), tôi không muốn cậu dâng lên quá cao vì bên cánh phải, Stuttgart (Martin Harnik) có thể gây nhiều rắc rối cho chúng ta. Nhưng từ đây trở đi là trách nhiệm của các cậu. Nếu các cậu chơi không đủ quyết liệt, không chịu chạy cho tới khi rã rời, chúng ta sẽ không thể thắng được”. 

Pep lên kế hoạch cho 3 phiên trao đổi chỉ sau khi đã phân tích tỉ mỉ đối thủ và đội bóng của ông. Những phiên trao đổi này cũng cho thấy khả năng sáng tạo tuyệt vời ở ông. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, một giáo sư kinh tế học ở Đại học Columbia, Mỹ, giải thích: “Với tôi, Pep là một người sáng tạo tuyệt vời. Ông ấy chiến thắng bằng cách phân tích các điểm yếu của đối thủ và tấn công vào đó. Nhưng hơn thế, ông ấy có thể sáng tạo liên tục ngay cả khi đối thủ nhận ra và sửa được điểm yếu của họ. Guardiola khi đó đã thay đổi chiến thuật của ông rồi. Ông ấy luôn đi trước một bước và luôn đảm bảo triết lý của ông chiếm ưu thế ở khu vực giữa sân, cùng lúc với việc giúp Bayern thích nghi với những đặc điểm của đối thủ cụ thể”. 

Tháng 10/2012 ở New York

 

Guardiola từng trò chuyện với vua cờ Garry Kasparov về cách xử lý đối thủ trong cờ vua cũng như các môn thể thao khác. Kasparov nói với ông: “Ông sẽ không tấn công theo cùng cách trong một trận địa trên núi và một trận địa đồng bằng”. Guardiola cũng ăn tối ở New York cuối năm 2012 với Ferran Adria, một đầu bếp thiên tài sắp đóng cửa nhà hàng của ông, El Bulli. Adria nói: “Pep, ông không chỉ là một HLV, ông là một nhà sáng tạo lớn”. Guardiola đáp lại: “Ferran à, tất cả những gì tôi làm là xem băng ghi hình các đối thủ và tìm ra cách đè bẹp họ. Tất cả những gì tôi làm là nghiên cứu những gì tôi có và lựa chọn những ai tôi cần”. 

Guardiola muốn các học trò của ông phải tự ý thức được trách nhiệm và vai trò của mình

 

Để hiểu toàn bộ triết lý đó được áp dụng ở Bayern ra sao, chúng ta cần nói chuyện với Carles Planchart, trưởng bộ phận phân tích của Guardiola và đã làm việc với ông từ năm 2007, khi Pep còn ở Barca B. Planchart giải thích các giai đoạn khác nhau của công việc: “Về cơ bản việc này có 2 phần: phân tích đội nhà và đội đối thủ. Đó là 2 việc hoàn toàn khác nhau. Bạn là người của đội bóng, xem họ thi đấu 3 ngày 1 trận, nên bạn không có đủ thời gian để sửa tất cả các lỗi của họ trên sân. Vì thế bạn cần phải duy trì liên lạc tốt để nói họ sửa lỗi khi có thể, ngay cả lúc trận đấu diễn ra. Nếu bạn có cả 1 tuần trên sân tập thì việc sửa lỗi sẽ dễ dàng hơn, chẳng hạn như việc hàng thủ quá cao hoặc quá thấp, hay có quá nhiều khoảng trống giữa các tuyến, hay gặp trục trặc trong việc xử lý những quả tạt… Còn nếu không, cách hiệu quả nhất là cho họ xem hình ảnh, vì chúng truyền tải các ý tưởng một cách nhanh chóng”. 

Vào cuối mỗi trận, các chuyên gia phân tích tổng hợp lại những kết luận của họ về trận đấu. Họ sẽ bình luận các pha bóng cá nhân và tập thể, cũng như các khía cạnh chiến lược và chiến thuật. Pep sau đó sẽ làm việc với từng cầu thủ cụ thể trong tuần sau đó. Thông thường thì các điều chỉnh chiến thuật và cá nhân sẽ được thực hiện ngay lập tức cho trận đấu tiếp theo. 

Mùa này, Planchart đã bổ sung thêm một khía cạnh khác. Giờ Bayern phân tích sự di chuyển cũng như vị trí chiến thuật của từng cầu thủ. Vào cuối trận đấu, họ có tất cả thông số về sự di chuyển cụ thể của mỗi cầu thủ Bayern để xem các cầu thủ này có ra quyết định đúng thường xuyên hay không. BHL duy trì một hồ sơ theo dõi chuyên môn chi tiết với từng cầu thủ. Trong hồ sơ sẽ được phân loại thành nhiều mục, như đánh đầu, kỹ năng đi bóng, chuyền bóng… BHLV sau đó có thể cho từng cầu thủ thấy họ đã làm gì trên sân, cân nhắc đầy đủ vị trí và các ưu tiên chiến thuật của họ. Toàn bộ được ghi hình lại ở góc rộng, để họ có thể đánh giá cầu thủ một cách toàn diện, chứ không chỉ như một cá nhân. 

Liên tục chỉ đạo các cầu thủ trong trận đấu  

“Pep luôn muốn xem cả trận và chúng tôi đưa băng ghi hình vào máy của ông ấy ngay khi trận đấu kết thúc”, Planchart nói. “Sau đó ông ấy có thể xem cả trận hay những thư mục đã được phân loại, từng cầu thủ, hay theo kiểu xử lý bóng, hay theo các đầu mục chiến thuật khác nhau. Ông ấy cũng sẽ thấy các ghi chú của tôi ở đó, cả về trận đấu nói chung lẫn về những điều cụ thể mà chúng tôi cần phải để mắt tới”. 

Phần còn lại của công việc phân tích là tìm hiểu đối thủ, điều rất quan trọng để Bayern lựa chọn cách tiếp cận trận đấu. BTC các giải chuyên nghiệp Đức ghi hình mọi trận đấu ở Bundesliga và Bundesliga 2 với góc từ trên cao và chuyển cho mọi CLB tham dự 2 giải vào mỗi sáng thứ Hai. Champions League chưa có dịch vụ tương tự, nên nhiều đội phải tự quay lại trận đấu. 

Với BHL Bayern, ghi hình từ góc trên cao để không bỏ sót chuyển động nào trên sân là hết sức quan trọng về mặt chiến thuật. “Ở Đức, thăm dò đối thủ là một phần công việc, không phải là sự do thám như ở một số giải khác. Chính các CLB đôi khi trao đổi băng ghi hình của họ cho nhau, ở đây là thường”, Planchart giải thích. 

Ông thường theo dõi băng hình sau trận đấu

 

Phân tích đối thủ còn giúp tìm ra được hệ thống thi đấu hợp lý. “Ở Barcelona, bất cứ khi nào đá một trận chung kết Champions League, chúng tôi đều phân tích 12 trận gần nhất của đối thủ, và với các trận bình thường thì 5-6 trận gần nhất. Chúng tôi phải tính tới thời điểm và vị thế của các đối thủ của họ. Sự khác biệt là rất lớn khi xác định xem họ sẽ chủ động hay chờ đợi cơ hội phản công, hay họ có lối chơi giống với chúng tôi hay không”. 

Sau khi phân tích 5-6 trận, Planchart chuẩn bị một báo cáo cho Pep, được tổ chức theo các ý tưởng và những pha phối hợp tương quan. Phần trình bày sẽ bằng hình ảnh, dễ hiểu hơn nhiều và cũng dễ đưa ra ví dụ. Nếu Pep thấy có ích, ông sẽ xây dựng lối chơi của Bayern ở trận sắp tới dựa trên những thông tin đó. 

“Thường thì ngay khi trận đấu kết thúc, hoặc điều đầu tiên vào sáng hôm sau, tôi sẽ nộp cho ông ấy báo cáo về đối thủ tiếp theo. Tôi làm việc trước 2 tuần, nhưng ông ấy chỉ tập trung vào trận đấu sắp tới. Đôi khi tôi cung cấp cho ông ấy thông tin về một đối thủ ở Champions League sớm hơn một chút vì nếu ông ấy có một tuần lễ không phải đá vào thứ Tư, thì ông ấy có thể nhìn xa hơn một chút. Nhưng thường thì ông ấy chỉ giải quyết từng trận một”. 

Guardiola xem báo cáo đó trước, với khoảng 50-60 điểm nhấn giúp ông có được ý tưởng chung về việc xử lý trận đấu tiếp theo ra sao. Đôi khi chỉ nhờ thế mà ông đã hình thành được đội hình xuất phát. Sau đó ông sẽ bắt đầu lên kế hoạch cho các buổi tập với Torrent và Lorenzo Buenaventura.  

Guardiola là mẫu người kỹ lưỡng  

Trong vài ngày tiếp theo, ông sẽ bắt đầu phân tích chi tiết các đối thủ, xem các trận đấu, hay một phần các trận đấu và tự đưa ra quyết định. Ông sẽ ghi chú rất nhiều và quyết định những ý tưởng chính mà ông sẽ truyền đạt cho các cầu thủ. Đôi khi ông kết hợp với những nhận xét từ các trận đấu trước, vì lý do chiến thuật, hoặc chỉ để tạo động lực và tâm lý thoải mái hơn cho các cầu thủ. 

Trong trận đấu, Planchart và nhóm của ông sẽ gửi các hình ảnh về những tình huống cụ thể xuống khu vực huấn luyện, nơi Torrent có một cái iPad để nhận, xem và đánh giá: “Carles gửi những thứ mà ông ấy cho rằng hữu ích vào iPad của tôi, các pha phạt góc, một tình huống phản công… để Pep có thể đánh giá liên tục”. 

Những chuyên gia phân tích của Bayern trên các khán đài có máy quay kết nối với iPad của Torrent, với máy tính ở văn phòng của Pep và máy tính trong phòng thay đồ (được kết nối với một màn hình trình chiếu lớn). 5 phút trước hiệp 1, Planchart sẽ vào văn phòng của Pep và lưu toàn bộ các băng ghi hình trong hiệp 1 vào máy tính của ông. Khi đá sân khách, máy tính được đặt trong trong phòng thay đồ. 

Trong giờ nghỉ, Pep sẽ được trình bày 3-4 ý tưởng với các cầu thủ bằng các đoạn băng video 2-3 giây. “Ông ấy sẽ hỏi tôi thấy gì trong hiệp 1, vì tầm nhìn của tôi từ khán đài là hoàn toàn khác. Ông ấy lắng nghe rất chăm chú phần báo cáo của tôi. Ông ấy sẽ trao đổi với Torrent về cách sửa những sai lầm và thay đổi thế trận. Ông ấy ghi chú một số ý tưởng rồi sẽ đi vào phòng thay đồ. Còn lại khoảng 5-6 phút, ông ấy sẽ gọi những cầu thủ cần thiết lên, cho họ xem các hình ảnh và nói với họ ông ấy muốn thay đổi ra sao, và trận đấu sẽ tiếp tục”. 

Guardiola luôn trao đổi thẳng thắn với các học trò

 

Munich, 29/3/2014

 

Ngay sau khi trả lời báo chí trong cuộc họp báo sau trận đấu, ông sẽ tới nhà ăn của các cầu thủ ở Allianz, uống một cốc sâm-panh, ăn vài thỏi phô-mai Parma và ngồi nửa tiếng liền nói về trận đấu. Thường thì ông ấy đứng, và thỉnh thoảng có ngồi xuống. Sau trận đấu ông sẽ thấy rất đói, nhưng không thấy đủ thoải mái để có thể ăn ngay món cá hồi muối chua mà ông ấy rất thích. Đầu tiên ông ấy cần ít nhất 30 phút để đốt hết lượng adrenalin do trận đấu tạo ra. Ông ấy sẽ nói mọi thứ về trận đấu đó, mọi thứ mà ông ấy còn nhớ. “Anh có thấy Rafinha làm gì ở phút 18 không? Cậu ấy di chuyển vào trong 2 mét và khép chặt các khoảng trống khi họ định phản công chúng ta”. 

Sẽ không mấy người nhớ nổi như thế. Pep được trời phú trí nhớ gần như một chiếc máy chụp ảnh. Ở điểm này ông giống với Rafael Nadal, một ngôi sao quần vợt có thể nhớ được mọi cú đánh và mọi điểm số trong trận đấu của anh ấy. Tất cả những hình ảnh lưu giữ lại trong tâm trí Pep rất lâu sau khi trận đấu đã qua. Guardiola nhớ mọi tình huống: nó đã diễn ra thế nào, tại sao, cầu thủ nào tham gia và kết quả là gì. Ngược lại, ông không quan tâm tới các con số thống kê. 

“Hôm nay chúng ta không cầm bóng nhiều, chỉ 63%”. “À, vậy sao?” “Nhưng Tom Starke là cầu thủ chạm bóng nhiều nhất bên phía Hoffenheim”. “Không lý nào như thế. Nhưng cậu ta chơi hay đấy”. Một câu chuyện điển hình của Pep với các con số thống kê sẽ là như thế. 

Guardiola đang gặt hái nhiều thành công cùng Bayern

 

Ông muốn nói nhiều hơn về thế trận và chiến thuật, chứ không phải những con số. “Anh có thấy Philipp (Lahm) thông minh thế nào không? Làm sao một cầu thủ vừa có thể cầm bóng, tranh cướp và chuyền bóng giỏi như thế?” Hay: “Tôi sẽ phải nói chuyện với Toni (Kroos) vì trước một đối thủ như (Manchester) United, cậu ấy không thể xử lý bóng như thế, họ sẽ nhận ra và cướp mất bóng để phản công”. Hay với Planchart: “Carles, sáng mai mang cho tôi đoạn băng ở phút 36 nhé, tôi muốn cho các trung vệ xem phải đứng ở vị trí thế nào”. 

Trong nửa giờ đồng hồ lộn xộn đó, đứng trong nhà hàng, Pep sẽ vừa trò chuyện sôi nổi, vừa làm đủ cử chỉ về trận đấu. Ông sẽ phân tích các cầu thủ, đối thủ, mỗi giai đoạn trận đấu, mỗi tình huống quan trọng, những bàn thắng, mọi thứ. 

Rồi suy nghĩ của ông sẽ chuyển sang các trận đấu khác, và một vòng quay mới lại bắt đầu.

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Michael Laudrup–The Heart of Barcelona dream team 1991-1994

Quotes on Laudrup

• Romário: "The best player I have ever played with and the 4th best in the history of the game"^[19]
• Raúl: "The best I have ever played with."^[18]
• Zamorano: "Un genio!", "The reason why I make so many goals, is Laudrup."^[58]
• Iniesta: "Who is the best player in history? Laudrup."^[59]
• Messi: "I fully understand why he is considered one of the best players in Barcelona's history and even the world."^[60]
• Cruyff: "One of the most difficult players I have worked with. When he gives 80–90% he is still by far the best, but I want 100%, and he rarely does that."^[61]
• Cruyff (After Real Madrid with Laudrup had won 5–0 over Cruyff's Barcelona): "When Michael plays like a dream, a magic illusion, determined to show his new team his extreme abilities, no one in the world comes anywhere near his level."^[62]
• Cruyff (Cruyff on Laudrup's lack of killer instinct during matches): "Had Michael been born in a poor ghetto in Brazil or Argentina with the ball being his only way out of poverty he would today be recognised as the biggest genius of the game ever. He had all the abilities to reach it but lacked this ghetto-instinct, which could have driven him there."^[63]
• Platini: "One of the biggest talents ever. The best in the world on the training pitch, but never used his talent to its full during matches.^[62]
• Platini: "Michael had everything except for one thing: he wasn't selfish enough."^[17]
• Guardiola: "The best player in the world, I can't believe he hasn't won the title as best player."^{[citation needed]}
• Beckenbauer: "Pelé was the best in the 60s, Cruyff in the 70s, Maradona in the 80s and Laudrup in the 90s."^[62]
• Roberto Galia: "I have played against Maradona, Platini and Baggio. But the player I saw do the most indescribable things was Michael Laudrup."^[64]
• Clemente: "To me, Michael Laudrup is the most genius player the world has ever seen. He will always be my numero uno. Always."^[62]
• Bakero: "No one has given the club [Barcelona] as much inspiration as Michael. We all look up to him. It is a privilege to have your day enriched by a genius."^[62]
• Koeman: "Michael was possibly the most skilful and elegant player I ever played with. Few could dribble like he could. He could sense when a game was ready to be seized and transformed by a moment of individual brilliance."^[65]
• Stoichkov: "One of the best European players I’ve ever seen. An elegant, old-fashioned playmaker, he did things few other footballers could do."^[66]
• Stoichkov: "From more than hundred goals that I scored I'm sure that over 50 were assisted by Michael. To play with him was extremely easy. We found each other by intuition on the field and found common football language. Look at Ivan Zamorano. Laudrup went there (Real) and Zamorano is a goalscorer. Sometimes I envy Ivan for the passes he receives. Passes on foot after you accelerated. Few people understand football like the Danish player. He can only be comprised with Maradona, Schuster or Roberto Baggio. They make things easy and find the right solutions. For them is simple, for the opponent – unthinkable. Phenomenal! His only problem is his character. He is emotional and terribly reserved. This affects him a lot, because he takes everything personally – no matter if someone tells him something or decision that he does not agree. His relations with Cruyff were delicate because he couldn't take the critics. I listen to him but I don't care that much. For Michael this was fatal. He couldn't take it anymore so he left without a word."^[67]
• Brian Laudrup: "My brother started as an attacker but became an elegant attacking midfielder, perhaps the most complete there has ever been. His vision, speed of thought and passing were on a different level; he always knew what was going to happen before anybody else did. If anyone had a 'football brain', it was him."^[68]
• Ferrer: "Few people made me enjoy the game as much as Michael. Maybe he didn’t get the media recognition he deserved, but he was so classy and a real thinker. A master of the blind pass and impossible through-balls and I will never forget his 'spoon' pass in a game against Osasuna. He lifted the ball right over the defence and Romario touched it in first time."^[69]
• Capello (After the 4–0 win of Milan against Barcelona in the 1994 CL final): "Laudrup was the guy I feared but Cruyff left him out, and that was his mistake."^[70]
• Figo: "I think maybe Laudrup was the best player I ever played against."^[71]
• Mourinho: "He was phenomenal in Barcelona. He was a fantastic player whom I would love to have on my team today."^[72]
• Stoichkov: "Laudrup was the greatest"^[73]
• Alan Tate: "He is still the best player in training at 48 years."^[74]
• Ian Rush: "He probably had the most individual skill I've seen. He was an incredible player."^[75]
• John Toshack: "To me he was the best player of his generation and he is a lot like Cruyff both as a player and a manager"^[76]

Nguồn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Laudrup, http://sharemytactics.com/6746/Dream-Team-Barcelona-90s-352 Read More

Nemanja Matic : Ozil của Chelsea

Matic vs Stock City 26/1/2014



Chiều cao:194 cm. Dáng người thon nhưng rất chắc. Dáng người rất tốt, thậm chí tốt hơn nhiều so với Javi Martinez.

Thuận chân trái. Có khả năng dẫn bóng rất tốt. Có kĩ năng che người rất cơ bản và hiệu quả. Sải bước dài.
Quan trọng hơn hết là khả năng khống chế banh (first touch). Đỡ banh rất gọn. Vị trí tiền vệ phòng ngự hay nói đơn giản hơn là cầu thủ nhận banh để đưa lên. Đá ở vị trí này cần phải đỡ banh gọn.

Nhờ có các phẩm chất đó nên Matic chuyền banh hướng lên trên rất tốt. Đặc biệt là khả năng phát động tấn công nhanh.

Nói đến khả năng phòng ngự thì có ưu điểm trong không chiến. Đặc biệt có thể lùi sâu để lắp vị trí trung vệ đã dạt ra biên để tạo thành hàng thủ 5 người, rất hiệu quả để chống các đội đá biên tốt.


Matic vs Man City tháng 2/2014 Read More

Người bạn thân của Pep

Guardiola (trái) và trợ lý Estiarte

Về cơ bản, Estiarte và Guardiola là hai con người có khá nhiều điểm chung: đều là vận động viên tầm cỡ thế giới đồng thời là những nhà vô địch Olympic. Ở vai trò huấn luyện, họ đã cùng nhau giành được 15 danh hiệu (14 ở Barca và 1 ở Bayern). Bên cạnh những nét tương đường, Estiarte và Guardiola cũng có những điểm rất khác nhau. Có thể đây chính là điểm mấu chốt giúp cả hai tạo thành bộ đôi “bất khả chiến bại”.

Guardiola từng là một cầu thủ bóng đá chuyên nghiệp. Trong suốt 16 năm thi đấu, ông chỉ ghi được 26 bàn thắng. Không ai ngạc nhiên về điều này bởi vị trí ưa thích của cựu HLV Barca là tiền vệ trung tâm, chính xác hơn là vai trò của một “số 6”. Hồi còn chơi cho Barca, ông luôn có sẵn những tính toán về “đường đi nước bước” trước khi đưa ra những chỉ đạo cho toàn đội. Có thể nói, Pep chính là “HLV” của đội bóng xứ Catalunya ở trên sân. Đối với ông, chiến thắng chỉ đến khi đội bóng có một kế hoạch tốt và thi đấu gắn kết.
Trong khi đó, Estiarte lại là một cầu thủ chơi bóng nước. Ông chơi hay tới mức được người ta gán cho biệt danh danh là “Maradona dưới nước”. Trong suốt 6 năm từ 1986-1992, Estiarte liên tục được bầu chọn là cầu thủ xuất sắc nhất thế giới. Estiarte đã giành được tất cả các danh hiệu có thể, trong cả màu áo ĐTQG lẫn CLB. Với việc có tên trong danh sách ĐT Tây Ban Nha tham dự kì Olympic tại Sidney năm 2000 trước khi giải nghệ, Estiarte đã trở thành một trong những huyền thoại của lịch sử thể thao thế giới khi ông đã có 6 lần tham dự thế vận hội Olympic. Estiarte cũng đã trở thành một thành viên của Ủy ban Olympic Quốc tế sau một cuộc bình bầu được tổ chức tại Sidney với sự tham gia của 10.000 vận động viên.


Estiarte (trái) thời còn thi đấu

Thời còn thi đấu, Estiarte là một “sát thủ trong vòng cấm”. Ông đã ghi 1561 bàn thắng trong 578 lần khoác áo ĐTGQ. Ngoài ra, ông còn có một biệt danh khác: “Michael Jordan của bóng nước” vì Estiarte có khả năng một mình giải quyết trận đấu. Tuy nhiên, Estiarte cũng nổi tiếng với lối chơi cá nhân. Phải đến Olympic 1992, khi Estiarte lần thứ 4 liên tiếp trở thành cầu thủ ghi được nhiều bàn thắng nhất trong một kì thế vận hội nhưng ĐT bóng nước Tây Ban Nha lại không giành được huy chương vàng, như những gì mà các đồng nghiệp ở môn bóng đá nam (trong đó có Guardiola) đã làm được, ông mới nhận ra thực tế là mình chơi quá ích kỷ. Lúc này Estiarte bắt đầu suy nghĩ lại về lối chơi của mình. Nếu không quan tâm đến lối chơi đồng đội, ông sẽ chỉ được biết đến như một “kỉ lục gia” chứ không bao giờ là “một phần của đội tuyển vô địch thế giới.
Cùng với sự giúp đỡ của người bạn thân Guardiola, Estiarte đã lên một kế hoạch tập huấn khá khắc nghiệt để loại bỏ thói quen thi đấu ích kỉ của bản thân và nhường chỗ cho sự hòa nhập vào lối chơi tập thể. Sau đó, mặc dù Estiarte không còn là cầu thủ ghi nhiều bàn thắng nhất trong mỗi giải đấu mà Tây Ban Nha tham dự, nhưng ông luôn có được nụ cười chiến thắng cuối cùng.

Sau khi từ giã sự nghiệp thi đấu, Estiarte đã quyết định trở thành “cánh tay phải” của Guardiola. Với kinh nghiệm của một tay sàn bàn vĩ đại (tuy không phải trong lĩnh vực bóng đá), ông có thể giúp các học trò biết cách làm thế nào để xử lí thật tốt mỗi khi có cơ hội. Nhờ có sự hỗ trợ đắc lực của người cộng sự đắc lực Estiarte, Guardiola đã gặt hái được vô số thành công cùng Barca và lúc này ông cũng đang giúp Bayern bay cao ở tất cả những giải đấu mà đội bóng này tham dự. Read More

Ngón tay và xoắn tay

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Guardiola in Barca B

Josep Guardiola’s greatest achievement: Barça B (Part 1/4 )
January 21st, 2013


A couple of weeks ago it became clear that Europe’s most wanted coach, Josep Guardiola will coach Bayern Munich next season. Guardiola has had his share of fans as well as his critics. According to some he is the best coach in the world, to others he didn’t have to do anything at Barça to achieve success, his players did it for him. During his four years coaching FC Barcelona, Guardiola would win 14 trophies. Some say he never had to make hard decisions, he’d never been really challenged. It’s easy to win titles if you have the best team in the world at your disposal.

But what if you are in charge of a fourth division team lacking desire, a team without a soul, without a future. That’s how Barça B was described in 2007, the year Guardiola became their coach.

“What Pep did with Barça B is still of greater merit than what he did later with the first team” – It’s the words of Juanma Lillo former coach and considered as Guardiola’s mentor.

Juanma Lillo speaks the truth, however not many really know the story of what Pep did and what he achieved his first year coaching in charge of a fourth division team. Because even if Josep Guardiola would come to win fourteen trophies and become the most wanted coach in Europe, it’s a story that shows his talents coach. I will try to take you through it in a series of four parts.

- The begging for a ticking time bomb
- The letting go and building of a team
- The rules
- The success

The begging for a ticking bomb

In the first part, we will look back to how Guardiola got the job no one wanted. A job that was described as hell, as the biggest mistake he could make, they said it would ruin his coaching career before it even started. But it was the job Pep wanted, the job of coaching Barça B. But to get it, he had to work hard.

After getting his football education at La Masia, being a key player in Johan Cruyff’s dream team, and being falsely accused of doping in Italy. Guardiola enjoyed some fun time in Qatar and earned his coaching credentials in Mexico while playing under Lillo in Dorados de Sinaloa, Josep Guardiola decided to hang up his boots in 2006. Seven months later he was appointed head coach for FC Barcelona B.

Guardiola first broke the news that he’d been offered a job at FC Barcelona to his right hand man and best friend Manuel Estiarte, the Messi of water polo during his active days. He did it while the two enjoyed their vacation with their families on a beach in Pescara, Italy. However, the job Guardiola been offered was not the job he wanted, and would come to beg for.

Pep told his friend that he’d been offered a job at his childhood club as they walked down the beach. “Wow, Barcelona!” answered Manuel a bit shocked at the big news. Pep went on to describe that the job he’d been offered was to work as a technical director of the youth categories. As Manuel knew his friend well and that he liked to organize things and was great working with kids, he was a bit shocked when the next words from Guardiola that came out where, I don’t know, I don’t know. “What do you mean you don’t know!? You are going back to FC Barcelona!”. The problem was just that, Pep wanted to coach, “I want to work with the b-team, the second team. I see myself coaching them I want to start off there”. Manuel’s response was like many other would respond when Pep told them about his desire to coach Barça B; “But didn’t they just get regulated and are now in the fourth divisions!!??”.

However he knew when Pep had made up his mind that it could not be changed. Even though Manuel like many others thought his friend was about to commit a big mistake.

In the summer of 2007 Guardiola and Txiki Beguirstain meet to discuss Guardiola’s potential return to the club as Txiki wanted to make the former captain, the future director of youth football at the club. Guardiola politely thanked for the offer but said he wanted to coach.

Txiki: ‘Where? There is no vacancy for you in the first team even as an assistant to Rijkaard…
Pep: Give me the B team, in the fourth division.
Txiki: What?! You must be crazy. It’s a no-win. It’s easier to win the league with the first team than to gain promotion with Barça B.
Pep: Let me have control of the B team; I know what to do with them.

Txiki kept on insisting that the job they were offering him was way better than just the b-team, on a financial level as well and he would be in charge of the academy something a lot more prestigious. At the same time he tried make Pep realize that the B-team where in the fourth division!



It is worth remembering that back in 2007 Barça’s B-team was not that diamond mine of talents that it is today. It was a team in chaos that for the first time in thirty-four years had dropped down to the fourth division. But Guardiola knew what he wanted, he wanted to coach, and kept on saying that if they wouldn’t give him the b-team he could coach what ever team, what ever level, whether it be it juniors, infants, or any other team. “I could even work with the toddlers on a potato field” he would tell Txiki.

But Txiki was sure that the B-team was more or less a ticking time bomb he just couldn’t put in the hands of Guardiola, a legend and symbol at the club. “You could get your fingers burned trying to rescue that B team, you must be mad. And another thing: what will it look like if we dump Pep Guardiola, the club’s icon, in the fourth division? It doesn’t make sense!” he insisted.

His players have many times described Guardiola as someone with the power to change your mind. Xavi once said “If he believes something is white and you think it is black, you will en up believing that it is white”. While Dani Alvés expressed “If Pep told me to jump off the third tier of Camp Nou I would think there’s something good down there”. So in the end he would win over even Txiki, with his enthusiasm and ideas for the reserves. The director of football left the meeting and started digging, to see if Pep was as ready for the job as he insisted. He spoke to members of the academy set-up who had been on coaching courses with Pep and also his tutors. They all agreed that Pep had been one of the most brilliant students they had ever worked with. Soon the decision was taken. And Josep Guardiola was made head-coach of FC Barcelona B.

As Guardiola has been coaching the best team in the world at the Camp Nou during the last few years and now signed for Bayern Munich, his critics have accused him of being, scared, always taking the easy way out. That he’d always had a team of superstars that could be able to play the piano even without him, that he hasn’t been challenged yet in his career, and has always been surrounded by the Catalan media that take it upon themselves to protect him no matter what. Those critics have no clue about his year in the fourth division. There just can’t be many former top players who have turned down a big director’s role overseeing an entire academy set-up, in order to beg for the chance to take over coaching a failing reserve team. His friends would ask him if he was out of his mind, that the fourth division was hell and had nothing to do with the football he knew. They’d ask him if he really knew what he had gotten himself into. They made sure he knew he was in for an bumpy ride, this would not be easy. Pep always gave them the same response ‘I just want to coach’.

The second part will look into how Guardiola built up his team. And the tough decisions that had to be made, crushing a few dreams.

*Fourth Division = Tercera División
Sources:
“Pep Guardiola Another Way Of Winning” – Guillem Balague

 
Josep Guardiola’s greatest achievement: Barça B (Part 2/4 )
January 23rd, 2013


The building of a team

Josep Guardiola was presented as head coach of FC Barcelona B at Camp Nou on 21th June 2007.
“I am no one as a coach, that’s why I face this opportunity with such uncontrollable enthusiasm. I’ve come here prepared to help in any way necessary. I know the club and I hope to help these players and the idea of football that you have to grow. In fact, the best way of educating the players is to make them see that they can win. I hope the sense of privilege I feel is felt by everyone in the team.” – Guardiola to a full media room at the Camp Nou on his first day as head coach of FC Barcelona B on June 21, 2007 that day.

He knew the challenge he had taken on wasn’t an easy one, and he had been reminded by everyone around him that the fourth division was; hell. And it wouldn’t take long before his first and one of his hardest challenges as a coach came. As the B-team had been regulated to the fourth division the C-team had to disband. Meaning that Guardiola’s first order of business was consolidating two squads of players into one.

Between the two squads Pep had a total of 43 players, he would end up creating his new B-team squad consisting 24 players. From the C team he would keep six players while letting 17 go, while from the B team another six were kept and 15 had to leave. Two players, Bojan and Giovani dos Santos, were promoted to the first team. Adding to those 12 players, Guardiola brought up four players from the Juvenil A team, among them a certain Sergio Busquets. The other eight would be brought in from other clubs, later in his first season he would promote Cadet A player Gai Assulin. By bringing players over twenty-one to join the team for a maximum of two seasons Guardiola was taking a revolutionary step. He was breaking with traditions in the hope that he would raise standards and make the team more competitive. The so called back-bone players would become an important part of the b-team, they were part of system introduced by Guardiola that is still used today at MiniEstadi. But let’s take a closer look at that system.

By taking over at Barca-B, Josep Guardiola had no other choice than to let players go. It was one of the most difficult decisions he had to take as a coach, who to keep and who’s dream to crush. It was even tougher because of the young ages of the players which makes it is hard to know who would make it and who would not, for instance the club wanted to let Pedro go but Guardiola decided he would stay. Five years later Pedro has won everything possible to win in the world of football with Barça. There were other payers Pep had to turn down, and we will never know if any of their futures had looked different had they been kept.Anyway it was something that had to be done, and Guardiola was the one that had to do it. It was an unenviable task that had to be made after only six training sessions.

In a total 32 players would have to leave the club. That was 32 dreams of 32 kids that got crushed. From day one, Guardiola did not shy away from the tough decisions. As described by David Trueba in El Pàis, Guardiola did what he could to help those who no longer could stay:

“Pep wanted to find teams for the players he was letting go; he had to arrange meetings with their parents, holding back tears, dissolving the childhood dreams and vocations of those boys who thought that football was more important than life itself, who had put their studies on hold because they were boys who were called to succeed. Creating the squad was a “bricks and mortar” job, of intuition and strength, a dirty and thankless task. From one day to the next you had to decide if you were letting a lad called Pedrito leave the club to go to Gavá or if you were keeping him.”



La Masia – Guardiola’s greatest legacy.

In May of 2007, Barça B went into the hell of the fourth division. Barça B was a team without soul, nor future, without concrete and measurable objectives. It was a team that had been compromised by a lack of direction of a club that was solely concerned with the success of the first team. Everything was done with the short-term success of the club in mind. This practice meant that the youth system at Barça had hit a rock-wall, it was doomed with it’s b-team in a forgotten fourth division. The step from the b-team to the first team had never been bigger.

The youth team lacked a plan. Josep Guardiola arrived with one, and transform a doomed b-team and youth system to a diamond mine. I will not go into detail on how the plan Guardiola and his men designed in 2007 looked like; but you can find it explained by Martí Pernarnau here .

I will however explain in short the most vital part of the plan; the players. Guardiola and his staff would divide the squads players in to two categories; The ‘backbone’ players and the pearls.

The ‘backbone’ players were those players Guardiola often signed from other teams. They were the ones to hold the team together competitively. In general they were a bit older, experienced, restrained and without excess, placed by strategic form to maintain the competitive rhythm without holding back the growth of the ‘pearls’. In order to define the ‘backbone players’ one has to take into account their age, their type, their player profile, and their durability. They have to be between 21 and 26 years old, they should share similar distinct lines, in order to act as a support structure for the younger players. And they will stay at Barça B for no more than two years, to avoid holding back those below them. The individual objective will be for them to shine in the second team of the ‘Barça brand’ to later achieve a relevant professional exit. During Guardiola’s B-team season he’d have backbone players like; Córcoles, Chico, Dimas, Abraham, Espasandín, Xavi Torres and Victor Vázquez.

The pearls were those players that came from within the club from the Juvenil level. They would be grouped into two blocks: youth completely formed (those who between one and two years should take the jump to the first team) and youth in their last year (still at Juvenil), that would have a margin between 1.5 to 2.5 years to confirm themselves. The pearls would have three different phases to go through before joining the first team permanent.

Phase 1. Under their first phase their only obligation is to compete. Nothing is expected from them and they are not penalized for their errors. But are expected to get to know the professional method and acquire minutes.

Phase 2. In this phase the player should feel like he forms a permanent part of the structure and his contribution is decisive: he is responsible for his general performance.

Phase 3. The last phase defines the future of the pearl. He will enter the group of players closest to the first team and acquire the status of key player in the b-team. He now has the obligation to carry the team and guarantee its competitiveness. He is also directly responsible for the evolution of the team. It’s in this phase his future will be decided.

Each of the phases is seen as a period between six to nine months. A player that arrives at the B team will do so after finalizing his junior stage in the Juvenil teams and will then have two years to show his worth in the B-team. The progress, potential and possibility of moving to the first team will be evaluated in detail. If that is not possible, the player will have acquired a recognizable profile and excellent values that will allow him to continue his career with other clubs.

If their talent is extraordinary the progress can be accelerated, but they can never avoid the three phases. During Guardiola’s B-team season he’d have pearls like: Marc Valiente, Victor Sánchez, Jeffren, Urbano, Rueda, Marc Crosas, Toribio, Pedro, Pau Torres, Oier, Iago Falqué, Botía, Sergio Busquets, Gai Assulin and Thiago Alcántara. Some of them took the step to the first team, some arrived and could not confirm their talent, and others would later come to leave the club. Oier is still at the B-team.

This is a system, a plan that is still followed today and in the past years the pearls in the B-team have included players like: Fontàs, Montoya, Planas, Rochina, Oriol Romeu, Bartra, Muniesa, Sergi Gómez and Sergi Roberto among others.

The success experienced by Barça B and the club’s youth system in the last few years is thanks to Guardiola and his staff. It is now not just a bunch of players that come and go, but an authentic formative school, with plans and strictly programmed and measurable phases and with its objectives laid out. What Pep laid the ground to is today seen as the most important strategical decision made by Barça in the past decade. And thanks to it we are today witnesses to an explosion of promising youngsters arriving to the first team to win a spot. And in 2012 we witnessed FC Barcelona play a game with eleven home-grown players.With a B-team like the one that got regulated in 2007, that would never have been possible.

The third part will look into how Guardiola made his fourth division team more professional, the rules he sat and what happened when players didn’t listen to him.

*Fourth Division = Tercera División
Sources:
“Pep Guardiola Another Way Of Winning” – Guillem Balague
El Pàis
El Mundo Deportivo
totalBarça
FCBarcelona.cat


Josep Guardiola’s greatest achievement: Barça B (Part 3/4 )
January 25th, 2013

The rules

Barcelona B were a fourth division team, but that did not mean that Guardiola did not create an atmosphere as close to a first division team as he could. From the start Guardiola made sure of this by introducing a series of routines and working habits, systems and methodologies. He wanted to control everything, the players diets, rest and recuperation time. He would make sure to scout opponents by recording their games and using his assistants and staff to compile detailed match reports. On occasions if he didn’t feel he had enough information about a team he would simply go to their matches himself. He would come to be just as demanding with himself as he was with his players and always explain to them why he was asking them to do something. Just as he would later on with the first team, Guardiola is a perfectionist, addicted to getting things right. He would always be the first to arrive and last to leave. He would demand daily reports and updates from his staff. Nothing was left to chance. Once again to remind you, this was the fourth division!



The newest crop of youngsters benefiting from Guardiola’s legacy.

In his book “Pep Guardiola, Another way of winning” Guillem Balague explains that Guardiola in his first speech as a coach would tell his players that: He could live with them playing badly now and again, but he demanded 100 per cent on the pitch in every single game. He wanted the team to act as professionals even if they weren’t yet considered so and to be competitive in everything they did. “The aim is to gain promotion and in order to do that we have to win and we can’t do that without effort” he told them. He would also point out that the attacking players would need to become the best defenders and the defenders would have to become the first line of attack. And what no matter what happened, the playing style was non-negotiable. “The philosophy behind this club’s style of play is known by everyone. And I believe in it. And I feel it. I hope to be able to transmit it to everyone. We have to be ambitious and we have to win promotion, there’s no two ways about it. We have to be able to dominate the game, and make sure we aren’t dominated ourselves.”

Pep is a perfectionist and one who will never leave anything to chance. Therefore he had to trust the people surrounding him. So it was natural that his staff would consist his right hand man Tito Vilanova; the rehabilitation coach Emili Ricart; and the fitness coach Aureli Alimira a group of colleagues who had been inseparable since the time they first met as kids at La Masia. As Guillem Balagaue goes on to explain in his book; the group quickly became aware that the technical quality of the players they had at their disposal was never in doubt: because of selection processes involved, every player at La Masia had above average technique after more than two decades favoring intelligent youngsters who could play the ball rather than being considered for their physiological characteristics. However, Pep realized that in order to make the team a success he needed to add intensity and an increased work rate to their technical abilities. And above all they had to learn to win.

Just like would later happen when Pep coached the first team, he would lose his first game coaching Barça B. At both occasions it would get the critics going. Guardiola “had more style than power” would one journalist write while others questioned if he really was ready to be a coach. Soon after the stumbling start to the season, Guardiola went to meet Johan Cruyff asking for advice. He had two players he didn’t know what to do with, he couldn’t control them, they wouldn’t listen to what he said and he had noticed that it had started to affect how the rest of the squad received his messages. The problem was that it was two of his leaders in the dressing room and the best players. “Get rid of them, you might lose one or two games but then you will start winning and by then you would have turfed those two sons of bitches out of the team” was the advice from the dutch legend. Pep listened to it and got rid of the pair, establishing his power in the dressing room and sending a clear message to the rest. He would later make a similar decision in the first team getting Ronaldinho and Deco to pack their bags. The team would start to play better and win games.

If the b-team had been sloppy before that would not happen under Guardiola. He would make sure from the start what he expected from his player, if a telling off was needed he would give one. If a fine had to be given he would give it. In December 2007 Barça B were leading 2-0 away to Masnou going into the second half. But they would throw away their lead and allowed the opposition to salvage a point. One of the players would later recall to El País that “The telling-off was tremendous” from Guardiola that day. “He closed the dressing room door and told us that many of us didn’t deserve to wear the shirt – that these team’s colors represented many people and feelings we hadn’t done them justice. We we terrified” the player remembered.

When the Catalan daily newspaper Sport in October 2007 revealed what Guardiola had said to his players on another occasion in the dressing room. One of the players explained that “When he saw his words repeated in print, he went mad and said that divulging dressing-room tales to the press was betraying team-mates”

On another occasion Guardiola would drop one of his star players and captain Marc Valiente simply because the player had left the gym five minutes early. “No weights, No games” were the words Guardiola justified his decision with.

As the season went on some of his players would be called up for games and training sessions with the first team. But it would not change their status nor prevent Guardiola from making an example of them. Just three games into the season he hauled off Marc Crosas in the forty-sixth minute of the match. According to a player “Crosas got a right telling off at half-time for not running. As soon he lost the ball in the second half he was taken straight off”. It gave an indication to the rest of the team, as one of the younger players in the squad explained “We saw him doing that to a first-teamer and thought, what would he do to us?”.



The study room at the old La Masia. Inspiration for the next generation.

“This isn’t the fourth division, this is the Barça reserve team – not anyone can be here” Guardiola once told his players. Yet the honor of playing for the club was way beyond wearing the shirt at match days. Pep would demand high standards from his players at all time, both on and off the field. he would ban the use of mobile phones at the training ground and on the team bus. Players would be fined €120 if they were late to training and had a twelve o’clock curfew, if they were caught breaking it once they’d be fined €1,500, twice and it went up to €3,000 a third time and they were out of the door. The reserve team goalkeeper coach Carles Busquets was once asked how it was to have Pep as his boss.  “You’d be scared” was his answer. Only now will he admit that he used to sneak round to the parking lot for a cigarette as Pep had banned everyone from smoking in or around the training ground.

If you haven’t already realized it, Pep took his job extremely serious almost like every game was about life or death. And occasionally the mask slipped from the cool, calm, collected coach. Which led to even Guardiola having fines to pay as he was shown three red cards during the season. However he quickly decided that instead of trying to bottle up his emotions at the touchline he would simply use his Italian so that match officials couldn’t understand the tirade of four-letter abuse that was being directed at them.

Guillem Balague explains in his book that: One of the reasons that Guardiola had been so eager to test himself and his ideas with a team in the lower divisions was because he wanted to confirm a personal theory: that a reserve team, like any other, could serve as a university of football; because all teams behave, react and respond the same way. Whether superstars or Sunday league, there’s always a player who is jealous of a teammate, another who is late, a joker, an obedient one fearful of punishment and eager to please, a quiet one, a rebel… It was also education because it helped prepare for the fact that every opponent is different: some are offensive, others timid, some defend in their own box, others counter-attack.Working with the B-team gave Guardiola the perfect opportunity to try and find solutions to the kind of problems he would encounter working with a higher profile team: yet enable him to do so away from the spotlight and glare of the media.

The fourth and last part will look into how Guardiola motivated his team to get the absolute best out of themselves, their success and how Txiki begged Pep to take over the first team.

*Fourth Division = Tercera División
Sources:
“Pep Guardiola Another Way Of Winning” – Guillem Balague
El Pàis
Sport


Josep Guardiola’s greatest achievement: Barça B (Part 4/4 )
January 27th, 2013

The success

Growing up at La Masia himself, Guardiola knew exactly how to motivate his players to get the most out of them. He would often play the “It’s an honor to play for Barça” card, or similar. Making his players take note of the shirt they were wearing and ensuring they knew they were not only representing a fourth division team, they were representing Barça. As the season went on Pep would find solutions to the teams problems, relying on instinct and experience to motivate, inspire and get the best out of them. When the team reached the promotion play-offs, he told them “We’ve made it this far together, now it’s time for YOU to win promotion.”

Another way he would motivate his players was by taking them to lunch if they won three games in a row. It became more expensive than he’d thought as he would end up taking the team out three times that season.
Sometimes he would motivate his players by given them challenges. When the youngster Gai Assulin returned after making his first team debut with the Israeli national team, Pep would tell him: “This weekend – go out and score a goal.” Gai would make two assist and score the third goal in the game that weekend.

Guardiola had a lot to transmit to his players, but he was still humble. And knew that defensive work wasn’t his strong side, so when needed he would take help. Juanma Lillo saw all the games of Barça B team that season and directly after each game Guardiola would call him for advice. Each week Pep would also go to the defensive training session set up by Rodolf Borrell (now at Liverpool) who coached one of the clubs youth teams. Pep went there to observe and learn.



Txiki Begiristain and Pep Guardiola, the architects of the current FC Barcelona.

If the B team had been neglected in recent times, then Guardiola’s influence saw it transformed and given a makeover, blowing away the cobwebs and raising its profile, while instilling a new regime of professionalism that was missing even at the first team. The B-team went on to win the fourth division after 25 wins, 8 draws and five losses.  In the play-offs they would draw 0-0 away to Castillo CF before trashing their opponent at home with 6-0. They would then go on to win 2-0 away and 1-0 at home against UD Barbastro as they won promotion to Segunda division B, just as Pep had promised Txiki while he begged for the job a few months earlier.  On the road, the youngster; Sergio Busquets brought up from the Juvenil A team had worked his way from the bench into the team to become their best player. From four tiers down in the Spanish league, Pedro and Busquets would become household names and world champions within two years under Pep’s guiding hand.

Guardiola’s success would also bring Txiki Beguristain to the MiniEstadi watching more reserve games than he had done in his four years as director of football at Barça. Txiki realized that he was watching the development of something that later could be used in the first team. As Pep would occasionally use a 3-4-3 system, a system that hardly been used at the club since the days Guardiola himself was playing, the days of the dream team. Pep would play with a false number nine, a position best illustrated if you look back at Lionel Messi’s match at the Bernabeu in Barcelona’s 2-6 victory? Sometimes Pep would even deploy Busquets, a central midfielder as a striker with three playing behind him. Pep’s do-or-die attitude from the sidelines as well as his off the pitch behavior. Suggested for Txiki that he was a leader, ready for management. Ready to lead at any level any team.

At MiniEstadi, Barça B were met by the biggest crowd in years, people had come to see the youngsters celebrate their promotion on the pitch like they had won a Champions League final. People had started to take notice of Guardiola’s achievements. Juanma Lillo was one of them “What Pep did with Barça B is still of greater merit than what he did later with the first team. You only have to see how the side played at the start of the season in the fourth division with “terrestrial, earthy” players and how they were playing by the end. The group progressed as a whole, but also the players as individuals. I still laugh when I remember that people said Pep was too inexperienced to take over Barça B, let alone the first team.”

When the celebrations at MiniEstadi were ongoing, with players who had improved and behaved professionally. The first team had been declining. It’s players had got lazy, discipline did not exist, and Barça would end the season at third place 18 points behind Real Madrid.



Frank Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola

It would not take long until it was Txiki that begged Guardiola, who wasn’t sure he was ready, to take over the first team. Pep would change his mind as he witnessed the collapse of the first team. He would come to the conclusion that Txiki was right, Barcelona needed a change. It was the day his youngsters played behind closed doors against the first team. Pep would discover that Rijkaard was smoking, Ronaldinho was taken off after ten minutes, Deco was clearly tired and the reserve boys still in the fourth division were running the first team ragged. After a while one of Rijkaards staff members went up to Guardiola and asked him to tell his players to ease off a little.

Pep had doubted if he was ready to manage the first team but this told him that he could do a better job then what was currently being done.

And so the next story, the famous one of the coach Josep Guardiola would start.

*Fourth Division = Tercera División
Sources:
“Pep Guardiola Another Way Of Winning” – Guillem Balague
futbolme.com

Nguồn: footballcantera.com

How Pep Guardiola set out to change Barcelona from day one in Spain's third division
Apr 27, 2012 1:30:00 PM

As Goal.com learned from an extract from Graham Hunter's book on the Blaugrana, the 41-year-old's decision to step down comes as no surprise

Pep Guardiola won it all as coach of Barcelona before confirming his intention to resign at the end of the 2011-12 campaign but his announcement will not come as a shock to those who have followed his career closely

In 2003 there were epoch-defining presidential elections at Camp Nou. Joan Laporta would win, and the good times would roll, but his closest rival was Luis Bassat.

Bassat had been smart enough to identify Pep Guardiola, then still playing with Roma, as a brilliant asset for the club. The candidate for the presidency of FC Barcelona wanted him to become coach, aged only 32.
He remembers: “When I ran for the presidency in 2003 I went to Rome to sign Pep. I knew he was a clever guy who loved Barca and would work hard for the club. We talked for six hours and he convinced me that he wasn’t coach material yet. He hadn’t sat the coaching licence by then.

“So I changed my mind and decided that he would be better as my future director of football.He would have been brilliant, just as he is a brilliant coach now.”

Bassat finished second in the polls and Guardiola went back to playing and preparing for his future. He achieved his coaching badges and, almost immediately, was appointed coach of Barca B.


A Catalan symbol | Pep Guardiola is revered in Barcelona

When, in June 2007, a brains trust of Laporta, Johan Cruyff, Txiki Begiristain, the director of football, and Evarist Murtra, a board member, decided that Guardiola should be repatriated, there was a horrible atmosphere around the club, because the decline of Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona, in one year, had been so steep.

Guardiola, though unproven, already had the air of a fresh, urgent, hungry leader. At his presentation as Barca B coach, he said: “What I was as a player is gone. As a coach I’m nobody and I’m starting from zero. Only winning will bring me credibility, that’s my only way to grow as a coach.

“The priority here is to continue producing first-class footballers, but if I don’t win, if we don’t achieve promotion, then I won’t be allowed to continue here. That’s the way things are.

“I didn’t have any other offer and for that I must thank Barca, because if they hadn’t come looking for me, I’d be sitting at home. The first thing I want to do is transmit the pride and honour that I feel at being involved with this club again. I don’t view this as working in the third division, but working for Barca B. The players shouldn’t think they are playing in the third division, but pushing at the doors of the first team.”

Guardiola, though unproven, already had the air of a fresh, urgent, hungry leader.At his presentation as Barca B coach, he said: Only winning will give me credibility, that's my only way to grow as a coach

Laporta, never short of a bon mot, later recalled: “From what we could sense, Pep would probably have accepted coaching Barca B without a salary.”

There was a telling moment before the first home game, in the 15,000-capacity Mini Estadi about 100 metres from Camp Nou. His enthusiastic players were trying to impress in training and Guardiola could be heard shouting: “I don’t want you all trying to dribble like Leo Messi - pass it, pass it and pass it again. Pass precisely, move well, pass again, pa.ss, pass, and pass.

“I want every move to be smart, every pass accurate – that’s how we make the difference from the rest of the teams, that’s all I want to see.”

Much of what we see now was available at a cheaper ticket price then. Full-backs became wing-backs, wingers cut inside to make five forwards when the wing-backs overlapped, Sergio Busquets cut his teeth at pivote and often dropped back to help at the back when the original 4-3-3 went to a 3-4-3. The central striker and the two interiors (right and left midfield) combined to press if the opposition tried to play the ball from the back.

Pass it, pass it and pass it again. Pass precisely, move well, pass again, pass, pass and pass

Barca B went 21 games unbeaten at home and won the third division by a point. There was also the emergence of what would become most famous in the pre-match build up to the Rome Champions League final in 2009 – the motivational video. Fifteen minutes before the final game of the season, the decisive second leg of the play-off with Barbastro, Guardiola showed a video of a 60-year-old father and his son, who suffers from cerebral palsy, competing together in an Ironman contest. In many of the events, the father has to carry his son. Some players later admitted that they went out to play with tears nipping at their eyes.Ten thousand fans in the Mini Estadi saw a Victor Vazquez goal seal promotion back to the Segunda B division.

By then, Guardiola had known for a few months that he was likely to succeed Rijkaard the following season, so this was one hell of a way to sign off from his first coaching job.

Nguồn: goal.com Read More