Some consider Pep Guardiola the greatest manager in the world after his achievements in La Liga and the Bundesliga.
Others, well Peter Schmeichel at least, think the Spaniard was “lucky” at Barcelona and “boring” at Bayern Munich.
Tough crowd!
Schmeichel remains unwilling to jump aboard the Pep bandwagon just yet and ahead of the Manchester derby, the legendary goalkeeper, who is one of few players in history to have lined out for both Manchester clubs, has explained why Guardiola’s all important philosophy doesn’t necessarily lend itself to excitement.
“He was okay at Bayern Munich. I have to say he was okay,” Schmeichel told Omnisport. “For me, personally, he changed a really good, entertaining team to be become more boring to watch.
“Whereas Bayern before were very direct, they won the treble, had quick players and were exciting to watch, he made them play more square. He changed the players, but you can’t argue with his results.”
Guardiola became one of the hottest managerial properties following his time with Barcelona as he guided the Catalan giants to three La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and two Copa del Reys.
But Schmeichel has written Guardiola’s success with Barcelona off as a stroke of good fortune to be in charge of a crop players which included Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi and, again, called Guardiola’s footballing mentality into question.
“With Pep, he comes in with an incredible reputation. What he did with Barcelona was fantastic, his work was fantastic, but he was also very lucky he had the players to bring in the philosophy that he has in football,” he said.
“So whereas Alex Ferguson’s first priority was ‘we have to be able to score goals’ – for most coaches that’s the priority – with Pep it’s possession, I want to have as much possession as possible.
“So the philosophy goes to ‘I want to have so much possession that at some point we’ll score a goal from that, the goals will come from possession’ and that’s his philosophy.
“That’s what we’ll see at Manchester City or he’s going to introduce that. He was very lucky he had the players at Barcelona but he was clever in what he did.”
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