There are a lot of people who can't seem to bring themselves to give Guardiola the credit he deserves for this team. Personally, I am of the opinion that those who can't see the immense tactical and coaching influence of this barca side simply don't understand football. So I thought I'd start a thread to try and show the demonstrable influence of Guardiola you aren't likely to get from other coaches:
Lionel Messi: More than any other player, Guardiola has shaped Messi into the player he is today. Look at the player he was under Rijkard. World class player, he was nevertheless half the player he is today. He was largely sequestered to the wing and scored 16-17 goals a season, quite respectable for a world class winger really. One of the things that received a lot of focus when Guardiola came in was that he wasn't happy with Messi's game at all. His physique was not what it should be, he didn't work well for the team, his movement was less than stellar and he didn't score enough goals.
Messi developed from scoring 17 and then 16 goals a season to scoring 38, then 47 and now 53 goals a season. Under Rijkaard, 13 assists was his highest for a season. This year it is 24. Guardiola's role in this is undeniable. I don't think anyone saw a great goalscorer in Messi before Guardiola took over. He was a 10, to be groomed a creator in the mould of Maradona, Zidane and Ronaldinho. Guardiola had other plans.
He kept him on the wing for a season while developing all those aspects. of his game before moving him more and more into the centre last season and permanently this year. But ask yourself for a moment how other managers would utilise Messi? 99 out of a 100 managers would stick him in a conventional '10' role between the lines or on the wing with license to roam. Only Spalletti has dared to build the team around his main man in anything approaching the same unorthodox fashion as Guardiola uses Messi in. It is this unorthodox role that makes Messi so hard to mark and allows him to escape his markers to participate in the build more efficiently than he could in a more conventional '10' role while also enabling him to get on the end of more chances. And significantly, with Pedro and Villa's movement, Guardiola's Barca are much better set up to make the most of their 'false 9' than Spalletti's Roma was, the gulf in sheer quality notwithstanding.
Xavi: If Messi has profited more than anyone else from Guardiola's guidance and tactics, Xavi is not far behind. Just as messi was second fiddle to Ronaldinho's violin under Rijkaard, Xavi was very much playing second fiddle in midfield to the best playmaker of that era in Deco. Xavi actually owes much to both coaches. A bright talent from the beginning, he looked in danger of becoming a rich man's De La Pena after a succession of less than impressive coaches since Van Gaal's last great team and none of them brought out the best in him. Rijkaard saw what the others didn't and took Xavi out of the Guardiola role in holding midfield his predecessors had, quite naturally, groomed him for and moved him further up the pitch. Though Davids took the plaudits for Barca's resurgence that season, Xavi was in fact the pivot in midfield in this new role. A pivot that was passed on to Deco the next season. The Brazilian not only worked harder and better tracking back than Xavi, he was also better at providing the through-balls for the attackers and became the general in a midfield that, in itself an unorthodox sight at the time, had two playmakers lined up next to each other in midfield.
It was Guardiola however, who coaches him to the next level. He ruthlessly shipped out Deco in response to the loss of drive and hunger the Brazilian had showed in his last season in favour of handing those responsibilities over to Iniesta and positioned Xavi as his main man in midfield. Attacks and combinations all flowed through Xavi now to a much greater extent, his own role was more mobile than before and Xavi grew in statre with the added responsibility. Under Guardiola, Xavi grew from being a world class midfielder among quite a few others to being the world's best midfielder bar none.
Faith in his own crop: Many have voiced the opinion that Guardiola was lucky in that he inherited the best set of players in the world and didn't need to do all that much to make it work. I guess he was lucky, but let's go back to 2008 and look at the players people would have singled out to back up this claim back then:
Ronaldinho, Messi, Eto'o, Deco & Henry. Players who were, or ought to be when they weren't underperforming, the very best in the world in their positions. Guardiola's job was clear, wasn't it? Just find a way to get the best out of these players again and you can't fail. But once again, Guardiola had other ideas. He shipped out Ronaldinho and Deco, the leaders and most important players to Rijkaard's double titlle winning and CL winning side post-haste. Eto'o and and Henry were retained for one more season and Guardiola did in fact get as much as one could ask for out of them. But they didn't fit properly into his vision of how Barca should look and were shipped out as well. Four world class players, three of whom the side was built around when he came in and yet Guardiola jad other plans.
Henry found himself ousted by academy graduate Pedro. Deco's responsibilities were handed over in full to academy graduate Iniesta, who had been staking a good claim for these in Rijkard's final season anyway. Eto'o was replaced first by the only moderate success Zlatan and finally by Villa who fitted into his philosophy better, despite not being able to quite replicate his goalscoring exploits for Valencia so far. Yaya Toure and Rafael Marquez, also important first team players under Rijkaard, also found themselves ousted by Catalonian youngsters as Guardiola introduced Pique and Busquets without hesitation and remarkably: Utterly seamlessly.
Tactics: One thing Guardiola could benefit from from his predecessor was the template of Cruyff's footballing philosophy already embedded into the team and club. Both were appointed, as managers with unimpressive CVs, at Cruyff's recommendation and shared the same basic outlook. Cruyff's dream team was arguably more imaginative than either of these sides. But Rijkaard added new aspects to Cruyff's philosophy. Aggressive pressing off the ball and a more high paced passing game than what Cruyff favoured. A more modern approach for the modern game.
When Guardiola took over, he added his own interpretation. He went back to Cruyff's own idea of more patient buildup alternating with explosive change of pace to catch the opposition off guard. He introduced more dynamic, fluid and unorthodox positionining for the front five than what Rijkaard or Cruyff did and perhaps most significantly: He made Rijkaard's ideas of pressing off the ball look positively pedestrian.
Guardiola has more than anyone expanded the limits of how effective and aggressive pressing off the ball can be done and the rest of the footballing world have yet to even attempt to catch up. There has quite simply never been a team in modern football history who put teams hard into the clamp and dominate possession to such extreme degrees as this Barcelona team. And the credit for that is all Guardiola's.
The brilliance that Barcelona's players create from their possession play is a credit to the exceptional talent in the team. But the work ethos and historically unparalleled ball retention that is the platform for all this is Guardiola's creation and his sole credit. The star players he had at his disposal who couldn't live up to his ideas were offloaded and the players who could were made into better players than they could have been without it.
Lionel Messi: More than any other player, Guardiola has shaped Messi into the player he is today. Look at the player he was under Rijkard. World class player, he was nevertheless half the player he is today. He was largely sequestered to the wing and scored 16-17 goals a season, quite respectable for a world class winger really. One of the things that received a lot of focus when Guardiola came in was that he wasn't happy with Messi's game at all. His physique was not what it should be, he didn't work well for the team, his movement was less than stellar and he didn't score enough goals.
Messi developed from scoring 17 and then 16 goals a season to scoring 38, then 47 and now 53 goals a season. Under Rijkaard, 13 assists was his highest for a season. This year it is 24. Guardiola's role in this is undeniable. I don't think anyone saw a great goalscorer in Messi before Guardiola took over. He was a 10, to be groomed a creator in the mould of Maradona, Zidane and Ronaldinho. Guardiola had other plans.
He kept him on the wing for a season while developing all those aspects. of his game before moving him more and more into the centre last season and permanently this year. But ask yourself for a moment how other managers would utilise Messi? 99 out of a 100 managers would stick him in a conventional '10' role between the lines or on the wing with license to roam. Only Spalletti has dared to build the team around his main man in anything approaching the same unorthodox fashion as Guardiola uses Messi in. It is this unorthodox role that makes Messi so hard to mark and allows him to escape his markers to participate in the build more efficiently than he could in a more conventional '10' role while also enabling him to get on the end of more chances. And significantly, with Pedro and Villa's movement, Guardiola's Barca are much better set up to make the most of their 'false 9' than Spalletti's Roma was, the gulf in sheer quality notwithstanding.
Xavi: If Messi has profited more than anyone else from Guardiola's guidance and tactics, Xavi is not far behind. Just as messi was second fiddle to Ronaldinho's violin under Rijkaard, Xavi was very much playing second fiddle in midfield to the best playmaker of that era in Deco. Xavi actually owes much to both coaches. A bright talent from the beginning, he looked in danger of becoming a rich man's De La Pena after a succession of less than impressive coaches since Van Gaal's last great team and none of them brought out the best in him. Rijkaard saw what the others didn't and took Xavi out of the Guardiola role in holding midfield his predecessors had, quite naturally, groomed him for and moved him further up the pitch. Though Davids took the plaudits for Barca's resurgence that season, Xavi was in fact the pivot in midfield in this new role. A pivot that was passed on to Deco the next season. The Brazilian not only worked harder and better tracking back than Xavi, he was also better at providing the through-balls for the attackers and became the general in a midfield that, in itself an unorthodox sight at the time, had two playmakers lined up next to each other in midfield.
It was Guardiola however, who coaches him to the next level. He ruthlessly shipped out Deco in response to the loss of drive and hunger the Brazilian had showed in his last season in favour of handing those responsibilities over to Iniesta and positioned Xavi as his main man in midfield. Attacks and combinations all flowed through Xavi now to a much greater extent, his own role was more mobile than before and Xavi grew in statre with the added responsibility. Under Guardiola, Xavi grew from being a world class midfielder among quite a few others to being the world's best midfielder bar none.
Faith in his own crop: Many have voiced the opinion that Guardiola was lucky in that he inherited the best set of players in the world and didn't need to do all that much to make it work. I guess he was lucky, but let's go back to 2008 and look at the players people would have singled out to back up this claim back then:
Ronaldinho, Messi, Eto'o, Deco & Henry. Players who were, or ought to be when they weren't underperforming, the very best in the world in their positions. Guardiola's job was clear, wasn't it? Just find a way to get the best out of these players again and you can't fail. But once again, Guardiola had other ideas. He shipped out Ronaldinho and Deco, the leaders and most important players to Rijkaard's double titlle winning and CL winning side post-haste. Eto'o and and Henry were retained for one more season and Guardiola did in fact get as much as one could ask for out of them. But they didn't fit properly into his vision of how Barca should look and were shipped out as well. Four world class players, three of whom the side was built around when he came in and yet Guardiola jad other plans.
Henry found himself ousted by academy graduate Pedro. Deco's responsibilities were handed over in full to academy graduate Iniesta, who had been staking a good claim for these in Rijkard's final season anyway. Eto'o was replaced first by the only moderate success Zlatan and finally by Villa who fitted into his philosophy better, despite not being able to quite replicate his goalscoring exploits for Valencia so far. Yaya Toure and Rafael Marquez, also important first team players under Rijkaard, also found themselves ousted by Catalonian youngsters as Guardiola introduced Pique and Busquets without hesitation and remarkably: Utterly seamlessly.
Tactics: One thing Guardiola could benefit from from his predecessor was the template of Cruyff's footballing philosophy already embedded into the team and club. Both were appointed, as managers with unimpressive CVs, at Cruyff's recommendation and shared the same basic outlook. Cruyff's dream team was arguably more imaginative than either of these sides. But Rijkaard added new aspects to Cruyff's philosophy. Aggressive pressing off the ball and a more high paced passing game than what Cruyff favoured. A more modern approach for the modern game.
When Guardiola took over, he added his own interpretation. He went back to Cruyff's own idea of more patient buildup alternating with explosive change of pace to catch the opposition off guard. He introduced more dynamic, fluid and unorthodox positionining for the front five than what Rijkaard or Cruyff did and perhaps most significantly: He made Rijkaard's ideas of pressing off the ball look positively pedestrian.
Guardiola has more than anyone expanded the limits of how effective and aggressive pressing off the ball can be done and the rest of the footballing world have yet to even attempt to catch up. There has quite simply never been a team in modern football history who put teams hard into the clamp and dominate possession to such extreme degrees as this Barcelona team. And the credit for that is all Guardiola's.
The brilliance that Barcelona's players create from their possession play is a credit to the exceptional talent in the team. But the work ethos and historically unparalleled ball retention that is the platform for all this is Guardiola's creation and his sole credit. The star players he had at his disposal who couldn't live up to his ideas were offloaded and the players who could were made into better players than they could have been without it.
