Good read, Arthur.=d>

All the talk of sweeper keepers isnt new Petar Borata was the first in the late 70's early 80's and an inspiration to younger keepers at the time.

Bundesliga | 05.09.2014 15:52:01
pep the perfectionist happy to work behind closed doors

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Bundesliga | 05.09.2014 15:52:01
pep the perfectionist happy to work behind closed doors

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The former Barcelona man makes insists he and his players need "peace and quiet" to work, despite the wishes of fans to watch them training public
Pep Guardiola's style is to plan every element of the way he coaches Bayern down to a tee
Like his coach, new signing Xabi Alonso attempted his first press conference in German, which is the language Guardiola encourages all his players to communicate in
The former Barcelona man makes insists he and his players need "peace and quiet" to work, despite the wishes of fans to watch them training public
Pep Guardiola's style is to plan every element of the way he coaches Bayern down to a tee

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Munich - After 45 minutes of waiting, the fans slowly become restless. Several hundred of them have gathered at FC Bayern München’s training ground hoping to catch a glimpse of their idols, but the players are nowhere to be seen.

Instead, Pep Guardiola has his charges doing their daily drills out of sight, despite this being a scheduled public training session. For the Catalan tactician, it’s simply another day at a club where he has wasted no time in making his own stylistic adjustments.
‘No distractions’


When current USA boss Jürgen Klinsmann was named Bayern coach in 2008, he turned much of the club's internal structures inside out in an effort to make the club more accessible to the average fan. The process was continued by his successors Louis van Gaal and Jupp Heynckes, the latter emphasising quality instead of quantity by reducing the number of public training sessions but allowing supporters even greater access to the players. “It’s a wonderful thing for the fans,” said the veteran coach while still in charge. “[Public training sessions] are part and parcel of what this club does.”

The custom is somewhat different in Spain, however, and Guardiola has adopted a more enclosed approach. “Sometimes you need to work with no distractions,” rationalises the former FC Barcelona man. On the pitch his signature is control, possession and domination of the game and the opposition; off it he is the meticulous conductor of the Bayern orchestra, obsessively planning every element of his team’s development, and happy to do so behind closed doors.
‘Know the club better’


It is now over a year since the Santpedor native arrived in Munich, and he says he now knows how the club ticks, and how its intricacies and habits affect his work. “I know the league, this club and above all my players a bit better now,” he said in the summer. “I’m more relaxed and I don’t feel as nervous as I did last season.”

On this warm September morning, he eventually sends his players off to train in front of the assembled supporters, assigning them passing, shooting, five-a-side and stretching exercises, participating either with passionate gestures or by joining in himself. He nevertheless makes sure to keep the most important messages private, taking every opportunity to whisper a word of wisdom in the ear of Franck Ribery or new signing Medhi Benatia.
‘Have to adapt’


Guardiola is keen to establish a collective philosophy that every player can buy into. Just as he did himself back in June 2013, new signing Xabi Alonso, one of five Spanish players at the club, attempted his first press conference in German last week, and even though a multitude of languages are spoken on the training ground, the coach is unequivocal about which is the primary mode of communication. “The main language here is German. Us Spanish just have to adapt.”

Following victory against VfL Wolfsburg and a hard-fought draw against FC Schalke 04, the Reds have made an adequate start to the campaign. Yet the injury list is mounting (Javi Martinez, Thiago and Bastian Schweinsteiger are all currently sidelined) and the pace is already being set by Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the top of the league. Guardiola knows there is work to do to recover, and will have already begun plotting just how to do that in his own inimitable way.

Maximilian Lotz / Bernie Reeves

This article is part two of our ‘Guardiola’s Bayern’ series, which began this week.
http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2014/0000300978.php

Guardiola vs. Heynckes: More flexible, more risky
Bundesliga | 06.09.2014 14:39:58

Cologne - On 24 June 2014, Pep Guardiola stepped into the FC Bayern München hotseat vacated by the legendary Jupp Heynckes, who had guided the record titleholders to an historic treble of Bundesliga, DFB Cup and UEFA Champions League titles the previous season. While both tacticians have enjoyed unprecedented success in their careers, their coaching philosophies could hardly be more different.

Guardiola had everything to lose when he took over the reins at the Allianz Arena last summer: Bayern’s treble-winning campaign was the most successful in their history - the best the Catalan could do was emulate that incredible feat. He certainly had little hope of outdoing his predecessor. According to the statistics, however, there isn’t an awful lot to choose between Guardiola’s FCB and Heynckes’ side.
More titles for Pep


In 2012/13, Heynckes’ Bayern set a new Bundesliga points record of 91. Guardiola’s charges only missed that particular target by a single point last term, while the previous best mark of 81 - set by Borussia Dortmund in 2011/12 - was some way off the number of points accumulated by Bayern in both those seasons. Though die Münchner’s hopes of becoming the first team in history to retain the Champions League ended with a 4-0 semi-final second-leg defeat to Real Madrid CF on home soil, Guardiola was able to get his hands on the UEFA Supercup and FIFA Club World Cup, as well as the Bundesliga and DFB Cup. Not even Heynckes won that many titles the previous year.

“They’re both great coaches, but they’re both completely different,“ revealed Franck Ribery, whose performances under Heynckes earned the Frenchman the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award in 2013. One of those differences between the two tacticians is their preferred formation: While Heynckes set his charges up in a 4-2-3-1 system, Guardiola has never been afraid to tinker with his tactics, even during matches. At times the Catalan prefers to employ two defensive midfielders, while on other occasions he uses just one holding player in front of the defence. Recently, the former Barcelona FC coach has even gone into games with a back three.
No possession for possession’s sake


One man who encapsulates Bayern’s flexibility under Guardiola more than any other player is captain Philipp Lahm, who has blossomed in a new defensive midfield role since the beginning of last term. Though it took the former Germany skipper a while to become accustomed to the wider spaces in midfield (he won only 57 per cent of his challenges last season, compared to 62 per cent under Heynckes), he was able to improve his pass completion rate from 88.8 per cent to 91.1 per cent.

It’s common knowledge that Guardiola’s game relies heavily on possession of the ball. While Heynckes’ team averaged 60.6 per cent possession, Bayern enjoyed 66.6 per cent under the 43-year-old’s tutelage last season. His side also averaged more than 100 passes per match, despite Guardiola’s admission that he “hates just passing the ball around for the sake of it, that [kind of] tiki-taka“. He doesn’t mind seeing his players lose the ball in the final third, as long as they regain possession immediately in order to ruthlessly expose the momentary lack of organisation in the opposition defence.
Holding a high line


For this approach to bear fruit, Guardiola needs as many players as possible in the opponents’ half at any given time. The 4-1-4-1 formation he used so frequently last season allowed the likes of Toni Kroos, Thiago Alcantara and Bastian Schweinsteiger to push forward at every opportunity, while the 3-3-3-1 system he’s opted for this year encourages the full-backs (usually Juan Bernat, David Alaba or Lahm), to attack as often as possible, so much so that they almost turn into wingers.

That offensive strategy only works, however, if the centre-backs play a very high line. On average, Guardiola’s centre-halves stand 40.3 metres from their own byline, compared to 36.1 metres when Heynckes was in charge. “I only want us to move forward a few metres, so we can’t get caught out of position if we lose the ball. Every team in Germany is capable of hitting you with a counter-attack that takes your breath away,“ warned the Catalan recently.
“Your achievements will remain sacred”


This approach also allows goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to adopt the sweeper role which the 28-year-old mastered to perfection in the 2014 World Cup last-16 tie against Algeria. Indeed, Guardiola’s system has several advantages for the former FC Schalke 04 stopper. “I receive the ball more frequently and can contribute in the build-up, which helps my overall performance,“ explained Neuer. However, Bayern’s new formation also brings with it plenty of risks: Bayern have conceded more goals as a result of the opposition passing their way past the backline (14) than Heynckes’ side (5) in 2012/13. The latter relied more heavily on switching defence into attack as quickly as possible, and as a result Bayern scored almost three times as many goals from counter-attacks than they did in 2013/14.

If Guardiola’s Bayern drop fewer than 26 points this term, the Spaniard will have won more Bundesliga points than Heynckes’ team accumulated during his two-year reign. Not that the two coaches have anything to prove to each other, though. When they came face to face at the Sport-Bambi awards last year, Guardiola told his predecessor: “I’ve inherited a perfect team. I can’t top what you did. Your achievements will be sacred in the history of football. For me personally, you are a real role model.”
http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2014/0000300995.php

Edited by Arthur: 7/9/2014 08:10:00 AM