Part 2 of 4
"Guardiola was Barcelona ballboy, Barcelona captain and Barcelona youth team coach before taking over. One collaborator says he "suckled at the teat of Johan Cruyff" – Barcelona's ideological founder, a kind of guru." - The Guardian UK
Pep Guardiola took Cruyff's tactics and philosophy and added his own coaching techniques to re-shape Barcelona into the power house it is today.
Although Cruyff had a lasting influence over the club since his departure, it wasn't until Pep that the on-field strategy was combined with a disciplined structured off-field strategy, that gave Cruyff's philosophy muscle and meaning.
Pep had his entire life surrounded by Barca. From ballboy to captain to coach. His playing career had cumlunated with Cruyff's promoting him to the first team and the success of the "Dream Team" era.
The one aspect that Pep brought to the managers role that hadn't been implemented with such vigor to Barca was his intense and structured practices and subsequent strategy sessions.
Before being appointed, he had directed the management to off-load Gianluca Zambrotta, Giovani dos Santos ,Edmílson, Lilian Thuram, Oleguer Presas, Santiago Ezquerro,and Marc Crosas. Even Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto'o all were let go shortly upon his promotion. Eto'o stayed on after he had impressed Pep during training and practices during the Summer pre-season.
This gave Pep a fresh start and a brand new identity to a Barca club that had lost it.
Under Pep, Barca became much more disciplined with an aggressive pressing defense and possession minded offense. Press and possession. He implemented a high defensive line using the defensive backs in the attack. This was seen most effectively with full backs pushing far into mid field left unaccounted for and able to help free space for the mid fielders to keep possession in good positions to distribute further into the attacking third..
Later in his first season he began to utilize Cruyff's strategy of using only 3 on the back line and bringing in another mid fielder. This is the 3-4-3. Although many agree that it is actually a 4-3-3. (I personally don't believe in these rigid "foosball" formations.)
This is a strategy that when Barca get possession the team spreads out to the touchlines to help open up the defense and give more space to distribute. Inversely this strategy also calls for the team to compact and congest the field when they lose possession. The LA Galaxy are the best example in the MLS. Until Porter's arrival that is.
In it's most simplified form, it's a system of expanding and compacting. All depending on if Barca have possession or not. This is one of the most basic philosophy's Cruyff began in Ajax but became Barcelona's identity.
This is in contrast to much of the Soccer world, which is dominated by "Direct" Football/Soccer. That system is based on analysis from 60 years ago in England. A system of having as few passes as possible (3 is considered prime) and all of them forward. In American culture it's referred to as "fast break" or even the "hail mary". A very simple philosophy of defend the goal, get the ball and pass to the forwards as fast as possible and hope they score. This is very boring and filled with luck not skill. Boring because the low percentage of completed passes and the extremely rare shot on goal leaving only luck as the only way to score.
This is becoming a very old technique that is not successful with a low percentage of success. Not complete failure, but just few positive results.
Pep's style is not as a dictatorial coach demanding his orders be obeyed but rather as a manager explaining his tactics. This respect and intense focus on game tactics helps to inspire the players to rise to Pep's level of devotion and confidence. This is what makes him a great coach, he helped to push his players by example not threats.
With not only Barca's success but that of Spanish teams brought the curious and inquisitive to the country. One these "explorers" was a young drifting coach from Northern Ireland. A coach who had his playing career cut short at the age of 20. But this unfortunately short pro career may have left him with the energy and drive to push this young intrepid coach to find himself in Spain. Then ultimately finding himself a decade later, in the EPL a manager of Liverpool FC.
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