Pep Confidential (51 page)

Bayern go wild. Boateng hoists Guardiola into the air as if his boss weighs nothing. Then Neuer, despite his injured arm, does the same thing. The coach is enveloped in the arms of Javi, Rafinha, Götze and Kroos, and has a special hug for Robben. Once they have the trophy, Dante and Van Buyten shower the boss in beer once again and this time even Estiarte fails to escape the soaking.

During the post-match dinner the players talk about their coach in glowing terms.

‘He’s designed my perfect position. Finally I’ve got the right position in the right system which allows me to give my very best,’ says Martínez.

Lahm: ‘We have shown the world our true value and this has been a huge boost to our confidence.’

You can see the players are still hurting over the disaster against Real Madrid, but their total support for Pep is clear, as is their determination to continue to follow his playing philosophy.

By 2am Rafinha decides to deliver his end-of-season message: ‘Before the match I said to Domè [Torrent]: “We’re going out there to die together.” Half the team were in pieces, but we showed big balls. You have to have guts to put a kid of 18 out there in that position [right-back]. Or to put me at left-back.

‘For Pep this is super important: if anyone has any doubts about what he’s asking them to do, they just have to swallow them and do what’s needed.’ Robben shares similar sentiments: ‘This victory is amazing, and it will have far-reaching effects. It has vindicated us and our style of play. We are more and more committed to these ideas every day. Pep’s strategy has given us this victory and next year is going to be even better.’

During the party Pep spends some time tucked away with his family in a corner. He’s delighted of course, but you can see how angry he still is with himself for the Madrid debacle, for having failed to play that day with this team.

At 3.30am he bids the party goers goodnight and walks off with Valentina asleep, curled up in his arms like a baby.

Outside in the street it’s still raining.

67

THE KID AND THE CAPTAIN

Berlin, May 18, 2014

BAYERN SET OFF for Munich with the cup they have won in Berlin, the capital city which has become a talisman for Pep this year. Thousands of fans await the team in Marienplatz, ready to celebrate their double-winning season and, on the way, I chat to two of the players who are most symbolic of Pep’s first year in charge: Højbjerg and Lahm.

Firstly, I ask Højbjerg what he has learned from Pep. ‘To be a bit bolder with the ball. He’s shown me how important it is to play without fear. Just to get on with playing whether you’re up against Xabi Alonso or a complete amateur. Play with courage and without fear, and “show some balls”, as Pep puts it. When you’re young you can be a bit hesitant about things, but that gets you nowhere. You have to give it everything if you want to improve. Pep has insisted that I let go of any anxiety or hesitancy when I play. He’s also taught me a huge amount about tactics and about defending. I’ve learned to stay when my team-mate pushes forward and to attack as high up as I can when it’s my turn to push on. He’s taught me all about the right tactics and shown me how to play with passion, intelligence and courage. I had some difficult times this season and Pep really helped me. He told me that I only needed to dedicate 90 minutes a day to football, but that those 90 minutes had to be full-on. If I did that, he assured me, I could stop worrying about my game.’

Højbjerg joined Bayern in 2012 when he was just 16 and initially struggled with a four-day per week training schedule.

‘I was pretty small and my body couldn’t cope with so much work. I was basically sore all over for an entire year. And this year with Pep has been similar. At times I’ve had real problems keeping up with the older guys’ training schedule – six times a week.’

MP: ‘For you the season has been more about learning rather than competing.’

PH: ‘Of course. When I get out of my bed in the morning I always say to myself, “Today will be even better than yesterday. Today I will be a better player. I’ll learn something new”. I like to learn something new every day and I want to keep improving. I think Pep sees all that in me and I try to take everything he teaches me and incorporate it in my game. I like to follow my instincts and try to do the things that will help me progress. I’m not big-headed but I am very self-confident and can be a bit too quick to conclude that my solution is the best one. I have to learn that other people sometimes have better answers and with Pep that has certainly happened. He shows me much better solutions. For example, this is the first time I have really understood that you need to be on top of defensive tactics and be super-disciplined if you want to stay at the elite level. I now know how important your mental attitude is to maintain defensive order; to be aware that every sprint, every touch on the ball, every shot must be given 100%, every time.

‘I have learned so much since last summer, mentally, physically and tactically and am a better player than I was before Pep arrived because I now have knowledge I didn’t possess before. But I am still capable of doing five things well and then maybe messing up and losing the ball in the sixth move. Right now I am in the process of making the jump from the youth categories to professional and it’s really important to get things right mentally. Some of my team-mates, like Dante, for example, remind me every day how important it is to be totally focused.’

MP: ‘What has Pep been to you?’

PH: ‘He is a man who puts all his emotion, all his passion, into football. He’s my coach of course but he’s so much more than that. He’s been like a second father to me. He’s a great guy who spends his days showing us how we can play even better.’

MP: ‘Is there a difference this year in terms of the way the team is feeling?’

PH: ‘I think that we were a bit more Germanic last year – we weren’t excessively emotional. In German we would call that
gerade
[stiff upper lip]. Now everyone’s a bit more emotional and I like it this way. I’m very emotional myself. I like to play with a bit of passion. But the Germans are less used to that approach than the Brazilians, the Spanish players and Pizarro and me. I’m not saying that it’s better or worse to be more emotional, it’s just different for them. But you can see the change in the team and I like it. A little bit of emotion will keep us hungry to win every week. And Pep himself is very emotional.’

MP: ‘This lack of emotion applies to defeat as well as victory.’

PH: ‘This is a very Germanic team and we are not used to expressing our emotions, to the extent that we can appear cold and arrogant at times. I prefer to be a bit more emotional and, after all, we train and play all year so that we can cut loose at the end of the season at the celebrations.’

MP: ‘Are you going to be a key part of this team?’

PH: ‘Sometimes it still feels like it will be very, very difficult to make it at Bayern and there are always people who say I won’t do it. It’s certainly a tough place to play when you’re only 18 and sometimes I think that in two years I’ll still only be 20, then there are other days I tell myself, “I have worked under Pep Guardiola for a year, I play for Bayern Munich, the best team in the world led by the best coach in the world and this season I have learnt more than in the rest of my life put together”. And then I think, “Yes, I can develop into a good player”.

‘I understand that I can’t play every week because the team needs to win matches. It’s almost like I’m at school. The school of Pep and Bayern, and it’s just great. Obviously the day will come when I’ll be expected to play every week and that won’t be easy. I know that, I’m not an idiot. I understand that I might go off and play for other teams in the Bundesliga. But I will always be proud of my time with Pep, of having learnt so much from him and from Bayern. Right now I need to learn as much as possible, every hour of the day. Then maybe in 10 years I’ll be saying to some young kid, “I can teach you what I know”. Right now I am receiving a lot. Perhaps in the future I’ll give a lot back.’

MP: ‘Nobody can doubt your strength of character. At 18 you played in a major final.’

PH: ‘I have a big heart and always commit myself 100% to what I’m doing. That approach can have its disadvantages but it’s also what makes me strong. I have inherited a very strong character from my dad and other members of the family. At times it can be too strong, but in the long run it will help me succeed. I just need to find the path that’s correct for me and get the balance right.’

After my chat with the youngest member of the squad I turn to the captain, the man Pep has described as ‘the guy who puts all the pieces in order’, Lahm, the full-back who converted to an organising midfielder right in the middle of the UEFA Super Cup on August 30.

MP: ‘Philipp, what was it like when you changed position in such a radical way?’

PL: ‘The good thing was that I had played in the midfield a lot with Pep during our pre-season training. He often put me there for our friendlies. I hadn’t played in midfield for years but he decided it was the right thing to do and he knew that I could cover the requisites of the job. I like that position and playing in the midfield for the Super Cup was really special. The coach trusted me to do it well despite the fact that for so long I’d been playing in other positions.’

MP: ‘Have you had any problems adjusting or are you completely comfortable as a number 6?’

PH: ‘It’s been great playing in this position and I think Pep saw how comfortable I was there. That’s why he decided to go for it. I had almost always been a full-back and it has been great making the change to
pivote
. You need to be 100% alert when you first change to a new position. You have a lot of players around you in the midfield and I think my performance this year has shown Pep made the right decision.’

MP: ‘In the future do you see yourself playing more in the midfield or as a full-back?’

PL: ‘I reckon I’ve shown this season that I can play in either position. I love playing in the midfield, it has been a real novelty after 10 years as a full-back, but that doesn’t mean I’ll never be a defender again. At the end of the day, it’s the coach’s decision.’

MP: ‘What were the biggest changes Guardiola made?’

PL: ‘He’s changed our positional play as well as my own position and we also go for much higher levels of possession than we did under Jupp. We dominate more. For example, last season we hung back much more waiting for a chance to counter-attack in the big matches, like the Champions League quarter and semi-finals. We played with energy, but didn’t have the ball as much or dominate matches in the way we do now. The second thing which has changed dramatically is the space every player knows he must occupy. And that’s related to how we immediately all press as a unit when we’ve lost the ball. Those are the two main areas we’ve improved this year compared to last season.’

MP: ‘Adapting to Pep’s ideas hasn’t been quick or easy.’

PL: ‘It has been difficult. It was all so new. But it was also necessary after we had won everything. We had won the treble and Pep wanted to teach us something new. I think a lot of the guys found it hard and a few of them initially said that our old approach had worked well. We’d won everything after all. I think Pep has also adapted to German football and it has changed the way he does things. The players have needed time to adjust and the coach has also had to adapt to us. But I reckon he’s done a pretty good job.’

MP: ‘Guardiola has often talked about the culture clash between his ideas and the German tradition. Do you think the two have clashed and will continue to do so? Will he be able to bridge the gap?’

PL: ‘It has been a culture clash, but it’s a process. Pep has often commented on the fact that so many German teams like counter-attacking. A lot of opponents play very defensively and then suddenly launch a lethal counter-attack. They’re not bothered about high possession. I think it’s the difference between Spanish and German football, but it’s a process of learning from each other. We players have to learn from the coach, but Pep has also had to get to know German football, our opponents and how they play. But I think that the learning process is complete.’

MP: ‘Only PSV Eindhoven has ever won the double after a treble-winning season. Has Pep been an important part of your success in this?’

PL: ‘I’m pretty sure that he deserves a large part of the credit for ensuring that we didn’t fall on our faces. Usually after winning the treble players are exhausted and it’s very, very tough to win the league again, but I think that Pep, with his technical team and his new ways of thinking and doing things, kept us all on our toes. We had to concentrate hard to make sure that everything worked. We started out with the right rhythm and then went on to win the Bundesliga in fabulous style.’

MP: ‘What are the best and the worst things about Pep?’

PL: ‘His incredible tactical knowledge is a huge strength. He’s also meticulous about everything he does and prepares us brilliantly for each opponent. He’s the best and that’s probably also a slight weakness because he’s such a perfectionist. He wants everything, down to the last detail, to be perfect. That’s great as far as it goes, but at times it goes too far and prevents him from being totally satisfied. He can never allow himself to sit back and say “this is brilliant”.’

MP: ‘Do you think he’ll stay a long time?’

PL: ‘I’m certain he will, although it will depend on the players. When a team is successful it’s more likely the coach will stay for longer but if you don’t keep winning in a prestigious club like Bayern, everyone starts to doubt the coach, including the players. But I think it’s pretty likely that we’re going to keep winning under Pep. I really enjoy working with him.’

MP: ‘Your style of game means that your opponents play very defensively and wait to counter-attack. Isn’t it exhausting mentally to have to keep playing like that all the time?

PL: ‘I can only tell you what it’s like from a player’s point of view and it’s so much better when you play the ball rather than defending all the time. If you defend like that you end up with just five seconds with the ball, trying to score, and then you’re back to defending again. It’s great to have the ball at your feet. Ok, you’re likely to be facing 11 players all packed up together at the back and that’s hard, very hard, but it’s much better to be taking the initiative rather than standing waiting for your chance.’