How do you follow perfection? By getting it right again, and to the exact millimetre. Seventeen millimetres, to be precise – the length to which Pep Guardiola ordered every blade of grass was cut on the pitches at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena and their Sabener Strasse training ground after he took over as the club’s head coach.
He wanted water, too. And a lot of it. Those immaculate pitches are drenched every day so the ball runs faster. Such attention to detail is symptomatic of Guardiola’s obsessive belief that his players prepare and play with geometric precision.
Take their conditioning. Guardiola brought fitness coach Lorenzo Buenaventura with him from Barcelonaand, at Bayern’s training camp in Arca, Italy, over the summer they used a variety of innovative approaches from rugby and tennis to improve the players’ fitness. Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was tied to a goalpost by a piece of elastic to increase his spring and reach.
Such an approach is not novel – Fabio Capello takes a ruler with him to check the pitches, Jose Mourinho’s most trusted lieutenant is fitness coach Rui Faria and Andre Villas-Boas is similarly fastidious but arguably none of those managers are facing greater demands than Guardiola.
This is the man, after all, whose new side are the holders of the Champions League and won a league and cup double last season under Jupp Heynckes.
“It is very difficult at this moment to improve with Bayern because they won the last three competitions but he will find a way because he is a very good manager,” said Manchester Citymanager Manuel Pellegrini, ahead of the Champions League tie between the sides on Wednesday. “He knows the way we play so he will try different things. But we know things about Guardiola, too. I lived in Spain nine years so I know exactly the way Guardiola plays.”
Comments
Post a Comment