Pep Guardiola Quotes

Solo sé que un buen líder es aquel que no tiene miedo a las consecuencias de sus decisiones, y que toma el paso que le dicta su intuición, pase lo que pase.

No se dan cuenta de que el fútbol es un monstruo al que solo puedes vencer y enfrentarte si siempre te mantienes fiel a ti mismo, en cualquier circunstancia.»

«Si nos levantamos pronto, pero muy pronto, y sin reproches, y nos ponemos a trabajar, somos un país imparable».

Ideas belong to everyone and I have stolen as many as I could.

Under Cruyff, dominating the ball became the first and most important rule. ‘If you have the ball, the opposition doesn’t have it and can’t attack you,’ Cruyff would repeat daily. So the job became finding the players who could keep possession and also doing a lot of positional work in training.

I’ve got a problem,’ he told his mentor. ‘I’ve got these two guys who I don’t know if I can control, they don’t listen to what I say and that affects how everybody else receives my messages. And the problem is, they’re two of the leaders in the dressing room and the best players. I will lose without them on board.’ Cruyff ’s response was blunt: ‘Get rid of them. You might lose one or two games, but then you will start winning and by then you would have turfed those two sons of bitches out the team.

Why do we open up the field?’ Cruyff would explain. ‘Because if we have the ball and we are open, it is more difficult for the opponent to defend.’ Or: ‘People criticised me because I played with three at the back, but those criticisms were really ridiculous: what we did was fill the zones on the field where the game required it. If the opponent played with two up front, which was common then, and my team went out with four defenders, I had one too many, so I moved him forward towards the midfield.

It wasn’t enough for him to have had first-hand experience of the methods of Cruyff, Robson, van Gaal, Mazzone or Capello, so he travelled to Argentina to deepen his knowledge. There, he met Ricardo La Volpe (a former Argentine World Cup-winning goalkeeper and the former coach of the Mexican national team), Marcelo Bielsa (the much admired former Argentina and Chile national coach, and Athletic de Bilbao manager) and ‘El Flaco’, César Luis Menotti (the coach who took Argentina to the World Cup in 1978) to talk at length about football.

1. Linus Malthus "Winning is just the snow that came down yesterday"   Founder of total football. Tactical revolutionary who created the foundation of modern football  저희는 7가지 철칙을 바탕으로 거래를 합니다. 고객들과 지키지못할약속은 하지않습니다 1.정품보장 2.총알배송 3.투명한 가격 4.편한 상담 5.끝내주는 서비스 6.고객님 정보 보호 7.깔끔한 거래 [경영항목] 엑스터시,신의눈물,lsd,아이스,캔디,대마초,떨,마리화나,프로포폴,에토미데이트,해피벌륜등많은제품판매하고있습니다 믿고 주문해주세요~저희는 제품판매를 고객님들과 신용과신뢰의 거래로 하고있습니다. 제품효과 못보실 그럴일은 없지만 만의하나 효과못보시면 저희가 1차재발송과 2차 환불까지 약속합니다 텔레【KC98K】카톡【ACD5】라인【SPR331】 The only winner in the international major tournament, Holland, the best soccer line of football 2. Sir Alex Ferguson Mr.Man Utd   The Red Boss The best director in soccer history (most of the past soccer coach rankings are the top picks) It is the most obvious that shows how important the director is in football.   Manchester United's 27-year-old championship, the spiritual stake of all United players and fans, Manchester United itself 3. Theme Mourinho "I do not pretend to be arrogant, because I'm all true, I am a European champion, I am not one of the cunning bosses around, I think I am Special One." The Special One The cost of counterattack after a player Charming world with charisma and poetry The director who has the most violent career of soccer directors 4. Pep Guardiola A man who achieved the world's first and only six treasures beyond treble. Make a team with a page of football history 5. Ottmar Hitzfeld Borussia Dortmund and Bayern are the best directors in Munich history. Legendary former football manager of Germany Sir Alex Ferguson's rival

«No debemos perder de vista nuestra idea».

La felicidad sobre el campo, el mayor número de decisiones correctas, como en la vida, parte del equilibro.

A veces, la historia se escribe sin títulos.

De las veinte decisiones que tomo cada día, dieciocho son intuitivas, a partir de la observación.

Perdonaré que fallen, pero no que no se esfuercen.

Bah, that Lahm is a scandal! He is super-intelligent, understands the game brilliantly, knows when to come inside or to stay wide. The guy is fucking exceptional,’ he says.

It is possible to conclude that Pep has betrayed his own principles, but when asked this very question after the game, his response is blunt. ‘What the fuck are you talking about, mate? We needed to win the game…

La vida, tal como se ha dicho a menudo, es aquello que pasa mientras estamos haciendo otros planes. También es esa cosa que te abofetea en plena cara y te derrumba cuando crees que eres invencible, cuando olvidas que caer también forma parte de las reglas.

There is no equivalent at Bayern, at least not with the same level of uniformity either in terms of the language or the machine which teaches it – and this has a major impact on Pep’s plans. Domènec Torrent explains: ‘It’s like we’re showing them the numbers first, then the days of the week, then verbs, etc. This is a huge departure for them and we need to be flexible and cautious.

If I had to define Pep Guardiola I would describe him as a man who questions everything, not through insecurity or fear of the unknown, but in the search for perfection. Although he recognises it as an impossible goal, it is nonetheless the force that drives him. As a result, he is often left with a pervading sense of unfinished work.

You are only as good as your last game.

Para Guardiola, el éxito consistía en organizar al equipo.

Si una idea no es absurda al principio, entonces no merece la pena.

Despite having the largest budget in the league, Guardiola had failed to mount a serious challenge of any sort. And the media seized on his continued failure to reach a Champions League final without Messi, his on-field nuclear weapon. All of it was proof that his tippy-tappy tiki-taka might have worked in Spain or Germany, but Guardiola couldn’t expect to try that stuff in Manchester and succeed. The phrase “Welcome to the Premier League, Pep” was uttered and printed sarcastically more times that season than anyone could count. The tabloids even had a new name for this delicate Catalan genius. Fraudiola.

No pensamos para conocer. Pensamos para actuar. El talento es, por lo tanto, la inteligencia actuando de manera adecuada, brillante, eficiente».

Жизнь, как говорится, это то, что с нами происходит, пока мы строим планы. А ещё это та самая штука, что хлещет тебя по лицу и сбивает с ног как раз в тот момент, когда ты решил, что неуязвим, когда позабыл, что падения – тоже в правилах игры.

Что заставляет тебя расти и развиваться, так это провалы, ошибки. Они помогают тебе быть начеку. Когда побеждаешь, думаешь: «Здорово, мы победили». И мы ведь наверняка совершили какие-то ошибки, но ты расслаблен. Единственная польза от побед – крепкий сон", — Пеп Гвардиола.

Лучше игроку потерять мяч во время дриблинга, когда он чувствует себя излишне самоуверенным, чем в результате глупой ошибки или обреза, который приведет к тому, что он будет бояться совершить ошибку.

Сомнения порождают страхи. А страх – плохой компаньон, когда тебе необходимо принимать на себя ответственность, если дела идут не по плану.

Improbable is not impossible... you have to believe.

a victim of his own dedication and perfectionism, and also of his own torments and the difficulty he has in allowing people to help him.

They don't realise football is a monster that you can only beat and face if you are always yourself: under any circumstance.

Pep Guardiola didn’t just change football. He has been changing football for fifteen years! And he could only do that because he has been changing himself all along.

Guardiola has taken certain areas to another level – such as pressing the ball – and Barcelona’s disciplined style of play and work ethic have become a trademark of all his teams.

I’ve been successful at Manchester United for many years and it’s not without its problems – every hour of every day you have to deal with something.

anxiety to become good enough for Johan Cruyff to notice us cannot be put into words. Without that desire, none of us would be who we are today.

According to the principles Johan Cruyff introduced to Barcelona, coaches should lead by example: play football, be on the field during training and teach, because there is nothing better than stopping the game, correcting and instructing, explaining why someone needed to pass to a certain player, move to a particular position or change an element of their technique. That’s how Carles Rexach, Cruyff ’s assistant for eight years at Barcelona, explains it: ‘One word from Johan during a training drill is worth more than a hundred hours of talks at the blackboard.

a passer of the ball positioned in front of the defence who could provide the platform from which every Barcelona attack would begin.

He also taught his players how to mark an opponent, teaching them to focus on a rival’s weaknesses – while accentuating what you were good at, to fight the battles you could win, in other words. It was a revelation for Pep, who lacked the physique to beat a tall, powerful, central midfielder in the air – so he learnt, under Cruyff, to avoid jumping with his rival, but to wait instead. Cruyff ’s theory was: ‘Why fight? Keep your distance, anticipate where he’ll head the ball and wait for the bounce. You’ll be in control while he’s jumping around.

He was a bit like me. You must have a lot of technique, move the ball quickly, avoid a collision – and to avoid it you must have good vision.

his leadership skills must not be forgotten either; as it soon became evident in his playing career; he didn’t just pass the ball to his team-mates, he talked to them constantly. ‘Keep it simple, Michael!’ shouted a twenty-year-old Guardiola on one occasion to Laudrup, the international superstar. The Danish player had tried to dribble past three players too close to the half-way line, where losing the ball would have been dangerous. ‘That was simple,’ Michael replied with a wink. But he knew the kid was right.

Before heading out on to the pitch, Johan Cruyff gave his players a simple instruction: ‘Go out there and enjoy yourselves.’ It was a statement that embodies an entire footballing philosophy and was central to Cruyff ’s principles; yet for others, its simplicity, ahead of such a key game, might be considered an insult to the coaching profession.

I saw Guardiola as a mystical type of person. The way he dressed – always in black – he was sometimes very quiet, constantly analysing things, thinking things over: why we won, why we lost, why he’d lost the ball. Sometimes his obsessiveness was excessive.

touching the ball a thousand times a match and never for more than a second each time,

My role was to move the ball around the pitch for my team-mates to finish off the move,’ he says. The

Nobody has paid any attention to the fundamental fact that Guardiola is a bricklayer’s son. For Pep, his father, Valentí, is an example of integrity and hard work.

some key principles were quickly instilled in him: ‘Don’t stamp on anybody but don’t let anybody stamp on you; keep your head high; two-touch football; keep the ball on the ground.

He was given one more chance, invited back for a third day. The coach moved him into central midfield where, suddenly, Pep was a magnet for the ball, directing the forward play and dictating tempo. He’d done enough. Barcelona decided they wanted him to join them.

He continually learnt from everything he saw around him, from other teams, from coaches, from older team-mates. On one occasion, he asked a couple of his colleagues to repeat a free-kick routine he had seen the B side perform the previous weekend. The move led to a goal and their coach asked, ‘Whose idea was that? And where did you pick that up?’ ‘From the grown-up players,’ responded a fifteen-year-old Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola remained a lanky teenager with little muscle mass, the opposite of the ideal footballer’s stature. But great art is always born of frustration and since he lacked the pace and strength to overcome the opposition, he substituted physical power with the power of the mind: instinctively developing a sense of spatial awareness that was second to none. He was capable of leaving behind three players with one pass, widening or narrowing the field at will, so that the ball always travelled more than the player. Usually when children start to play football, they want to learn to dribble. Guardiola didn’t: he learnt how to pass the ball.

The ball runs faster than any human, so it’s the ball that has to do the running!’ which, in seventeen words, just about encapsulates his philosophy.

Look at him! Him, that one there! He’s hiding! Your team-mates need to know that you are always available!’ he’ll shout, pointing a finger at the culprit. ‘Before passing the ball, you need to know where you’re passing it to; if you don’t know, it’s better to keep it; give it to your goalie, but don’t give it to your opponent

I always try and give the players the security of knowing what they’ll encounter. This increases the possibility of doing things well.

That work ethic, instilled in him by his parents, is very much part of the Catalan character: saving the soul through industry, effort, honest labour and giving your all to the job.

Pep and Bielsa have much in common: they love teams that dominate, that want to be protagonists on the pitch, to seek out the opposition goal as the main priority.

Bielsa’s teams ‘can play badly or well, but talent depends on the inspiration and the effort depends on each one of the players: the attitude is non-negotiable’, Marcelo, ‘el loco’, told him, adding that his sides cannot win if he cannot transmit what he feels. Pep agreed, taking notes all the time.

At the end of his spell in Argentina he felt that he was better prepared than ever before; not totally, because Pep will never allow himself to be completely satisfied, but he felt ready enough to start putting everything he had learnt to the test.

that coronation of the team’s achievements paradoxically heralded the beginning of the end for Rijkaard’s Barcelona, as the first signs of indiscipline became apparent.

Rijkaard and Ten Cate made the perfect double act; the ultimate good cop/bad cop routine, but without Henk banging his fist on the table, Rijkaard’s nice guy routine led to chaos.

Rijkaard was aware of the stars’ behaviour, but indulged them, ever the optimist that the players were mature and responsible enough to know when to draw the line. It was a mistake. And, by the middle of the 2006–07 season that started poorly in Monaco, it was a trend far too late to reverse as Barcelona’s results and their performances reflected the breakdown in discipline.

Ingla and Txiki set out a plan for the rest of the season which saw them working and consulting simultaneously with both Rijkaard and Pep, talking about players, injuries and recoveries and principally how to shake up the working model of the club. The primary goal was to professionalise the first team.

I can see that he is capable of doing it because he has made a great deal of decisions in a short space of time.

Guardiola believed in handing greater responsibility to the footballers, trusting that their intuition could help solve a great amount of their problems. As a coach, Pep remained true to this idea and was determined to let his charges take the initiative.

I only ask this of you. I won’t tell you off if you misplace a pass, or miss a header that costs us a goal, as long as I know you are giving 100 per cent. I could forgive you any mistake, but I won’t forgive you if you don’t give your heart and soul to Barcelona.

We are one. We are not little groups because in all teams this is what ends up killing team spirit.

When we have the ball, we can’t lose it. And when that happens, run and get it back. That is it, basically.’ The squad, the group, was seduced. Not for the last time; far from it. Upon leaving the room, Xavi commented to a team-mate that everything that they had needed to know was there in that talk. A breath of fresh air, order and discipline. A reminder of the style he wanted to reinforce. All that was established from day one.

What you can’t do is study the talks, learn them by heart. Two or three concepts are all you need . . . and then you have to put your heart into it. You can’t deceive the players, they are too well prepared, intelligent, intuitive. I was a footballer and I know what I’m saying. In every talk, from that one in St Andrews to the last one, I have put my heart into them. And when I don’t feel it, I don’t speak, it’s the best way.

This is the beautiful thing about this job, because each rival, each situation, is different to the previous one and you always have to find that special something, to say to them “Guys, today is important

The director of football went away and started doing some digging around, gathering second opinions about Pep’s qualities as an actual coach.

Football was his passion, his obsession, the thing he knew best, and Serie A was considered the league that practised the most advanced defensive tactics since Sacchi. His Milan of the eighties were regarded as having set the benchmark in terms of work rate and defensive strategy over the previous two decades – and Pep was determined to learn as much as he could from his time in Italy.

Guardiola signed for Roma in the summer of 2002, motivated less by the opportunity to play for a bigger club than to be coached by, and to learn from, Fabio Capello, a manager he greatly admires despite their differing approach to the game. Pep was eager to experience Capello’s defensive rigour and discover his secrets in terms of how to apply pressure upon an opponent.

Pep used to feel unprepared when it came to certain topics like defensive concepts or particular training methodologies. When he needed answers he would turn to Lillo at any time of day: ‘How do you solve this type of situation?’ ‘If I do this what will happen?’ According to Pep, Lillo is one of the best prepared coaches in the world and a leader in his field when it comes to developing a vision of the game, despite the fact that the world of elite sports hasn’t been kind in rewarding him.

I’d love to work with the youth side, with the kids, because I’ve no pretensions that I’m ready to work at a higher level yet. You have to respect the fact that this is a process, a learning curve. The first steps are vital and there are no second chances once you step up.

I know that we have to start work quickly and intensively, whoever wants to be with us from the start will be welcomed. And the rest, we will win them over in the future.

There is not a single trainer, nor player, that can guarantee success at the start of a season,’ Guardiola wrote a decade ago. ‘Nor are there magic formulae. If there were, this game of football would be as easy as going to the “solutions shop” and buying them all.

We’re thinking about the squad without them,’ Pep announced during his presentation, flanked by the club president, Joan Laporta, and sporting director, Txiki Beguiristain. ‘That’s the way I think after analysing questions of performance in the time they have been with the team, and also less tangible questions. It is for the good of the team. ‘If they stay in the end, I will give everything so that they join us at the right level.’ It was a revelation. Pep’s common-sense approach, his communication skills and the feeling of authenticity you got from his talks,

In the end, Pep won most of the doubters over with a clever ploy, a few well-chosen words and a single bold decision.

Barça had finished the league eighteen points behind Madrid the previous season and, at times like that, sportsmen typically need somebody to show them the way, point out to them how to correct mistakes.

He cleansed the dressing room of players who were uncommitted and oblivious of the club’s core values: prioritising good football and hard work ahead of individual talent. Before they met for pre-season, Pep received messages from key players in the squad backing his bravery; the squad’s leaders were effectively opening the door to the dressing room for him.

He represents the values and feelings of Barcelona. Attacking football, respect for team-mates, respect for the fans. And now he was going to be my coach!

He could live with them playing badly now and again, he told them, but he demanded 100 per cent on the pitch in every single game.

We have to be able to dominate the game, and make sure that we aren’t dominated ourselves.

the attacking players would need to become the best defenders; and the defenders would have to become the first line of attack, moving the ball forward from the back.

Pep realised that in order to make the team a success he needed to add intensity and an increased work rate to their technical abilities.

above all else, they had to learn to win. Instilling a fiercely competitive, winning spirit into a team, an academy already blessed with an abundance of talent, represented something of a watershed for grass-roots football at FC Barcelona.

Guardiola immediately set about introducing a series of habits, working practices, systems and methodologies acquired after a career working with a variety of different managers. ‘He paid particular attention to detail’, Trueba recalls: ‘From control of the players’ diets, rest and recuperation time; to scouting opponents by recording their matches and using his assistants and staff to compile detailed match reports . . . in the third division!! On occasion, if Guardiola felt that he didn’t have enough information on a particular opponent, he would go to their matches himself.

He became as demanding of himself as he was with his players and staff but, in everything he did, he always made it a priority to explain why he was asking them to do something. He was always the first to arrive and the last to leave, working mornings and afternoons at the training ground. Every aspect of running the team had to be under his control: he demanded daily reports and updates from all his staff. Nothing was left to chance.

The senior players, meanwhile, understood perfectly well, and as one recognised: ‘He always used us as an example, but he was always fair with us and everyone else.’ Pep was finding solutions to the team’s problems, relying on instinct and experience to motivate, inspire and get the best out of the youngsters.

Players were fined €120 if they were late for training and had to stick to a twelve o’clock curfew – if they were caught breaking it once they were fined €1,500, twice and it rose to €3,000. If you were caught three times you were out of the door. He also had strict policies regarding the procedure leading up to games: team strategy was practised on match days. If it was an away game, the team ate together at La Masía; if they were playing at home, in the Mini Estadi, each player ate at home.

he wanted to confirm a personal theory: that a reserve team, like any other, could serve as a university of football; because all teams behave, react and respond the same way. Whether superstars or Sunday league, there’s always a player who is jealous of a team-mate, another who is always late, a joker, an obedient one fearful of punishment and eager to please, a quiet one, a rebel . . . It was also educational because it helped prepare for the fact that every opponent is different: some are offensive, others timid, some defend in their own box, others counter-attack. Working with the B team gave Guardiola the perfect opportunity to try and find solutions to the kinds of problems he would encounter working with a higher profile team; yet enabled him to do so away from the spotlight and glare of the media.

At the same time, he was humble enough to recognise that he wasn’t sufficiently trained in certain areas, mostly defensive work.

Guardiola would ring him to express his doubts to him, whether they be about the use of space by his players or the behaviour of those off the ball. Rodolf Borrell, now at Liverpool FC, was a coach with one of the Barcelona youth teams at the time, and each week Guardiola went to his defensive training sessions to observe and learn.

instilling a new regime of professionalism that was missing even from the first team.

Pep’s do-or-die attitude from the sidelines (constantly correcting and signalling during games, treating every match as if it were the last, intensely focused on the job, passionate and occasionally over-exuberant) as well as his off-pitch behaviour (making the team eat together, scouting rival players and teams, unheard of at the time in the third division) suggested he was a leader, ready for management. Ready to lead at any level. Any team.

place an emphasis on preparation and player recuperation; maintain discipline in the dressing room while being respectful of all opponents and possess a sound knowledge of the Spanish league. Furthermore, the next manager of FC Barcelona would have to have a feel and understanding for the club, its values, significance and history.

Ferran Soriano, who said privately at the time: ‘The Mourinho brand, added to the Barça brand, has the potential to make our product enormous.

he explained that elements of his behaviour in front of the media were a necessary evil: a vital cog in the psychological machinery that he used to win football matches.

Although he wanted an element of democracy within the group, with players using their initiative, making suggestions and keeping an open mind to new ideas, Guardiola did not delay in imposing a number of strict rules in his first few days in charge: such as insisting upon the use of Castilian and Catalan as the only languages spoken among the group, arranging a seating plan at meal times to encourage the players to mix and to prevent the team forming up into different cultural or national groups and cliques.

In life there are two ways of telling people what to do: either give them orders or set an example and encourage them to follow it. Pep is very much of the latter school of thought.

wanted the fans to see that the team was going to work hard, run, play good football, and take pride in their work on the pitch.

On one occasion Guardiola explained that there are two types of coaches: those who think problems solve themselves and those who solve problems. Guardiola belongs to the group that seeks solutions. That is his real passion.