4 years. 13 trophies, with another Cup Final still left to play. Guardiola’s stint as Barcelona’s manager has made him the most decorated manager in the history of the club, all the while staying completely faithful to the club’s inherent aesthetic. In the aftermath of Barcelona’s Champions league knock out to Chelsea, Josep “Pep” Guardiola announced that he would resign as Barcelona head coach come the end of the season and would take a year long hiatus. Despite his success though, I have trouble Guardiola has the ability to really build a team that most club’s will expect him to.
From my neutral standpoint I was very disappointed. Guardiola’s managed to play some very controversial systems and provided results. He’s been inspirational with his player selection, and often deploying players in new roles with exciting results. The most obvious example being the transformation of Lionel Messi from a attacking right sided midfielder to the arguably the world’s best center forward. Other example include the movement of Mascherano of central midfield to center back, David Villa from striker to left wing, Alex Sanchez from number 10 to striker, and Dani Alves from right back to right anything. He’s experimented with his teams shape as well, Barcelona are equally comfortable at playing three at the back as they are four, and their attackers seemingly able to create opening from any space on the field.
It’s sad that he left Barcelona after being thoroughly beaten over two legs by Chelsea and by Madrid during the Classico, a three game spell that was definitely Pep’s worst run at Barcelona. Other then being defeated, Barcelona were fatigued and frustrated against a stubborn Chelsea side and simply dismantled by Real Madrid’s directness. The Barcelona system was found out and both games could prove a template to beat Barcelona in two distinctly different systems. I wanted to see Guardiola counter these developments. Would Barcelona develop a second option or even further refine their movement passing? I wanted Guardiola’s answer and I’ll never know. His success at the club still remains intact though and losing out on his first La Liga since being in charge and a semifinal loss to Chelsea will remain a small dent in his legacy.
Despite Barcelona’s success with Guardiola, I’d be patient with whichever project he takes on next. At Barcelona, Guardiola inherited Messi, who happens to having his best season during Guardiola’s worst, and had access to funds on players that most managers will have for their entire career. Messi scored 70 goals in all Competition for Barcelona, so far, and has amassed 21 assists in La Liga and Champions League. Obviously, a player of Messi’s heroic ability is expected to chip in, but it’s Barcelona’s reliance on him that has proven crippling. In all Messi accounts directly for 59% of Barcelona’s 112 goals. This is especially when taken into consideration with Barcelona’s tiki taka system. With it’s emphasis on possession, Messi is one of the few Barcelona players who can provide real drive to move the ball through a stiff defence. A perfect example of this is the second leg tie vs Chelsea at the Camp Nou. Barcelona controlled possession at 82%, yet only completed 6 successful dribbles, Messi responsible for half of them. Chelsea, by the way, also completed 6 dribbles with 18% possession. Most clubs won’t have a player with Messi’s unique skill set, far less have a player of his caliber. Include that to the fact that Messi has registered more starts for Barcelona then their starting goal keeper Victor Valdez, one has to really wonder what Guardiola expects his men to do without Messi. I understand again, that not only is Messi their best player he’s indeed the best player in the world, but Guardiola’s systems limitations are set around Messi’s contributions.
Despite the Pep Guardiola system being built around the world’s most technically gifted footballer, it’s unlikely that if your club doesn’t already have a plethora of genius youth products like Barcelona. Guardiola might not be the right man to find your players. Despite success Dani Alves and friends, none of Guardiola’s signings have come for cheap and plenty have gone wrong. After one game, Guardiola convinced Rossel that €25M was the right price to snatch Chygrynskiy from Shaktar. He was later sent back for €15M, Shaktar recording a cool profit for $10M on the deals. Other big money busts include Alexander Hleb (€15M), Keirrison(€14M), 
Henrique (€8M), Martin Caceres (€16.5M) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (€69M’ish). Barcelona managed to get rid of Hleb, who was signed with a €90M Buy-out clause on a 4 year contract, by loaning him out every year till his contract finally expired. Henrique and Keirrison have yet to play for Barcelona. Martin Caceres also failed to make an impact and despite claiming that he was left out for not being catalan, it was later discovered that he simply wasn’t good enough.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was designed signed in an effort to offer Barcelona a second option. A tall, strong and yet technically perfect forward, Zlatan would provide Barcelona with a perfect second route out. Despite playing well in his first year, his contribution was over looked and in light of Messi’s emergence as a center forward, he became surplus. Within a year Ibrahimovic ended his campaign at Barcelona and moved back to the San Siro.
Guardiola’s remains a brilliant tactician, but the manager of a club may need to be a bit then that. In England, managers demand direct control of their club’s transfer kitty and it would be interesting to see how Guardiola would manage such responsibility. Even if Guardiola continued at Barcelona, would his one route approach become countered by forward thinking coaches. Arsenal’s recent trophy drought is an easy of example of how a stubborn coaching philosophy can lead to predictable, and thereby preventable tactics.
A lot remains to be seen from Pep Guardiola. Was he really a mastermind, or is Barcelona just a great club to manage? We’ll know after Pep’s next position and on Tito’s success or failure at Barcelona. Although Pep will definitely provide his next employer with brilliant new ideas, I’ll be surprised if he brings instant success to an average squad.
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