After a 12 month sabbatical on from a sensational 4 years in charge of Barcelona, Pep Guardiola decided to ply his trade in Germany at giants Bayern Munich. Like many others, I have often wondered whether Guardiola was successful during his time in Germany, so I find it only fitting to look back at his time in charge of Bayern. This is part of a series which will be looking back at how certain managers with mixed opinions did during their time with a specific club. To answer that question for Guardiola we'll be looking at how well he did to live up to the standards of a Bayern Munich manager - sheer success and quality of football - and how well he prepared the club for the future.
Bayern Under Pep
The first question asks whether he achieved his primary objective at the club. But, what exactly was his primary objective? Given the stature of the club, I would say his primary objective was to raise the standard of football at Bayern Munich and to maintain the flow of silverware at the club, with the Champions League trophy being of particular importance. After taking over Heynckes' treble-winning side, Guardiola was expected to bring tiki-taka to Bayern Munich and deliver trophies with the complete dominance and style that Pep’s Barcelona was known for. With that framework established, let’s examine the facts. In three seasons he spent at the club, Guardiola was in charge of 161 games. Out of those 161 games, he won 124 at a win rate of 77%, which is about expected of a Bayern manager recently considering Heynckes had a win percentage of 78% and Carlo Ancelotti after Pep had a win rate of roughly 72%. Now that the raw statistics are out of the way, we can dig a little deeper beneath the surface. Bayern Munich under Pep Guardiola was arguably the most feared team in Europe and practically the favourites for the Champions League every year despite not even reaching the final once. The reason for that prestige was that Guardiola not only implemented tiki tika but he repurposed and reinterpreted it for a side that had 2 inverted wingers, a traditional number 9, and a midfield much more robust than one containing Xavi and Iniesta. Pep raised the game of each and every one of his players so much so that he would, on occasion, let the players decide how they wanted to approach the game. To illustrate just how incredible Bayern Munich was under Pep Guardiola, here are a few of his achievements at the club:
- He led Bayern to the earliest ever league title in Bundesliga history.
- He got the joint-most number of wins in a Bundesliga season
- He led the club to 19 consecutive Bundesliga wins, another record
- He became the first foreigner to win the Bundesliga three times
- He is the only manager to win the title in his first three seasons in Germany.
Did Guardiola Leave A Legacy?
The other question about Guardiola’s time at Bayern asks whether he set the club up well for the future. This is a bit difficult to truly gauge for 2 reasons. Firstly, he wasn’t at the club for very long - only 3 years; and he didn’t have that much control over transfers at the club. Nonetheless, we can still look at what he did actually do with what he had at his disposal during his 3 seasons at the club. When he arrived at the club, this was basically his go-to lineup with Gotze occasionally playing as a false 9 and Lahm sometimes moving up into midfield and being replaced by Rafinha at right back. Over the years, though, the team saw a few changes like Lewandowski taking the number 9 position and Xabi Alonso joining the midfield after Toni Kroos left. Overall, the players Bayern acquired during Guardiola’s time in charge were generally in their prime, approaching it, or exciting prospects. On the other hand, the majority of the first team players Bayern Munich let go during that time were in their late 20s or 30s at the time of departure. These are all the first team players Bayern signed during Pep’s 3 years and their average age...Here are the players that left the club. As you can see, there’s quite a discrepancy between the 2 groups and while Guardiola can’t take all the credit for the squad recycling, you have to give him credit for maintaining standards despite getting rid of experienced players and, more importantly, you need to give him credit for the development of certain players who you’d expect to spend the next 10 or so years at the club. Firstly, he took a very raw player in Kingsley Coman and brought him to a level at which he started challenging Franck Ribery for that left wind spot. Secondly, he made Thiago Alcantara one of the best midfielders in Europe. Thiago was already one of the biggest talents in Europe when he decided to leave Barcelona but Guardiola slowly eased him into that Xavi position and made him irreplaceable for Bayern’s midfield. Lastly, in his final season at the club, he transformed new signing Joshua Kimmich from a holding midfielder into one of the best full-backs in the world. This was in spite of being played at centre back and in midfield occasionally.
Final Verdict
Guardiola managed to instil all that versatility and initiative within the space of a season and I think he’s the player you should think of when attempting to answer the question of whether Pep Guardiola prepared the club for the future. In conclusion, I think it’s fair to say that Guardiola was phenomenal with Bayern. If not for the blemish of failing to win the Champions League, I’m sure this would be the general consensus. There are, of course, some people who think his domestic achievements are irrelevant and thus his overall record unimpressive but it’s undeniable that he made that team almost perfect and did a good job of setting the team up decently well for prolonged success. The final verdict from me is that Guardiola at Bayern was indeed a success.
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