FC Bayern has dominated the Bundesliga with almost no other coach than with Pep Guardiola. However, his tenure in Munich began anything but easy for the 51-year-old.
Guardiola revealed this in an interview with the Norwegian TV channel “Viaplay”. Above all, his constant system changes are said to have caused confusion among the players at the beginning.
“It was a bit difficult because they asked why you should change something when you’ve won in the past. And that’s normal and it should be like that. But I haven’t been there in the past so I don’t know what they do and you can’t convince the players of something you don’t believe in. Because every manager is different and it takes time to make it work,” explained the Catalan.
According to his own statement, during his time in the Bavarian capital it was never about “changing” German football, only about success.
Guardiola on the start at Bayern: “Terribly bad”
According to Guardiola, the fact that FC Bayern still won many games at the beginning of the 2013/14 season was only due to the top quality of his protégés and less to the playing style of his team: “I remember that we won a lot of games in the first half of the season, but we played terribly. We only won because of the incredible individual quality of the Bayern players. It just takes time to adapt.”
Pep Guardiola, who succeeded triple coach Jupp Heynckes in Munich, won the German championship three times and the DFB Cup twice with FC Bayern.
In the Champions League, however, the Spaniard and the team failed three years in a row, each in the semi-finals, against Spanish teams.
He then moved to Manchester City, where he had not yet been granted a triumph in the premier class.