Patrick Rees
Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel has added fuel to the Derby by suggesting that Pep Guardiola transformed an exciting Bayern Munich team into a boring one.
The Manchester United legend believes that Guardiola has struggled to create an entertaining brand of football at the Allianz Arena during his three years of tenure. Even though Bayern won three consecutive Bundesliga titles along with the DFB-Pokal twice, the Spanish gaffer failed to win the Champions League crown during his tenure.
“He was OK at Bayern, but for me, he changed a really good, entertaining team to be more boring to watch,” Schmeichel told Omnisport.
“He made them play more square, changed the players, but you can’t argue with his results. Pep comes in with an incredible reputation.
“What he did with Barcelona was fantastic, his work was fantastic, but he was also very lucky he had the players to bring in the philosophy that he has in football.”
The former Barcelona manager has kicked his Premier League career with a bang as he has won all the games so far and is having a 100% record, but Schmeichel, who has 393 appearances to his name for United, is unsure if Guardiola can replicate his renowned possession game in England.
“So whereas [former United manager] Alex Ferguson’s first priority was ‘we have to be able to score goals’ — for most coaches that’s the priority — with Pep it’s possession, I want to have as much possession as possible.
“So the philosophy goes to ‘I want to have so much possession that at some point we’ll score a goal from that, the goals will come from possession’ and that’s his philosophy.
“That’s what we’ll see at Manchester City or he’s going to introduce that. He was very lucky he had the players at Barcelona but he was clever in what he did.
“The Premier League is a completely different animal to any other in the world. It just goes on and on and on, you feel it never stops, even in March you have 12 games to go, you think: ‘Will this ever stop?”
The two clubs will be going head to head this Saturday to play the 172nd Manchester derby, but besides that, all eyes will be on the touchline antiques of the manager as both, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, shares a great rivalry amongst themselves from their time in the La Liga.
