What We're Reading
Pep Guardiola: Tactics are just players
- FIFA.com, Tuesday, December 13, 2011 2:19 PM
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, ahead of its team's Club World Cup semifinal, spoke with FIFA.com, sharing his views on topics such as tactics:
"People talk about
tactics, but when you look at it, tactics are just players. You change things so that the team can get the most out of the skills they have to offer, but you don’t go any further than that.
When it comes to tactics you have to think about what the opposition does and the players who can hurt you. What I’ve done this season is a response to the game plans our rivals are now
adopting against us. As time goes by, people get to know you better. They pose problems for you and you have to come up with solutions.
A key is finding intelligent players: "The problem
is you can’t always get them. You can sign players on the recommendation of friends and colleagues and based on what you see on TV, but it’s only when they’re out on the field with
you that you find out if they can do what you want them to. It’s not easy. Sometimes it’s worked for me and sometimes it hasn’t."
Guardiola said he doesn't, as many clubs
do, keep the team in a hotel overnight before all games: "People don’t spend the day before they go to work locked up in hotel. We just try to make things the same for them. If they don’t
rest, they’re not looking after themselves and that means they’ll play worse and lose their jobs. I judge my players on the work they do, not on their private lives. I’m not a
policeman. I’m in bed at 10 o’clock and I’ve got no urge to go and check up on my players. That’s why I’d rather have them at home and not cooped up in a hotel with
nothing to do. We’re just trying to use our common sense. You wanted to know why we keep getting good results? That’s the answer: common sense."
