Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has long been regarded as one of the very finest tacticians in world football, and indeed one of the greatest coaches of all time after the unprecedented success he’s enjoyed since being unexpectedly appointed Barcelona boss in 2008.
Back then, Guardiola was a rookie in management, with his only previous experience being the Barca B team, but he more than paid back the faith shown in him by the board at the Nou Camp as his side stormed to the treble in his first season in charge.
Since then, Guardiola has never looked back, enjoying further success at Barcelona before even more trophies in a spell at Bayern Munich, and then, perhaps most impressively of all, with the total dominance he’s managed with Man City in the Premier League.
The Spanish tactician led City to the treble last season, and has often achieved his success with some of the most stylish football the game has seen, with his players always so at ease in possession, and capable of destroying their opponents with their slick passing and movement.
Guardiola has previously admitted that part of his tactical influence comes from rugby, which was revealed by Brentford director Lee Dykes a few years ago as he spoke about a meeting with the City boss at the club’s training ground.
Dykes was on a training course himself, with Guardiola picking out one of the other students there as he noticed he had a rugby top on.
“It was a group situation, a little theatre at the Man City training ground with about 15 of us. Just unbelievable. One of the most amazing things — as a former rugby league player — was when Pep saw a guy from rugby union on the course. He had a rugby top on,” Dykes said.
“Guardiola picked him out and said, ‘Rugby?’
“’Yeah’, said the fella. He was building a new rugby association in Holland.
“‘Rugby is brilliant’, said Pep. ‘I teach my players rugby’.
“‘What do you mean?’, the fella asked.
“‘Rugby, you get the ball, you run towards the man, you draw him in and you pass’.
“Now, I watch Man City and it is player after player dragging an opponent in — then pass. Incredible. I bet in all the teaching programmes in England, no one has that in the syllabus. And you have Pep Guardiola saying, ‘I do this with my first-team players’. It just makes you think.”
Perhaps Guardiola will be keen to check out Liverugbytickets.co.uk ahead of the upcoming games in the Six Nations, especially as England have now cited him as an influence as well.
As reported by the Telegraph, the England captain was recently chosen via a method Guardiola has previously used with his captains, with the involvement of the rest of the playing squad.