Pep Guardiola Quotes

“The senior players, meanwhile, understood perfectly well, and as one recognised: ‘He always used us as an example, but he was always fair with us and everyone else.’ Pep was finding solutions to the team’s problems, relying on instinct and experience to motivate, inspire and get the best out of the youngsters.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“He became as demanding of himself as he was with his players and staff but, in everything he did, he always made it a priority to explain why he was asking them to do something. He was always the first to arrive and the last to leave, working mornings and afternoons at the training ground. Every aspect of running the team had to be under his control: he demanded daily reports and updates from all his staff. Nothing was left to chance.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Guardiola immediately set about introducing a series of habits, working practices, systems and methodologies acquired after a career working with a variety of different managers. ‘He paid particular attention to detail’, Trueba recalls: ‘From control of the players’ diets, rest and recuperation time; to scouting opponents by recording their matches and using his assistants and staff to compile detailed match reports . . . in the third division!! On occasion, if Guardiola felt that he didn’t have enough information on a particular opponent, he would go to their matches himself.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“above all else, they had to learn to win. Instilling a fiercely competitive, winning spirit into a team, an academy already blessed with an abundance of talent, represented something of a watershed for grass-roots football at FC Barcelona.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Pep realised that in order to make the team a success he needed to add intensity and an increased work rate to their technical abilities.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“the attacking players would need to become the best defenders; and the defenders would have to become the first line of attack, moving the ball forward from the back.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“We have to be able to dominate the game, and make sure that we aren’t dominated ourselves.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“He could live with them playing badly now and again, he told them, but he demanded 100 per cent on the pitch in every single game.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“The director of football went away and started doing some digging around, gathering second opinions about Pep’s qualities as an actual coach.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Look at him! Him, that one there! He’s hiding! Your team-mates need to know that you are always available!’ he’ll shout, pointing a finger at the culprit. ‘Before passing the ball, you need to know where you’re passing it to; if you don’t know, it’s better to keep it; give it to your goalie, but don’t give it to your opponent”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“The ball runs faster than any human, so it’s the ball that has to do the running!’ which, in seventeen words, just about encapsulates his philosophy.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Rijkaard was aware of the stars’ behaviour, but indulged them, ever the optimist that the players were mature and responsible enough to know when to draw the line. It was a mistake. And, by the middle of the 2006–07 season that started poorly in Monaco, it was a trend far too late to reverse as Barcelona’s results and their performances reflected the breakdown in discipline.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Rijkaard and Ten Cate made the perfect double act; the ultimate good cop/bad cop routine, but without Henk banging his fist on the table, Rijkaard’s nice guy routine led to chaos.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“that coronation of the team’s achievements paradoxically heralded the beginning of the end for Rijkaard’s Barcelona, as the first signs of indiscipline became apparent.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“At the end of his spell in Argentina he felt that he was better prepared than ever before; not totally, because Pep will never allow himself to be completely satisfied, but he felt ready enough to start putting everything he had learnt to the test.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Bielsa’s teams ‘can play badly or well, but talent depends on the inspiration and the effort depends on each one of the players: the attitude is non-negotiable’, Marcelo, ‘el loco’, told him, adding that his sides cannot win if he cannot transmit what he feels. Pep agreed, taking notes all the time.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Pep and Bielsa have much in common: they love teams that dominate, that want to be protagonists on the pitch, to seek out the opposition goal as the main priority.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“I’d love to work with the youth side, with the kids, because I’ve no pretensions that I’m ready to work at a higher level yet. You have to respect the fact that this is a process, a learning curve. The first steps are vital and there are no second chances once you step up.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Pep used to feel unprepared when it came to certain topics like defensive concepts or particular training methodologies. When he needed answers he would turn to Lillo at any time of day: ‘How do you solve this type of situation?’ ‘If I do this what will happen?’ According to Pep, Lillo is one of the best prepared coaches in the world and a leader in his field when it comes to developing a vision of the game, despite the fact that the world of elite sports hasn’t been kind in rewarding him.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Guardiola signed for Roma in the summer of 2002, motivated less by the opportunity to play for a bigger club than to be coached by, and to learn from, Fabio Capello, a manager he greatly admires despite their differing approach to the game. Pep was eager to experience Capello’s defensive rigour and discover his secrets in terms of how to apply pressure upon an opponent.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Football was his passion, his obsession, the thing he knew best, and Serie A was considered the league that practised the most advanced defensive tactics since Sacchi. His Milan of the eighties were regarded as having set the benchmark in terms of work rate and defensive strategy over the previous two decades – and Pep was determined to learn as much as he could from his time in Italy.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“My role was to move the ball around the pitch for my team-mates to finish off the move,’ he says. The”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“touching the ball a thousand times a match and never for more than a second each time,”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“I saw Guardiola as a mystical type of person. The way he dressed – always in black – he was sometimes very quiet, constantly analysing things, thinking things over: why we won, why we lost, why he’d lost the ball. Sometimes his obsessiveness was excessive.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“Before heading out on to the pitch, Johan Cruyff gave his players a simple instruction: ‘Go out there and enjoy yourselves.’ It was a statement that embodies an entire footballing philosophy and was central to Cruyff ’s principles; yet for others, its simplicity, ahead of such a key game, might be considered an insult to the coaching profession.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“his leadership skills must not be forgotten either; as it soon became evident in his playing career; he didn’t just pass the ball to his team-mates, he talked to them constantly. ‘Keep it simple, Michael!’ shouted a twenty-year-old Guardiola on one occasion to Laudrup, the international superstar. The Danish player had tried to dribble past three players too close to the half-way line, where losing the ball would have been dangerous. ‘That was simple,’ Michael replied with a wink. But he knew the kid was right.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“He was a bit like me. You must have a lot of technique, move the ball quickly, avoid a collision – and to avoid it you must have good vision.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“He also taught his players how to mark an opponent, teaching them to focus on a rival’s weaknesses – while accentuating what you were good at, to fight the battles you could win, in other words. It was a revelation for Pep, who lacked the physique to beat a tall, powerful, central midfielder in the air – so he learnt, under Cruyff, to avoid jumping with his rival, but to wait instead. Cruyff ’s theory was: ‘Why fight? Keep your distance, anticipate where he’ll head the ball and wait for the bounce. You’ll be in control while he’s jumping around.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“a passer of the ball positioned in front of the defence who could provide the platform from which every Barcelona attack would begin.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

“anxiety to become good enough for Johan Cruyff to notice us cannot be put into words. Without that desire, none of us would be who we are today.”
― Guillem Balague, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography