NOT PERFECT , BUT CLOSE : THE EVOLUTION OF GUARDIOLA AT BAYERN MUNICH

This is not the German champions trying to
replicate Barcelona, but rather a fast, hungry
side littered with players capable of creating
chances and scoring goals.
No team in Europe has produced football like
Bayern Munich did in the first half against
Wolfsburg last week in the DFB-Pokal. They
totally destroyed the German cup holders; the
second best team in the Bundesliga last
season.
It was so good that the question of whether or
not Bayern had achieved football perfection
was asked with not a hint of hyperbole.
"Perfection doesn't exist," Pep Guardiola said.
"The first half was very, very good, but not
perfect. There are always details you can
improve."
Not perfect but pretty damn close. It was the
purest representation of what Guardiola has
sought from his players since taking over at
Bayern.
His team sustain possession as well as ever
but, significantly, the coach has made some
key tweaks. This is not Bayern trying to be
Barca; this is a fast, hungry team with players
placed in every position with the express
intention of creating chances and scoring
goals. Guardiola has dispensed with the players
who cannot execute the football he demands
and signed younger, quicker ones like Douglas
Costa and Kingsley Coman for their place.
Jerome Boateng's long balls have been
decisive against Borussia Dortmund in the past
as a way of skipping the first press and that
tactic is deployed on a more regular basis this
season - regardless of the opponent.
Arturo Vidal and Joshua Kimmich have been
brought in to quicken the pace through the
centre of midfield, while a fit, functioning
Thiago Alcantara stitches the play together.
This Bayern team are more direct in getting to
the final third and, once there, they raid down
on goal as quick as lightening. They are not
trying to walk the ball into the goal; there are
more conventional methods deployed in trying
to score goals thanks to Costa and Coman and
their ability to go past markers. That in turn has
allowed Robert Lewandowski to gorge himself.
"Maybe [Guardiola] has changed a bit," captain
Philipp Lahm told Goal. "Now we have wingers
like we had two years ago with Arjen [Robben]
and Franck [Ribery] - players which you put in
one-on-one situations, players who create
space. Now we have again two more of this
type of player, which we all know we have
missed at crunch times in the past.
"We have more possibilities. By doing this we
maybe have adjusted our game a little bit as
you try to get these players in position. But we
have not changed the way we play."
When a team is defending extremely deeply
with two rows of five, as is the norm these
days for teams facing Bayern, an attacker who
can beat his man can tilt a game in his side's
favour.
Costa's opening goal in that cup match against
Wolfsburg demonstrated exactly how Bayern
have changed. Other players in the Bayern
squad, for all their strengths, are simply not
wired to shift the ball past defenders and lash
home from outside the box. That will never be
the strength of, say, Thomas Muller, Robben or
Mario Gotze.
Moreover, Costa conjured classic 'wing play'
from a central position; formations only exist
on paper for this Bayern team. Exchanges of
position occur so frequently that it is pointless
trying to ascertain who exactly is playing
where.
"We can play a back three or a back four, we
can play with one or two support strikers,
whatever," said Lahm. "I don't know how many
systems we have. Our game is very flexible in
any case. This is often only about how you
write in down.
"It depends on the types of players. If you take
me for example as a right forward or Arjen it is
a completely different thing."
Guardiola, in the Marti Perarnau book 'Pep
Confidential', is shown to be obsessed with
passing lanes; the idea of having multiple
channels of attack for moves to develop. This
can easily be seen in Bayern's current set up
where David Alaba, Coman, Lewandowski,
Muller and Costa provide the options all across
the pitch for forward passes from midfield. The
effect is overwhelming for even the very best
of opponents.
The second and third goals on the night paid
testament to the overlapping abilities of
Alaba. That the Austria captain was missing
against Frankfurt and Bayern did not win is no
coincidence. His interpretation of what
Guardiola asks from a 'full-back' is fundamental
to how Bayern not only play but win.
"There are of course still full-backs, but the
type of player has changed a bit," said Lahm.
"Most can play in midfield." The 31-year-old
has done so frequently under Guardiola and
even now, when named at right-back, still
appears more often in the middle.
A common criticism of Guardiola's Bayern has
been that their possession-heavy game can be
sterile; that it's not only boring, but pointless.
Bayern spend so much time in the opposition
half and put so many of their players in that
sector of the field that the opponents have no
choice but to retreat to the very edge of their
own box. And for 90 minutes, too. Guardiola's
challenge, then, has been to figure out how to
win in this very specific context.
Against the best teams in the world - Real
Madrid and Barcelona in the Champions League
semi-finals for the last two years - Bayern have
been unable to come up with the goods. The
twin problems of the ball moving too slowly and
failing to get the best from Lewandowski have
been addressed. Sterner tests await in the
spring when injuries will need to be avoided,
but right now the plan is coming together.