Could the Klopp-Guardiola rivalry lift Bundesliga to the top?
Last March, Jurgen Klopp heaped praise on then Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola and spoke of how his team had influenced his own football philosophy. When news broke of Guardiola’s appointment as the next Bayern coach, Klopp was among the first to welcome him warmly to the Bundesliga.
Quite different from Jose Mourinho then, Guardiola may have thought. But then again who isn’t? The former Barcelona coach spent the last two years of his tenure at the Camp Nou battling Mourinho and Real Madrid. Their rivalry came to mirror that of the team’s great stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi; only much more fierce and less respectful. Mourinho’s constant attacks agitated and tired Guardiola. His memorable rant on the eve of the Champions League semi-final in 2011 was the height of the tensions between the two, notwithstanding the famous eye poke by the Portuguese on Guardiola’s then trusted assistant, Tito Vilanova, in a fiery Super Cup encounter.
‘It would not have been a surprise were Guardiola to have made his decision to go to Bayern in part because it meant he knew he would avoid having to deal with the tiresome Mourinho once again’.
The rivalry he is about to start with Klopp is bound to be more respectful and amiable. For one thing, they share the same principles; high energy, pressing football, winning the ball higher up the pitch, harassing the opposition into mistakes, and passing them into submission with rapid interplay. Yet, these two men are fiercely competitive and this rivalry could well go on to become one of the most fascinating in Europe in the years to come.
It is worth considering Klopp’s magnificent run and remarkable tenure at the Westfalonstadion to gain a real insight into what lies ahead in the Bundesliga next season. The former Mainz coach arrived at Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2008. The 1997 European champions had just finished 13th and were still recovering from the near bankruptcy they experienced five years prior. Robert Lewandowski was playing for Lech Poznan. Mats Hummels’ career was going nowhere at Bayern Munich. Neven Subotic was a relatively unknown defender still at Klopp’s former team, Mainz. Shinji Kagawa was at a Japanese side called Cerezo Osaka. Nuri Sahin and Mario Gotze were in the Dortmund youth side.
These players would form the bedrock of the team Klopp then created, bringing in Hummels on loan before a permanent signature. Subotic followed, Gotze got promoted. Dortmund qualified for Europe two years in a row before Lewandowski and Kagawa arrived. A host of other players were crafted into a youthful, intelligent and organised unit, including the likes of Lukasz Pizczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Roman Weidenfeller.
Their high pressing and intent to play the game in the opposition’s half is reminiscent of the tactical blueprint laid out by Marcelo Biesla, and by Guardiola of course. Dortmund swept the German League in 2011, winning the title in style, but then did what few dare to try and even fewer succeed at: retaining the title. And they did so, even more convincingly, with a record points tally after an unprecedented 28-game unbeaten run, before crushing Bayern Munich 5-2 in the German Cup final. That seemed to underline the gulf between the two sides. Dortmund then went on to sign Marco Reus, the star of the Borussia Monchengladbach side, which had just won a Champions League spot, the kind of capture Bayern would usually have made, sweeping as they tend to, most of the league’s top talent.
Dortmund seem unlikely to be stripped of their star talent any time soon by Bayern. They have the money and position in European football to fend off suitors. No player needs to leave Dortmund for financial reasons, nor for ambition. This is a team now competing at the very highest level there is.
Enter Guardiola. This is a man who some have doubted will be able to replicate what he did at Barcelona elsewhere. Jose Mourinho is still described as the closest thing to guarantee success there is. And Guardiola will not have La Masia and its endless production line of talents, and most prominently, there will be no Messi, Xavi and Iniesta to help him. Nor will he have Tito Vilanova, Jordi Roura or any of the others at his disposal. Yet, Guardiola’s skills are still somehow undervalued. This is a man whose management of the Barcelona reserves side in a friendly against the senior team (when Rijkaard was in charge) had one of the Dutchman’s staff begging Guardiola to go easy on his team; such was their domination of the more experienced campaigners.
When given the senior post, Guardiola was single-minded and decisive, pushing Ronaldinho and Deco out of the door, making Messi central and playing him as a false nine. He made Xavi the heartbeat of the side alongside Iniesta, brought through Pedro and made sure the team were not to be beaten again through a want of trying. His attention to detail, understanding of the mentality of his players, and tactical nous enabled him to get the most he could from his charge and brought 14 trophies in four years to the Camp Nou. La Liga, the Copa del Rey, Champions League, World Club Cup, Super Cup; no trophy went without the red and blue stripes of Barcelona during Guardiola’s brief but glorious reign. Now he goes to a team similarly steeped in tradition, values and good sense as Barcelona, in Bayern Munich.
It is a world away from what he could have walked into at the Etihad Stadium or Stamford Bridge. In England, the top teams are ravaged by debt, or in Arsenal’s case, are unwilling to spend. In Italy, there is a similar story, albeit Juventus are moving forward on sound financial footing. Barcelona and Real Madrid generate huge sums in Spain, but none of the teams have the kind of financial stability that Dortmund and Bayern enjoy; Bayern being the only club with profits for the last ten years on the trot. These two sides can go on to dominate not just Germany, but become two of Europe’s biggest names in the years to come. With Guardiola on board for three years, these are arguably two of the world’s top coaches at two of the world’s best teams.
Yet the concept of two such similarly minded sides going head to head is unusual. Barcelona have been so good in recent years that Real Madrid were forced to bring in Mourinho to try and beat their arch rivals in a more pragmatic fashion. In England, there is no team other than Arsenal that has genuinely attempted to copy the style of total football. No other team in the country has produced high-pressing, possession-based football convincingly, though Manchester City were not far from it sometimes last season. Liverpool are currently trying to revamp their structure on grounds of it. And Italy is famously the land of ‘Catenaccio’. There is a rare opportunity to see two teams who will play the ‘Cryuff way’, in the manner of the great Ajax team of the 1970′s and the current Barcelona side, going head to head in the same league. There may be those lamenting Guardiola’s decision not to try his hand in England, but what he has done is created a storyline with arguably for more potential and interest in Germany.
‘Two attack-minded idealists, the financially sound Bundesliga, the best attended league in Europe, is the perfect setting for their rivalry to come.’
German football will deservedly benefit in television rights deals from this duel. And of course, the Bundesliga will benefit immeasurably in the years to come from the fact that these two masters of modern football are going to pit their wits against each other.
It is a story no real football fan would want to miss.