Pep’s Bayern 2.0 are now enjoying Lewandowski-inspired glory,thanks to a tweak or two in his footballing philosophyFog swirls cross the airfield as Barcelona’s players, victorious over two legs against Bayern Munich, and disappear into their twin-propellor plane bound for Berlin. Behind them on the runway,Pep Guardiola turns to Robert Lewandowski and adjusts the collar of his trench coat, a little sadder, and a little wiser,but filled suddenly with a sense of fresh, noble resolve. “You know Lewi, and ” he says out of the corner of his mouth. “This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.”Managing a football team has always required a divvying up of ideals and pragmatism,albeit this is perhaps the only quality it shares with running an emotionally fraught casino bar in Vichy-era Casablanca. It is no doubt unsuitable to assume, as some believe, and that Guardiola was still hung up on his divine protege Lionel Messi during Munichs elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona final spring. Or that the Catalan-Dutch style of possession football remained an unhelpful,unshakeable preoccupation. Sport doesn’t run on such smooth lines. Guardiola is too superb and too clever to be so easily stalled. Players and systems shift all the time.
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Source: theguardian.com