Inside the SuperClubs: Excerpt from Marti Perarnau's 'Pep Confidential'

The following is an excerpt fromPep Confidential by MartíPerarnau, which is out now, and published by Arena Sport and BackPage. To read the rest of Planet

SI Staff | Nov 17, 2014

Inside the SuperClubs: Excerpt from Marti Perarnau's 'Pep Confidential' /

The following is an excerpt fromPep Confidential by MartíPerarnau, which is out now, and published by Arena Sport and BackPage. To read the rest of Planet Futbol's Inside the SuperClubs: Bayern Munich series, click here.

If anyone would prefer me not to make the decisions, no problem. You decide who’s going to play.” - Munich, October 18, 2013

Pep’s tactical talk delays the start of training by half an hour. He usually gives three per match. The day before he tells his players how their opponents will attack. Then, on the morning of the match, he describes their offensive and defensive strategy and that evening, in the team hotel, he runs over his tactical plan for Bayern’s attack.

It’s Friday and his men have been scattered by international call-ups for 12 days. He wants to rally the troops and shake them out of relaxed mode. Players tend to come back from these training breaks in different states of mind. Those who have won with their national side will be feeling pretty high, whilst those on the losing side will be suffering.

Inside the SuperClubs: Guardiola's tactics alter Bayern Munich's identity

In any case, everyone’s happy to be back together again and there is a good deal of joking around. The Säbener Strasse dressing room is jumping. Pep, however, wants concentration and serious focus. He’s looking for the same level of intensity they produced in Manchester and Leverkusen. Thirteen days previously they left Leverkusen with a 1-1 draw, the same result as the Freiburg game at the end of August.

This time however, Bayern had put on a prodigious display of football, just like in Manchester, and Dortmund’s defeat by Borussia Monchengladbach propelled Guardiola’s team to the top of the Bundesliga table for the first time in the championship. Week eight and Bayern were right on track. Bayern had taken the euphoria from Europe-wide recognition for the manner of their victory in the Etihad Stadium to Leverkusen, and celebrated another festival of football three days later.

This time they didn’t win despite their overwhelming domination of their third-placed rivals. With the ball at their feet for 80 percent of the game, Bayern completed 90 percent of their passes accurately and had 27 shots at the redoubtable Bernd Leno’s goal, 18 of which hit the target. But Pep’s men managed to score just one goal, for a conversion rate of only 3.7 percent. Leverkusen produced a terrific series of blocks and saves and needed only three shots on target to score.

Inside the SuperClubs: How Bayern Munich emerged as a world power

It has been two weeks since the midfield trio of Lahm, Kroos and Schweinsteiger were so impressive in Manchester and Leverkusen, and Guardiola wants everyone back on track. The international break was a parenthesis which he now wants closed as quickly as possible. His talk goes on for 35 minutes, twice as long as usual. The coach explains how tomorrow’s opponents, Mainz 05, play, describes how he wants to deal with them and finishes up with some instructions about the importance of maintaining solidarity.

“We must all show respect to each other. I know that you all want to play but that just isn’t possible and I have to choose the players I think are the most suitable. It doesn’t mean that those of you who don’t get a game and end up sitting on the bench are less able. It just means I haven’t picked you this time. But if you run off to the press or your agents saying that you should have played, you will be showing a lack of respect – not for me, but for the guy who did get a game, your teammate. If anyone would prefer me not to make the decisions, no problem. Be my guest. You get together and decide who’s going to play and who’s not.”

Clearly the aim of this unexpected and rather startling onslaught is not to incite a management takeover but to puncture some of the rather over-inflated egos which have returned from the fortnight’s break. Pep wants to reactivate his men’s all-for-one mentality. He wants to stop them slipping back into their comfort zone. Today the giant screens have come out for the first time.

Inside the SuperClubs: Bayern captain Lahm boasts intelligence, versatility

Pep demanded them on his first day, back in June. He wanted to cover up training pitch No. 1 so that the press and scouts from other clubs could not spy on them. We know only too well that the coach prefers to work quietly, in privacy, away from prying eyes. Aware that a nearby hill offers a bird’s-eye view of Säbener Strasse, he asked that the club go a step further than just shutting the gates.

He wanted one training pitch completely shielded from public view. After an unacceptable delay of four months (due to the initial difficulty in finding materials which would do the job effectively), today, at last, a thick grey screen, blocking off the whole pitch, is installed. The sun is blazing in the Munich sky and just as he finishes his talk, Pep and his assistants comment that the screen probably isn’t sufficiently opaque to hide the training session completely. Anyone with their wits about them will still be able to see everything from the nearby mountain.

“Mountain? How do you say ‘mountain’ in German again? I can’t remember.” Heinz Jünger, Säbener Strasse’s head of security, who is always helpful and interested, intervenes to remind him that "berg" is the word Pep is looking for.

Inside the SuperClubs: Bayern great Beckenbauer recalls time in USA

Bastian Schweinsteiger is the first player out onto the pitch. He is startled by the screen. Punching the air with both arms and shouting something unintelligible (or at least something we prefer to ignore) about the press, he indicates a distant point and says that someone is bound to turn up there and get a good shot, despite the screen’s arrival.

As it turns out the vice-captain is spot-on. A little later Markus Hörwick, the super-efficient communications director, rushes up to close a tiny crack through which a newspaper photographer is trying to grab an exclusive.

GALLERY: Bayern Munich through the years

FC Bayern Munich Through the Years

1900

A Munich gymnastics club refuses to let eleven of its members join the German Football Association, so those eleven form Bayern Munich as a standalone football club that same evening.

1965

Franz Beckenbauer and Bayern Munich enter the Bundesliga for the first time, having been passed over for the initial collection of teams in favor of 1860 Munich. They win the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) in their first season and finish third in the league.

1967

The club captures its first European trophy, winning the 1967 Winner's Cup with an extra-time victory over Glasgow Rangers.

1970

Udo Lattek is hired as head coach. In two different stints in charge of the club, Lattek (seen here in '87) would coach for more days (over 3,000) and win more trophies (10) than any other coach in the club's history.

1971

The club moves from the Grunwalder Stadion to the Olympiastadion, which had been built for the 1972 Summer Olympics. It would be Bayern's home for 35 years.

1972

Bayern Munich defeats Schalke 5-1 in the first live televised match in Bundesliga history, winning that season's league title as a result.

1974

The club wins its first European Cup (now Champions League), 4-0 over Atletico Madrid. It goes on to win the competition the subsequent two years as well.

1974

The club signs Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. The striker would go on to score 162 goals for the club and is currently the CEO of the corporation that owns Bayern Munich.

1976

The club wins its first international trophy, defeating Brazilian club Cruzeiro to win the Intercontinental Cup (now abolished).

1987

Jupp Heynckes is hired as head coach. He would win two Bundesligas and two Super Cups.

1993

Norwich City defeats Lothar Matthaus and Bayern Munich 2-1 at the Olympiastadion in the UEFA Cup (now Europa League), the only time a British club was able to defeat Bayern at its old home ground.

1996

With Franz Beckenbauer as interim manager, Bayern wins the UEFA Cup final against Bordeaux, the only time they have won the competition.

1998

Ottmar Hitzfeld is hired as head coach. He would go on to coach the second-most total games and win the second-most total honors in club history (both behind Uto Lattek).

1999

Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images

Bayern loses the Champions League final in extra time to Manchester United.

2001

Bayern wins its third consecutive Bundesliga title with a stoppage-time goal against Hamburg from Patrik Andersson on a rare free kick from inside the penalty area.

2001

Bayern wins the Champions League after defeating Valencia on penalty kicks at the San Siro in Milan, Italy.

2001

Bayern wins the Intercontinental Cup in extra time against Boca Juniors, thanks to a goal from Samuel Kuffour.

2005

The club moves from the Olympiastadion to the newly-built Allianz Arena, which they share with local rivals 1860 Munich.

2008

The club hires Jurgen Klinsmann (left) as head coach following his success with the German national team at the 2006 World Cup. He is fired 10 months later.

2012

Bayern reaches the final of the Champions League in its home stadium, but loses on penalties to Chelsea. It is the first time the club is defeated by an English team in Munich.

2013

Bayern Munich wins the Bundesliga with six games left, the earliest a champion has ever secured the title. Bayern also sets the record for most points in a season, most wins in a season, and fewest defeats.

2013

Bayern wins the Champions League over rivals Borussia Dortmund with a 2-1 win at Wembley Stadium.

2013

Bayern completes the first treble in German soccer history, winning the DFB-Pokal via a 3-2 triumph over Stuttgart.

2014

Bayern ends a Bundesliga record 54-game stretch without losing by falling 1-0 to FC Augsburg.

2014

Bayern breaks its own record, securing the Bundesliga title with seven matches remaining.

2014

Club president Uli Hoeness, who had reigned since 1979, resigns after being convicted of tax fraud.

2014

The club opens offices in the Unites States in an attempt to expand its international reach.

2015

Robert Lewandowski holds up all five fingers–one for each goal he scored in a nine-minute span in a memorable 5-1 win over Bundesliga foe Wolfsburg.

Published Nov 17, 2014

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