Pep Guardiola Claims He’s a “better manager” at Man City Than He was at Barcelona.
Pep Guardiola Claims He’s a “better manager” at Man City Than He was at Barcelona.
Pep Guardiola claims he is a better manager at Manchester City than he was at Barcelona, where he admitted he was ‘more worried’ about the position.
Guardiola is no stranger to the pressures that come with leading one of the world’s top clubs. And while he hasn’t had the same success with City as he has with Barcelona, the Spaniard insists he’s getting better at it.
‘I was more nervous about everything, more sensitive for everything in my early years in Barcelona,’ he said. ‘Now I’m a little more relaxed in my approach to circumstances. At City, I learned a lot. Because of my experiences, I’m a completely different manager and believe I’m a better manager than when I first started.’
Guardiola is credited with building one of the best teams in history during his first managerial stint at Barcelona. The team won 14 trophies during his four seasons in command, including three LaLiga titles and two Champions League victories.
Guardiola has won 10 trophies at City, including three Premier League titles, but no Champions League crowns.
The Spaniard’s interim years at Bayern Munich were the least successful of his career, but he says that managing in three different divisions has helped him overall.
‘It’s been absolutely different challenges in Germany and Spain, and now it’s been very different problems here,’ Guardiola added. ‘I’d say that’s wonderful because else doing the same thing would be so dull.’
City manager Pep Guardiola has been accused of overthinking his tactics in critical games that he has lost, particularly in the Champions League.
Guardiola, on the other hand, was certain that ‘evolution’ is critical for managers to grow, and that fresh ideas must be attempted or things will get old and dull.
‘You can’t have the same ideas that you had 12 or 13 years ago; you get lazy and unafraid,’ he explained. ‘ You lack the insight or desire to consider “well, maybe we do it that way,” even though it may be a mistake.
‘You have to evolve at some point during the process.’ You do evolution to attempt to succeed, certainly, but more importantly, so you don’t grow bored doing the same thing all the time towards the end.
‘Life is about having new experiences and developing new skills.’