We have seen Pep Guardiola achieve great success in these past three seasons thanks to his vision, his assistants and a great squad of players. Yet, Pep has also achieved his success with some unorthodox team selections that showed us that he not a man afraid to gamble. What makes this is so strange that Pep is the type who likes to play it safe especially with his new plan on taking three goal keepers on every away match.
Guardiola can be called many things. A visionary, a motivator, a demanding but fair coach, but what about being called a gambler? Take for example Barça’s recent 2-3 victory against Milan in Italy. Barça had previously faced Milan in the first group stage match and the game ended in a 2-2 draw with Milan scoring both goals in the opening and dying seconds of the match. Pep fielded Mascherano and Busquets as his starting center backs since Pique was out with an injury and Puyol was still not match fit. No need to remind everybody what happened in the opening seconds of the game.
So it was rather surprising that when both teams met again this past Wednesday, Guardiola had Pique and Puyol at his disposal as starting center backs but opted to start Puyol as the right back in place of the suspended Dani Alves while Pique sat on the bench. No explanation was given by Guardiola as to why Pique was not in the starting lineup, let alone why he didn’t feature in the second half to help his side protect a one goal lead. Then again, it is not that surprising.
Fortunately, the team won 2-3 but Mascherano and Busquets played a part in Milan’s second goal with their poor efforts in the air. Mascherano’s header clearance fell short of eliminating a Milan threat and Busquets effort to head the ball came up short and failed to make up for Mascherano’s mistake. Of course, this is not to take credit away from Boateng who scored a splendid goal, but Boateng would have never seen the ball had either player dealt with the ball better in the first place.
Ultimately the gamble paid off but why did Pep have to gamble in the first place? He had both Puyol and Pique available to play as center backs. We all know Puyol played as a right back early in his career but the veteran leader has racked a lot of mileage on those legs and is asking a lot from the veteran. Why wasn’t Barça B’s Martín Montoya called up to play in Dani Alves’s place? Since last season, the 20 year old has shined for club and country. So why not give him the chance at a big stage? Even as a substitute?
Like I said before, Guardiola’s decisions are not that surprising. Over the years, Guardiola has gotten away with odd decisions with lineups. In his first season, we saw midfielder Victor Sanchez put in performances as a full back for a handful of league matches and Touré Yaya started as a center back over Caceres in the Rome Champions League Final. The following season saw Dani Alves and Maxwell start as midfielders before we saw Pep turn completely mad scientist and experiment with Busquets as a center back before starting both Busquets and Mascherano as center backs with the odd occasion of playing Barça B midfielder Jonathan Dos Santos as a right back in some Copa Del Rey matches. Thus, another title you can bestow on Guardiola is unpredictable.
Fortunately, his gambles have mostly paid off. That is what makes it so odd to see Pep gamble on Wednesday when he is also the type who likes to play it safe. Best example of this was his recent decision to travel with three goal keepers for every away match. The idea sprang because of Valdés’s injury prior to the first Copa Del Rey match of the season. Pinto was going to start the game against L'Hospitalet with Valdes as his back up. However, an elbow injury forced Valdes to miss the game. Fortunately, Guardiola knew he could call up Barça B’s Oier to make the short journey and join the team seeing as their opponents were only 7 km away.
However, Guardiola realized he was fortunate that Valdés’s injury occurred in the same region and not somewhere distant such as Sevilla, Madrid or Milan. According to reports coming out of Barcelona sports dailies, Guardiola will now travel with three keepers for every away match. Thus, if any of his first team keepers, Valdes, or Pinto, pick up an injury during training or while warming up prior to kickoff; Guardiola would have his Barça B keeper fill in as a substitute on the bench. If neither of the veteran keepers are hurt, then the “In case of emergency, break glass” Barça B keeper will not dress for the game and sit in the stands.
Therefore, it does come off odd for Guardiola to play it safe when it comes to traveling with an extra goal keeper but would still gamble on who will play in the back four. Of course Guardiola is the Puto Crack as the coach of the club. But I think many would agree with me that his gambling with who plays in the back four is a bit too much for our heart rates and blood pressure. Hopefully the days of Mascherano and Busquets lining up as center backs will be a thing of history but you never know with Guardiola; He could play someone else there instead.
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