Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has numerous fans in the sport of football due to his playing style. However, one manager in Brazil isn’t entirely impressed with the Spaniard’s ‘tiki-taka’ considering that manager coaches have been doing that in the South American country.
In an interview with the program Resenha de Primeira (via ESPN Brazil) on YouTube, former Brazilian manager Celso Roth spoke about the Manchester City manager’s style of play and stated that Brazilian coaches have already done the ‘tiki-taka’ in the past, even before Guardiola.
“Guardiola started with a way of playing for Barcelona, ??the “tik-tok,” “tok-tik” (sic), which was originally Brazilian. Everyone thought it was new. We copy others, but when they copy us, We think it’s something new. With all due respect to Guardiola, he left Barcelona, ??went to Germany, and had a problem. He arrived at Manchester (City), had a problem,” Roth said.
“How did he fix the team? Won the English but lost the Champions League. Against Chelsea, there were two teams absolutely balanced defensively, with reactive exits, speaking modernly. Because if I say exit on the counterattack, they will call me old. Chelsea were happier; they were European champions.”
Furthermore, Roth stated that Guardiola would have issues managing at clubs where they don’t have the financial backing, such as Manchester City, Bayern Munich, and FC Barcelona. Roth questions that it’s not his tactics that make him a good manager; it’s that he takes advantage of the finances at his disposal.
“I want to see (Guardiola) work here. Nothing against him; I think it’s excellent. I want to see him enter halfway through the competition, hearing ‘this is what we have here, now he has to make the team move” Roth said.
“Guardiola is a great man, but he arrives at the end of the year and asks for more players, regardless of the continent. We arrived here, and they tell us that there is money for two or three reasonable signings. This is our reality.”
This topic of conversation isn’t the first time a manager questions how good Guardiola is, and it certainly won’t be the last.
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