Page 163 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

Mourinho gets to Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground as early as seven o’clock in the morning
and makes sure everything is prepared for the day ahead. Guardiola has been seen leaving the training
ground at ten at night and sometimes later.
They can both be characterised by their modernity, they employ all the new technology and

methods possible to help the growth of their players. But they are also delegators, they lead a great
team of assistants and are capable of making their personnel feel responsible, valued, gifted. And
both of them have earned themselves a reputation as being great listeners.
They know the institution and fanbase whom they are working for. They know how to direct their
emotions, they can awake the enthusiasm and mobilise their players and fans to do what they want.
Both are very good at absorbing all the bad vibes directed at their clubs and channelling them away
from their players. ‘I let people see me angry because I really am, but sometime I pretend to be angry.

These days coaches should play with their emotions,’ Mourinho says.
Like his Catalan counterpart, he imposed his timetable, his rules and minimal contact with the
press. Both coaches are aware that they live in a complex world, almost a media bubble. News sells,
and the more exclusive and explosive the story, the better. Both are masters in the science that is
handling the media, the message and the art of leadership, making their players stand out among the
greatest in the world by clarifying expectations, helping them get to know themselves better,

motivating them to be self-disciplined.
When they close the dressing-room door and prepare to face the media, that is when they certainly
do things differently.

Once Barcelona had knocked Shakhtar out of the quarter-finals of the 2011 Champions League
campaign, Guardiola stopped going to the gym, where he used to spend a couple of hours a day to
help him overcome a discal hernia that had hospitalised him. He swapped his exercise regime for the
preparation of a programme to steer his side through a run of four Clásicos in eighteen days, starting
with their league encounter, followed by the Copa del Rey final and then the home and away legs of
the Champions League semi-finals.

For the league encounter, he decided to field the same team that was responsible for the 5-0
thrashing given to Madrid earlier in the season, apart from Eric Abidal who was recovering from his
operation. In the run-up to it Guardiola reminded his players that this game would not be a repeat of
that extraordinary result; this time Mourinho would not be caught quite so off-guard.
Mourinho is especially good at making games difficult for the opponent: for that occasion, he let

the grass on the pitch grow longer than usual so the ball didn’t run as much and he used Pepe as a
third midfielder to detain Messi. This was the most defensive side Mourinho had fielded and one that
was criticised by Madrid’s honorary president, Alfredo Di Stéfano. But the idea was not to lose the
first one, almost accepting the league was out of reach for Madrid, and focus on the other three
Clásicos.

16 April 2011 – La Liga Clásico. Santiago Bernabéu stadium

The game finished with the teams tied at one goal apiece, practically assuring that the league title
stayed at Barcelona. The tight marking of Messi by Pepe provoked the Argentinian to respond angrily
following his limited contribution to the game. When towards the end the ball went out of play, he

struck it fiercely, hitting some spectators. ‘He had wanted to hit the hoardings and it went high,’ one