Page 84 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

to do it or when not to do it.
Barcelona attacked through the centre far too much, their movements funnelled into a congested
area in front of goal. Too narrow. But one element was a sign of things to come: they had almost all
the possession and the chances. Twenty shots on goal from Barcelona, three from Numancia, one of

them a goal from Mario, a defensive mistake that left him unmarked at the far post.
Barcelona lost.
1-0.
Beaten by a modest club with an annual budget of €14.4 million compared to the €380 million of
FC Barcelona. The shock result of the weekend. Of the month. Of the season, even.
At the end, Guardiola set his doubts, disappointment and frustration to one side and approached the
rival coach, Sergio Kresick, to shake his hand and congratulate him on his success.

‘When we lost that first game in Soria, we weren’t in a good mood in the dressing room,’ Iniesta
recalls. ‘But Pep appeared straight away to control everything, to help us to accept the result.’
The pre-season had given the players their hunger back, they knew the path they must take, the
reasoning and challenges. They were receptive – well, most of them – and they started to understand
what Pep wanted of them. But they had lost their first league game to a side that everyone thought they
should have thrashed. Straight after the game, Guardiola made the effort to get it into the players’

heads that they needn’t change anything because of the defeat. They had made mistakes and these were
pointed out to them in the immediate aftermath, but they should also maintain a very clear idea about
where they were going. That August evening at Los Pajaritos, el mister, as coaches are known in
Spain, told his players something that he has repeated several times since.
‘We shouldn’t lose sight of the target.’
And the target wasn’t to win titles, but to achieve a certain way of playing. If they stuck to their
principles, titles would be the most logical consequence. Never losing sight of their goal would be

one of the keys to success.
In the days after the game, during hard training sessions, Guardiola pulled his players up on many
things. He insisted that they hadn’t played well in terms of positioning. In future they must place
themselves more cleverly to receive the pass, and to start pressuring their opponents more quickly.
Not once did Pep point the finger of blame, instead putting all his efforts into finding solutions. More
than training, it felt like teaching. The players were learning.

It is important in football, as in any walk of life, to appear calm in times of crisis. To hide
weaknesses. Pep told them with conviction that they were on the right path. Not a complete lie but he
confessed to people at the club that he had slipped up: ‘The pre-season was great, but now the league
has begun I’ve let the players fall back into their old ways of playing, their former tactics, playing
down the centre.’
The international break meant that two weeks would pass before the next league game. It was to be
among the hardest fifteen days of his regime.

Pep Guardiola’s managerial debut at the Nou Camp came against Racing de Santander, another
modest team whose target was to avoid relegation. Pep made two significant changes to his line-up.
Pedro and Busquets were included, with Yaya Touré left on the bench and Henry injured. Under
pressure, as he would do repeatedly throughout his tenure, Pep looked for solutions in the youth
system.
The visitors held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw.

Pep’s team paid the price for not converting their chances in front of goal and had to settle for a
share of the spoils against a very defensive Racing side that scored with their only clear chance of the