Pep Guardiola took charge of Barcelona in 2008. He is an unproven candidate of the highest rank, but his understanding of the club's values and principles helped him get the job.
Since his days as a player, Pep Guardiola has been a player who believes in the famous John Kloof philosophy – passing, controlling the ball, making the game easy.
He brought the same culture into the first team at Camp Nou, bringing in unknown youngsters. His humble attitude didn't quite match some of the conceited superstars in the club, who were quickly swept out of the house. Coach-picked players like Pique, Busquets, Iniesta and others came in.
His Barca team started slowly but remained true to their philosophy. To make sure the players were playing at the same pace and no one was bigger than the team, they ignored the bias.
Over time, his team gradually took shape and quickly began to beat opponents with ease. The same style of play, is precisely instilled.
Looking back at his four years at Camp Nou, his Barcelona team is probably the best team ever. After winning three league titles and two Champions Leagues, he ended his coaching role at the club in 2012.
Pep Guardiola has established himself as one of the most feared tacticians in Europe. He took a year off before moving to the management of Bayern Munich.
In Germany, his name has earned him respect, and the club's superstars know it's best not to argue. They were attracted by his knowledge of football and had confidence in his leadership. The results were obvious, as Bayern easily won three league titles in three years. However, the joy of Europeans was not satisfied.
Pep Guardiola's challenge seems to have become fairly easy, which could prompt him to travel to England. The Premier League is known for its competitiveness and it welcomes the tactical master.
When Pep Guardiola's philosophy faced its toughest test in England, the challenges were exposed. He ceded the league title to Antonio Conte's Chelsea, and Conte's pragmatic style brought immediate success to Stamford Bridge.
The City manager's credibility has been again called into question, with some critics arguing that he should abandon his philosophy by taking a more pragmatic approach to survival in England.
He didn't do that. He changed the style of play slightly, opting to actively avoid horseshoe-shaped possession, but in the big picture, Manchester City still looks like a typical Pep Guardiola team.
Over the next two seasons we can see the payoff, with Manchester City winning consecutive league titles and beating their opponents with ease. In 2019, his next challenge came from Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp.
The German boss rallied his Reds fighters whose heavy metal football disrupted Pep Guardiola's smooth passing orchestra. The Spanish tactician has beaten his opponents once again, and City have won two more titles in the last three seasons.
Numerous challenges over the years have honed Pep Guardiola's coaching experience. However, the beauty of his football still lies in his simplicity. He has done everything he can to protect the core philosophy, which has given the world a consecutive championship coach.
His record at home is better than almost any other coach and he will go down in history as a pure footballer. However, next to his title of "World's Best Coach", there is still a rather sad asterisk.
Despite his dominance in the league, his last European title was in 2010-11. He has won the Champions League twice at Barcelona but has not been able to win it for a third time since then.
This is not to say that his team no longer plays their typical fluent football in Europe. Even in the season when Manchester City lost to Chelsea in the Champions League final in 2020-21, Pep Guardiola's side achieved 11 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss (the last game).
Manchester City's defeats all took place in the knockout stages, with most of them happening within minutes. It's no secret that Pep Guardiola's team can't be ruled for long (Guardiola just trained them so well that they can't be beaten). His players' shortcomings, however, are the loss of attention or nerves in small-scale matches.
So what happens to Pep Guardiola's side in the Champions League?
Inevitably, the answer was written early in Pep Guardiola's coaching career. This is a coach who wants to control his team and his players and the way they think on the pitch.
In order to prevent his opponent from taking the ball, he needs all 11 people to strictly follow the instructions. Everyone is assigned a spot on the pitch and then they are forbidden to leave so that the team can perform better. There's nothing wrong with that, in fact, it's a paradigm guide. The problem, however, is the side effects of this training.
This rigid tactical setup hinders the regular innovation of players. They repeat their training from training, which makes them look good when they are on the ball. However, when a little extra strength is needed to crush their opponents, Pep Guardiola's players are helpless.
After weeks of intense, specific tactical training, the innovative abilities of these professional footballers are being squandered. That way, once opponents have eliminated the foreseeable threat from Manchester City, they can settle down peacefully.
It should be noted that it is often impossible to eliminate this threat. However, when opponents find a way, Pep Guardiola's side are more incompetent on the pitch than their opponents.
The desperate avoidance of a five-and-a-half run in the game was very bad for Pep's team. Pep Guardiola himself did not stop his players, but his system unconsciously influenced the creative thinking of players in key games.
It was this system that allowed them to succeed in the competition (league title) in 38 games throughout the season. However, in the crucial knockout rounds, this is bad for them, because in the knockout rounds, confidence, courage and innovation are very important.
When the plan works, Pep Guardiola's team is invincible. However, Champions League football is more than just tactical training. It's about understanding stress, using it, and sometimes it's about taking big risks to make key decisions. As Spaniards may know by now, the best teams won't win the Champions League, the most effective teams will.
The knockout rounds at the highest stage require players to improvise and surpass. It gives them the confidence to do miracles on the pitch. Pep Guardiola's team is not good at improvisational decisions. He had a lot of plans to back them up, but his team faltered in the chaos. That's exactly why Real Madrid beat them in the Champions League this season.
After analyzing his weaknesses in the game, it is still believed that he should not change his formation in pursuit of the glory of the Champions League. In his view, the definition of a football purist is his loyalty to the cause of football.
Pep Guardiola's defeat came from chaos and rigidity. However, we should still hope that his system itself is perfect, and that day may not be far off when the 13 Champions League games go according to his plan and not allow for chaos.
Until then, Guardiola remains a perfect coach who has failed to conquer Europe.