[2008] The Guardiola report

this post was published exactly one year ago:


Because he is, together with Getafe manager Michael Laudrup (43), the main candidate to succeed current Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard (45), Barcelona B manager Josep Guardiola (37) was asked by Barcelona to prepare a report explaining his view on the club and the team (read more here).

Catalan sports paper Sport apparently traced a copy of the report, since they published a summary earlier this week. The former Barcelona captain wants to bring some change to the way of working and playing of the team. These are the headlines of the Guardiola project:

Time at the club
The players have to spend more time at the club in order to get more unity in the squad and to enable the club to better control the food and resting habits of the players. The Barcelona training centre in Sant Joan Despí should therefore be used more by the first team. The players will gather there in the morning for a first training session. Between the first and the second session, late in the afternoon, the players will have to stay at the centre to eat, to rest, to attend the press, for physical treatment and tactical classes.

Medical staff
The structure of the medical staff should be changed. There's a need to have the best diagnosis people because the players want to know inmediately which injury they have and how long they will have to recover.

Physical preparation
The way the team is physically prepared for the season should be changed, new people have to be brought in. The commercial summer tours should be more adapted to the training schedule and not the other way around.

Transfers
The sports director has to ask the permission of the manager to transfer a player. Related to the current squad, there is a lack of players with power and pace that should be dealt with in the summer transfer window.

Way of playing
The team should have an attacking style, but should not always hold on to a 4-3-3 when another scheme is better adapted to the characteristics of the opponent team.


More 17 April 2008 news:
Inter wants Henry on loan
Milan also wants Marquez and Deco