‘THE REJUVENATION OF Bayern Munich’s football is stillongoing. Phase three begins here.’
Paul Breitner, a Bayern and Real Madrid legend, is speakingfrom an office on Säbener Strasse. The conversation ranges from the late 1970sonwards as he outlines each stage of the regeneration project.
‘When Kalle [Rummenigge] and I played for Bayern under coachPal Csernai, we used a certain system. And we stuck to that until 2008. Whetheryou call it 4-1-4-1 or 4-2-4 or 4-4-2 doesn’t really matter. The tactical ideaswere the same. It was just that some of the moves were different. But thatsystem is ancient history now. This is the 21st century and all of that shouldbe consigned to the past.’
It was clear that things had to change at Bayern, but nobodyknew exactly how to go about it. That is, until the arrival of Dutchman Louisvan Gaal.
‘We knew that in the modern game you only win titles byplaying the kind of football Barcelona espouse,’ Breitner points out.
‘Barça had started to play like a basketball team. Theymoved much more, kept circulating the ball and altering positions. They wereaiming for high possession and liked to keep changing the rhythm of their game.It always felt like they had produced five hours of possession, when they hadin fact only played for 90 minutes. That’s what modern football is all about.It’s what we need to be doing now and perhaps even for another decade. At leastuntil another new idea comes along. But how were we going to bring ourantiquated system up-to-date? Louis van Gaal was the answer we came up withand, happily, it was the right one because he completely transformed ourfootball.’
For Breitner, Van Gaal represented the key to the firstphase of the rejuvenation of Bayern’s game.
‘He changed a few positions and introduced possession-basedfootball. We swapped Bayern’s traditional style for this high-possession game.But there was still no flexibility in terms of players’ positions and everyonehad to stick rigidly to his own area. No one was allowed to wander out of hisspecified sphere of influence and we began to play one-touch football. We hadto focus on passing the ball to each other. In some matches we ended up with80% of possession, but there was no real rhythm or pace. After half an hour,everyone in the Allianz Arena would be yawning at this display of constantpassing. I bet all of the 71,000 spectators could predict our every move. Ourgame was well executed but very, very predictable.’
Phase two would be in the hands of Jupp Heynckes.
Breitner: ‘He maintained Van Gaal’s system, but tinkeredwith this idea of constant possession. He pointed out that the basic idea wassound. What we lacked was speed and regular changes of rhythm. It took twoyears for him to fully implement his ideas and he was rewarded in the secondhalf of season 2012-13, when we topped the league with a record number ofpoints. In the first half of the season, between August and December he wasstill working on some moves but, by the beginning of the second half, inJanuary and February, the team was already displaying the desired rhythm andwas producing a completely different game.’
Now Pep will oversee the execution of stage three.
‘That’s it exactly. Heynckes continued to opt for fixedpositions. He wanted a high-speed game that would produce a lot of goals. Thatwas the key. It wasn’t just about possession; we wanted lots and lots of goals.Now, under Pep, we’re changing to more flexible positioning. We’ll becirculating the ball more and aiming to produce non-stop fluid movement, verymuch in the image of what Barça were doing two or three years ago, when theywere at their peak.’
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