By 90min | Created at 2024-11-21 22:21:12 | Updated at 2024-11-22 04:16:02
6 hours ago
Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski has revealed that it was "difficult" to work under a manager like Pep Guardiola at former club Bayern Munich.
The prolific Pole spent eight successful years with the German giants before making the switch to Spain, winning two Bundesliga titles under Guardiola, who left to join Manchester City in 2016 and is now hailed as one of the Premier League's most successful managers.
However, two seasons with Guardiola at Bayern wasn't the easiest, with Lewandowski admitting that the coach was often hard to connect with as a "human".
"The beginning was tough," the forward told Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand during the latest episode of Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast. "Pep at that time was very, very focused only on the football things. As a human, he was difficult for the players.
Lewandowski worked with Guardiola at Bayern / sampics/GettyImages
"He knew that he's so brilliant with the tactics that the players should follow him. And if the players follow him, they're going to win. And I saw that later he started to change. Like personality, or I say to be more a human, to be more open for the players, can help him more than sometimes tactics.
"I understood him like, if you're playing against a team that they don't have a big chance against us, of course, tactics can help us a lot. But if you compare the semi-final, final of the Champions League, this kind of, I think, this is my mind, tactics are important. I don't want to say not, but on this level, I think different things can make that you win or not."
Ferdinand asked Lewandowski to compare Guardiola with Carlo Ancelotti. who came next at Bayern.
"[Ancelotti] is like a father. He can come to you and say, why are you not so happy? He's like an uncle, you know. So you can talk with him about everything. They are completely different.
"For example, [Jurgen] Klopp, amazing guy, amazing. He knows when he should be more tough, but also he knows exactly when he should be more like a friend."
