Pep Guardiola was reliant on Lionel Messi at Barcelona and the Catalan's Tiki-Taka are the cause for his Champions League curse, according to ex-Bayern Munich boss Felix Magath.
The Manchester City supremo has twice been crowned champion of Europe, taking the title back to the Nou Camp in 2009 and 2011 with Messi scoring in both finals.
Guardiola hasn't made a European final since, failing on his principle objective at Bayern Munich and, so far, at City too with a hat-full of semi-final and quarter-final exit.
Five league titles and eight additional trophies have gone a long way towards making up for his Champions League drought, but Magath believes Guardiola wouldn't even have one European title without Messi.
'Messi won the titles, not Guardiola,' he told Sport Bild.
'Without Messi, this system has never worked as successfully for Guardiola, otherwise he would have won the Champions League with Bayern or Manchester City long ago.
'Tiki-taka only works if you have players who are technically superior to their opponents. For the spectator, holding the ball, as I call it, is just boring and a top team doesn't really need it.
'In my opinion, Guardiola generally too often gets lost in trying to win a game in advance. That tactic often ends in wrong decisions, which prevent success.'
ishti
741
Champions league is very tricky. It's a game of smallest margins. Whether you agree or not, luck plays a little role in it. Failure to win CL can't be be entirely PeP's falling. By the way, Man City have now scored 501 goals in 199 games under Pep Guardiola. That is 9⃣6⃣ more than any other English team has scored since the Spaniard was appointed in 2016. He did it without Messi.
puaacpsuy
517
but Barcelona still have
noyadlstz
253
This useless man has never won a measure trophy in his entire career as a coach and yet you are talking sheets to Pep, the greatest among all, even Sir Alex is not uptil his level. winning 30 trophies in just 10 years as a coach and you dere talk to him like that. first of all Pep was being robbed at Bayern by FIFA's, he will have won it there but because of hatred
Mosanya
190
Pep spent 5 years in Barca with Messi Result:- 2 Champions League Pep spent 5 years in Man City without Messi Result:- 0 - Totally agreed, despite the fact that club has spent millions on players, he's unable to win champions league for either Bayern or man city. He's not complete without Messi.
Darkseid_7
153
Even though it's a fact that Pep hasn't won the CL again without Messi let's also be mindful of the fact that the best version of Messi was under Pep too. Messi set unprecedented records under Pep. During their time together the world of football was at their mercy. Both Pep and Messi haven't been themselves since their marriage of mutual convenience ended but life has gone on for both and they've done other amazing things without each other.
BlueBlackSnake
11
Champions league is very tricky. It's a game of smallest margins. Whether you agree or not, luck plays a little role in it. Failure to win CL can't be be entirely PeP's falling. By the way, Man City have now scored 501 goals in 199 games under Pep Guardiola. That is 9⃣6⃣ more than any other English team has scored since the Spaniard was appointed in 2016. He did it without Messi.
He achieved those stats at Man City not at Southampton or Watford, don’t forget that