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.'