Play Like Pep Guardiola's Barcelona A Soccer Coach's Guide [Paperback]

The four seasons that Josep 'Pep' Guardiola spent in charge of the first team at FC Barcelona saw a period of extraordinary football supremacy delivered through tactical richness, ball retention, and player skill. Indeed, for many, the BarCa side of 2009-2010 is held up as one of the great teams of modern football: a team that played a possession-based game which bamboozled opponents and delighted soccer lovers around the world. Every few months you could observe the team reinventing itself on the blackboard and on the field, constantly striving to improve and dominate the opposition further.

Written by AgustIn Peraita, FCBEscola Project Director at Sao Paulo FC Barcelona, this book is for soccer coaches looking to understand and implement Pep Guardiola's tactical approach and coaching methodology for that 2009-2010 BarCa side. Containing more than 50 illustrations, detailing on-field drills, Principles/Subprinciples/Sub-SubPrinciples, tactical diagrams and weekly planning schedules, this practical and to-the-point book focuses explicitly on the preseason period as it lays the foundation for how a team will train, play, and perform over the season. Indeed, regular season training is simply a continuation of everything a team learns and implements during this phase, based on the playing schedule and other resources at a coach's disposal. The playing philosophy, model of play, associated drills, and weekly training schedule are implemented from day one that the squad assembles.

Play Like Pep Guardiola's Barcelona: A Soccer Coach's Guide provides a theoretical base alongside practical guidance for coaches (even if they do not have elite players such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, and AndrEs Iniesta) to develop the 'play' that Guardiola developed during his second season at BarCa. Incorporating detailed discussion of the Model of Play, Tactical Periodization, the four phases of the game, positional play, and more, a methodological framework is presented that lC,