Quotes from Guillem Balagué

Los jugadores necesitan saber que no deben tener miedo a intentar cosas, ni a perder el balón, porque en eso consiste el fútbol. Messi sabe que siempre puede hacer jugadas porque sabe que tiene a diez compañeros detrás de él dispuestos a ayudarlo si es necesario. Cuando tanto el defensa como el delantero se sienten importantes y protegidos, tenemos a un equipo ganador.

En la vida hay dos formas de decir a la gente lo que tiene que hacer: o bien dando órdenes, o bien predicando con el ejemplo y animando al grupo a seguirlo.

In life there are three elements: mission, vision and values,' adds the prestigious Argentinian sports psychologist Liliana Grabín.

if you are humble, you are capable of learning – and the capacity to learn is the capacity to improve.

I like to win. I like to train, but above all, I want to teach people to compete representing universal values: values based on respect and education. Giving everything while competing with dignity is a victory, whatever the scoreline suggests.

Solo sé que un buen líder es aquel que no tiene miedo a las consecuencias de sus decisiones, y que toma el paso que le dicta su intuición, pase lo que pase.

Si nos levantamos pronto, pero muy pronto, y sin reproches, y nos ponemos a trabajar, somos un país imparable».

No se dan cuenta de que el fútbol es un monstruo al que solo puedes vencer y enfrentarte si siempre te mantienes fiel a ti mismo, en cualquier circunstancia.»

Dogs and wolves are the same, except for one difference: dogs live at home, food and water are provided and they sleep in their owner's bed. Wolves, meanwhile, live on mountains, have to find their own food and somewhere to kip . . . I want a team full of hungry and ambitious wolves.' (Boza Maljkovic)

Under Cruyff, dominating the ball became the first and most important rule. 'If you have the ball, the opposition doesn't have it and can't attack you,' Cruyff would repeat daily. So the job became finding the players who could keep possession and also doing a lot of positional work in training.

Pep had analysed Real Madrid in detail and, an hour and a half before the game, he got Messi, Xavi and Iniesta together: 'You three against Lass and Gago have got the game. If you do it right, three against two, we've beaten them.' Lass and Gago were going to find a third man to defend, Messi would position himself as a false striker in between the centre backs and those two.

Jerome Boateng spoke pre-season after the World Cup in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and described how Guardiola told him in every training session exactly what he had to do in different defensive situations.

locked in his office, making decisions, using common sense, surrounding himself with good people, being demanding of all around him on a daily basis – it had all been worthwhile.

With Pep's help and his own intuition, Messi started playing football with an accordion-like movement: the further the ball was away from him, the more distance he would put between himself and the ball. The closer it was to him, the closer he would move to get involved.

Guardiola knows it is easier to work with a group hungry for victory rather than with one that has won everything, and he considered David Silva and Kun Agüero vitally important to the team if they were able to improve their defensive attitudes, as it is in these positions that the first line of pressure starts.

De las veinte decisiones que tomo cada día, dieciocho son intuitivas, a partir de la observación.

He was also excited about the prospects of working with Raheem Sterling. Pep had no say in his signing but Sterling was young, had lots to learn and was someone Pep thought he could convert into a winger, drawing as much out of him as he had with Douglas Costa. Pep intended to teach him to wait for the ball, so that by the time it arrived the lines of pressure would have been broken and he would have a one v one with the full back.

He was a bit like me. You must have a lot of technique, move the ball quickly, avoid a collision – and to avoid it you must have good vision.

The same amount of time and study was dedicated to trying to find the weaknesses and Achilles heels of every opponent, no matter how poor or strong that team was perceived to be by the outside world.

He'd apply his three basic rules, none of which related to what people know as tiki-taka: they were, rather, intense attack, quick pressure when the ball is lost and having one more player in the midfield than your opponents.

Pep organised his attack (creating the conditions for one v ones, or looking for superiority across the pitch) in a way that nobody else did in the Premier League, where attack was too often left to improvisation.

where his side could gain the upper hand in two v ones; endlessly replaying the key battles.

After Germany he would have to change direction and re-evaluate his ideals and accept that success would come in accordance with the quality and dynamic of the group of players he worked with.

Before heading out on to the pitch, Johan Cruyff gave his players a simple instruction: 'Go out there and enjoy yourselves.' It was a statement that embodies an entire footballing philosophy and was central to Cruyff 's principles; yet for others, its simplicity, ahead of such a key game, might be considered an insult to the coaching profession.