Guardiola to take Barcelona style to Munich

Guardiola is to take over at the Allianz Arena in the summer and is keen to continue with the same total football ethos.

“The principle behind Barcelona’s style was very simple: play with the ball, do everything with it,” Guardiola told FIFA.com.

“Every footballer around the world decided to play football because one day in some corner of their small village or big city, wherever it was, they kicked a ball around and enjoyed it.

“Barca’s system, even if people say it’s very complicated, is as simple as that: we’ll get the ball and just let them try and take it off us; let’s pass it between us as much as possible and see if we can score a goal.

“That’s what my predecessors handed down to me and the message I tried to get across while I was there too. I don’t know how they’re doing things now but, from what I’ve seen of how they’re playing, I imagine it’s still similar.

“So when you go and coach somewhere you have to believe in what you’re trying to put across. And what I’ll try and do in the future is what I did when I was a player, what I believed in, and what I’ve coached for the past five years: attack as well as you possibly can, keep hold of the ball and pass it to a guy wearing the same colour shirt.”