5 players who became stars under Pep Guardiola

After Pep Guardiola took over as Barcelona manager in 2008, the Catalan side saw plenty of success. The Spaniard achieved all this by putting his faith in some youngsters from the famous and renowned La Masia. And his faith was repaid by a number of these players.Under the Spanish manager, many players made their first team debuts for Barcelona and quite a few of these players rose to stardom.Here are the five best picks from players who became stars under the guidance of Pep Guardiola.

#5 Thiago Alcantara

In 2009, at the age of 19, Pep Guardiola gave Thiago his first team debut for Barcelona. The Spaniard, who was born to Brazilian parents in Italy, made just three first-team appearances till the end of the 2009/10 season.

During the 2010/11 season, Thiago was given involved more with the first team and made 17 appearances scoring 3 goals. He was dubbed to be the heir for an ageing Xavi and naturally he was given more first-team action during Guardiola’s final season in charge, making 45 appearances overall.

Thiago is a versatile midfielder. He has the dribbling skills and the ability to provide accurate through balls, which are necessary for an attacking midfielder, as well as brilliant passing ability and excellent vision to play as a deep-lying playmaker.

After the departure of Guardiola, Thiago’s involvement with Barcelona’s first team didn’t improve and he was attracting the attention of several top European clubs at that point. But Guardiola stepped in and Thiago moved to Bayern Munich and upon joining the club, Thiago said: “ Guardiola is a coach who has placed great faith in me. I'm a huge fan of the way he likes football to be played.”

At Bayern Munich, Thiago played a central midfield role and was pulling the strings with his brilliant passing. In fact, during a Bundesliga game against Eintracht Frankfurt, he set a Bundesliga record with 185 touches of the ball.

Thiago started his Bayern Munich career in impressive fashion before an injury cut short his season prematurely. But as long as Guardiola is in charge of Bayern Munich, Thiago will keep improving as a player.

#4 Gerard Pique

Although Pique came through the famed La Masia, he played for Manchester United from 2004 to 2008. But the Spaniard struggled for first team action in England and eventually re-signed for Barcelona prior to the 2008/09 season. Guardiola seemed to have more faith in Pique’s abilities than Sir Alex Ferguson, because Pique played 45 games across all competitions for Barcelona in his first season of which 25 were league games – more than his total number of appearances for Manchester United.

Pique is a ball playing defender and one of the best of his kind in the game today. Guardiola preferred defenders of Pique’s mould in the team. The Spain international shows immense composure on the ball even in tight situations and has the ability to keep the ball away from the opposition by passing it out of the danger zone to a fellow teammate rather than hoofing it upfield and risk losing possession.

After the arrival of Pique, Barcelona have had trouble finding good ball playing defenders who suit their style of play and this is a testament to the quality Pique possesses. The best spell of Pique’s career coincides with the Guardiola era at Barcelona and during this period, he was voted into the FIFProXI and the UEFA Team of the Year on three successive occasions from 2010 to 2012.

Pique became a regular in the heart of the Barcelona defence and formed a potent partnership with Carlos Puyol. Guardiola’s partnership of Pique and Puyol also paid its dividends with the national team as their partnership was vital during Spain’s World Cup win in 2010.

#3 Pedro Rodriguez

Pedro came through Barcelona’s academy and was a prolific player for Barcelona B. But even then he had only played 8 minutes of first team football up until the age of 21.

When Guardiola took over, he gave Pedro more first team opportunities. In his first season, he took Pedro for the pre-season tour and was impressed with the winger. Pedro was thus given some taste of first team action by Guardiola, but he could still only manage 14 appearances across all competitions.

For the very next season, Guardiola confirmed the Pedro would be definitely promoted to the first team and he repaid his manager’s faith with a breakthrough year. Pedro went on to become the first player to score in six different competitions and he did it in the same year. This was also Pedro’s best season in terms of goal tally as he scored 23 goals.

The season after that was also equally good as he scored 22 goals for the club. His goal tally dropped in the seasons after that, but he has still managed to touch double digits every time.

Pedro is not like the modern flamboyant pacey wingers who take on players and make lung bursting runs. His strengths are his quick passing and good finishing. He often plays one touch passes in and around the opposition box with players like Messi and Iniesta, and makes his way into the box. It was due to such abilities of his that he worked his way into Guardiola’s team.

It was Guardiola who transformed a youngster who was knocking on the first team doors for many years into an established first team player.

#2 Sergio Busquets

Sergio Busquets is currently an indispensable member of the Barcelona team, but his rise to prominence at Barcelona was not easy. The Spaniard kept several world class defensive midfielders out of the Barcelona first team to cement his place in the squad.

Busquets, like many others, made his Barcelona debut under Pep Guardiola and it was during Guardiola’s first season in charge. Busquets, who was just 20 years old at the time, kept experienced players like Yaya Toure and Seydou Keita out of the team and both of them moved to other clubs in search of first team action.

In 2010, an in form Javier Mascherano arrived from Liverpool to provide competition to Busquests. But to date, the Argentine had to play a majority of his games for Barcelona as a centre back. The latest casualty to this list of defensive midfielders kept out of the eleven by Busquets was Alex Song.

Busquets was the deepest midfielder in the three man midfield Barcelona played under Guardiola. The Spaniard was a very good ball playing defensive midfielder and was perfect for Guardiola’s tactics. He sat deep in midfield and rarely ventured forward. Busquets, who is an excellent reader of the game, had to break up the opposition play when Barcelona didn’t have the ball and then started the attack from the back. This was a vital part of Barcelona’s quick passing game as they often start from the back.

The Spaniard was also responsible for keeping possession for long durations and according to Squawka, he has an impressive pass completion rate of 92% from 2012/13 season to the current season. The case was similar during the Guardiola era as well.

#1 Lionel Messi

Yes, Lionel Messi made his Barcelona debut under Frank Rijkaard and rose to fame very quickly, but it was under the guidance of Pep Guardiola the Messi we know today was coined. The Argentine played as a right-winger under Rijkaard and during Guardiola’s first season. But during the 2009/10 season, Guardiola moved Messi to his now iconic ‘false-9’ role in the centre of the front line.

This was probably Guardiola’s best tactical move and stats alone tell the success story of Guardiola’s move to play the best player in the world at that time in a new position. Messi scored 47 goals in his first season operating as a false-9 and this was 9 more than his tally for the previous season.

Moving Messi into the centre of the Barcelona front three made it very difficult for opposition defenders as his immense ability to dribble past players and run behind the opposition’s defence gave players like Andres Iniesta and Xavi a much better option to trigger a killer through ball. The Argentine’s tenacity often occupied more than one opponent and freed up space for his teammates. This factor often helped other forwards like Pedro and Alexis Sanchez to run into the space left open and score a considerable number of goals.

Messi was like the final cog in the Barcelona wheel and playing him as a false-9 instead of using a traditional number 9 proved to be a masterstroke. In fact, during the four seasons Messi played under Guardiola, he scored 211 goals in just 219 matches. His career best of 73 goals in one season also falls during this period.