Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has coached a wide range of top players throughout his managerial career.
Spending four years in charge of Barcelona, then three at Bayern Munich and how in his ninth season with City, the Catalan has used 192 players in total across the 898 competitive matches he’s overlooked across all competitions.
Some of those players include some of the greatest world football has seen in the past 16 years such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero and David Silva among many others.
Now though, one of the players who knows what it takes to be a star figure for Guardiola has reflected on what it’s like to have the City boss as a manager.
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Robert Lewandowski reflects on ‘tough’ period with Pep Guardiola
Appearing in a recent video on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel, Lewandowski was asked what it was like to work with Guardiola in the early stages of their time together at Bayern, saying this on the subject in total honesty.
He said: “The beginning was tough because Pep, at that time, was very focused only on the football things.
“As a human, he was difficult for the players because he knows that he’s so brilliant with the tactics that the players should follow him, and if the players follow him they’re going to win.
“I saw that later he’s starting to change like personality or I say to be more human, to be more open for the players can help him more than something tactically.
“I understood him like if you’re playing against a team that doesn’t have a big chance against us, of course, tactics can help us a lot.
“But if you compare the semi-final or final of the Champions League – I think tactics are important, I don’t want to say not – but on this level, I think different things can make that you win or not.”
Ederson said Guardiola can be “annoying” behind the scenes
Guardiola spent three years at Bayern between 2013 and 2016, winning three Bundesliga titles along the way.
In the summer of 2014, Lewandowski joined Bayern on a free transfer from Borussia Dortmund before then going on to score 67 goals in 100 appearances under the Catalan before he joined City in the summer of 2016.
| Robert Lewandowski | Appearances | Goals | Assists | Minutes Played |
| Jurgen Klopp | 187 | 103 | 19 | 14,405 |
| Pep Guardiola | 100 | 67 | 5 | 8,249 |
| Xavi | 95 | 59 | 10 | 7,760 |
| Hansi Flick | 88 | 102 | 9 | 7,552 |
| Niko Kovac | 63 | 60 | 9 | 5,546 |
| Carlo Ancelotti | 57 | 54 | 6 | 4,901 |
| Julien Nagelsmann | 46 | 50 | 3 | 4,006 |
Lewandowski isn’t the only player to share what some of the difficulties are in terms of being managed by the 53-year-old, as Ederson said Guardiola can be “annoying” at times, saying this on the matter when asked if his manager at the Etihad Stadium is is nice, annoying or angry.
He said: “He’s a nice guy, he’s sometimes annoying, in the sense of [being] demanding, because he has to [be] demanding to a professional [player], and he’s also angry when he has to be angry.
“So he has a mixture of all three. But he’s a nice guy off the pitch, and he’s a very, very demanding guy on it.
“And he’s also a guy who gets angry like any other person, like any other coach, when things don’t go well, when the team doesn’t play well.
Taking into account how Guardiola was starting just his second managerial job after a very successful spell with Barcelona in a new country and league, it’s understandable that he was initially solely focused on implementing his tactics at Bayern before prioritising his relationship with the players.
