While I was training at Bayern Munich, I was coached by Pep Guardiola and Erik ten Hag, and there were incidents that occurred on occasion

Pep Guardiola and Erik ten Hag are scheduled to meet for the sixth time in their respective roles as managers of Manchester United and Manchester City. However, given the increasing amount of pressure that is being placed on the Dutchman, it is possible that this will be the final meeting between the two.

During the time when Erik ten Hag was in charge of Bayern Munich’s B team, some of the participants at the club referred to him as “Mini Pep.” More than just a comparable appearance at the top, as it were, this had a lot of positive qualities. A concept and a style that were comparable to those of Pep Guardiola were being preached by the Dutchman.

There was not a great deal of interaction between the two men while they were on Saebener Strasse. Their jobs were very different from one another in many respects. Both of their teams were participating in different leagues, and they were aiming for distinct goals. On the other hand, they did have one thing in common: a passion for football. As a result of this, Ten Hag was given the nickname of being essentially a Dutch version of Borussia Dortmund.

Ten Hag was appointed at Old Trafford prior to the 2022–2023 season, and for a significant portion of that season, he appeared to be the individual who was finally going to take the fight to Manchester City. This analogy would have thrilled United fans at the time. However, in the days leading up to his 100th game as manager this coming weekend, that narrative has shifted, and there is a growing consensus of view that this may be his final league derby as United manager.

In point of fact, the notion that Ten Hag is a “mini” version of Guardiola does not actually pass the litmus test. Despite the fact that he is eleven months older than the master, their paths have crossed in Manchester. He was an apprentice to the master in Munich, during which time they both worked together. However, Guardiola has three victories to Ten Hag’s one, and nobody truly expects the latter to boost his victory total at the Etihad Stadium. This will be their fifth meeting in a derby, but Guardiola has three victories to Ten Hag’s one.

However, there is a mutual respect between the two men, and Guardiola even said that Ten Hag may be a possible candidate to take over from him at City. However, Ten Hag’s choice to leave Ajax for Manchester City put an end to that possibility. This is the narrative of how they began to develop a mutual regard for one another throughout their time spent together in Munich.

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Having recently gotten the club promoted for the first time in seventeen years, Ten Hag decided to take over a Bayern B team that was playing their football in Germany’s fourth division in 2013. This decision was made after he had just finished working in the Eredivisie with Go Ahead Eagles. That was originally referred to be a “unlogical move” by Ten Hag. During this time, Guardiola had begun his own work in Munich, following a sabbatical that lasted for one year following his departure from Barcelona.

It is possible that he began his journey toward becoming a coach by having an eclectic conclusion to his playing career; nonetheless, his apprenticeship consisted of one season in command of Barcelona’s B squad. Since his debut season at the Nou Camp and that amazing triple, he has had the opportunity to choose from a number of different clubs. It took City a number of years to create the conditions that would entice him to come to the Etihad.

During this time, Ten Hag relocated to Munich in order to assume leadership of a group of players who were interested in exchanging their training sessions with Guardiola’s instruction. His tenure lasted for two years, and during that time, Manchester United may have still harbored hopes of acquiring Guardiola for themselves at some point in the future. To suggest that the unknown Dutchman who was in charge of games in locations like Wurzburg, Buchbach, and Aschaffenburg was not on their radar is an accurate statement.

The opportunity for Ten Hag to relocate to Germany and study from Guardiola was made possible by his connections with Matthias Sammer, who, in his capacity as sports director of the DFB, the German football association, had taken an interest in Ten Hag’s concept for the development of young players. Ten Hag was able to take advantage of this opportunity. In the past, Sammer had even attempted to hire him for the position of manager of Germany’s Under-21 team.

There were also triumphant tales to be told. A player who has now made his way to the Premier League, Pierre-Emile Hjoberg started his career with Ten Hag, then moved on to Guardiola, and he participated in the final of the DFB Cup with Guardiola in 2014. On the other hand, promotion was also the objective, and the Bayern B team came two times agonizingly close to achieving that goal.

For Ten Hag, on the other hand, it was a worthwhile distraction from his profession. He had the opportunity to see a large number of Guardiola’s training sessions and took notes on what he observed and what he observed that he believed he might apply going forward.

The manager of Manchester United discussed his time spent in Munich with the author Maarten Meijer, who was interviewed for his book Ten Hag: The Biography, which was initially published in the previous year.

I do not wish to make any comparisons between myself and Guardiola since his record of accomplishments is unrivaled. However, Guardiola was truly an inspiration to me,” he stated.

“Playing aggressive football is something that every coach aspires to achieve for his teams. having a great deal of joy, as well as being adventurous, quick, energetic, and technically brilliant. Every football coach who enjoys playing attractive football aspires to achieve that. Without a doubt, I had many conversations with him about that topic. In addition, I paid close attention to what was going on. When he is in the gym, his workouts are amazing to witness.

Sammer had the opinion that Ten Hag was “a mixture between a Dutchman and a German.” He classified Ten Hag as a coach who was committed to the concept of beautiful football but also had a tendency to be strict with his players. There is a high probability that individuals at Old Trafford and Carrington would take this classification into consideration.

While Lukas Raeder, a goalkeeper, was a member of Ten Hag’s Bayern Munich II team, he also trained with the first team under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola. Even back then, he was able to recognize similarities between the two teams.

“The football philosophy was very similar to Pep Guardiola’s football philosophy,” Raeder said to Karan Tejwani for his book Glorious Reinvention, which is about Ajax’s recent climb to prominence that was published recently.

“He desired for his squad to possess excellent passing abilities, to maintain possession of the ball, and to always play with the ball. His teams needed to do a good job of keeping the ball. That turned out to be the most significant aspect.

It is difficult to precisely define which aspects of Guardiola’s strategy have served as a source of inspiration for Ten Hag. It would be more accurate to say that he has demonstrated his pragmatic nature at United, rather than being committed to a specific concept. However, the attitude that he used with his Ajax teams was comparable to that of Guardiola, and it is evident that he has a great deal of admiration and respect for his counterpart in Manchester.

According to an interview that Ten Hag gave to Sueddeutsche Zeitung in 2019, “Pep was a pioneer, he changed football in Germany.” I picked up a lot of knowledge from him, including how he implements his philosophy on the field, how he builds up play, how he transitions, how he attacks, and how he had drills for everything.

Sometimes with the entire team, sometimes with members of the team working together, and sometimes with a single player by themselves. Everything had an extreme preoccupation with the particulars. His philosophy is remarkable, and the fact that he has won a lot of games with Manchester City, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona is a testament to the fact that he has a successful and appealing playing style. The structure in question is the one that I have attempted to construct using Ajax.

At United, Ten Hag has utilized his full-backs in a manner that is comparable to Guardiola’s, if not nearly as adventurous. Meijer, in his book, mentioned that this was one area that he had been interested in when he was observing his workouts with the Bayern Munich first team.

“I was able to experience his approach up-close, and I learned a lot from that,” according to him. The method that Guardiola plays football is one that I find appealing since it is characterized by dominance and attractiveness. I remember how Pep worked on his ability to move in with the full-backs’ movements.

Ten Hag’s presence in Munich was a new experience for Guardiola, who was impressed by his presence. Aspiring to join the coaching staff, he was in charge of a group that had the potential to create players for the first team. Although the Catalan might have been curious about what the Dutchman was doing, it is clear that the relationship between the two would have been different at that point in time.

When I had just arrived in Munich, I remember that he was training the second team at the same facilities where we had met. “I went up to him to say hello and introduce myself,” Guardiola said in an interview with Sky Sports prior to the first derby of the season.

Sometimes he would come to our office to chat about football, and other times we would need to make training arrangements or talk about some players. It was not very often, and we did not go out to dinner during that time period.

“The second team for Bayern Munich is just a step [for a manager], and you will not be there all the time,” the manager said. He went to Holland and ended up playing for Ajax of Amsterdam, which is considered to be the most prominent club in Holland; the results that he has achieved with his teams speak for themselves.

A step in a coach’s career is what Guardiola means when he describes the position of second-team manager for a club like Bayern. He is absolutely correct. His first team was Barcelona’s second squad, and he started with them. A career as a coach at that level of German football was never going to be something that Ten Hag could have achieved.

Instead, he was far too ambitious for it. He was overly dedicated to getting the most of his coaching career and discovering the extent to which he could drive teams to performance. Before moving back to the Netherlands and assuming leadership of Utrecht, he remained in Bavaria for two seasons, during which he twice came dangerously close to being promoted to the senior team.

In Glorious Reinvention, Raeder recalled that “both [Guardiola and Ten Hag] want to have their success,” and that there was a period of time when it appeared to be impossible for Ten Hag to coach the second team.