Featured Image Credit: CanoFootball/Getty
Topics: Lionel Messi, Pep Guardiola, Football
Nasir Jabbar
Lionel Messi has broken down the 'confusion' Pep Guardiola's style has brought to football in an extraordinary interview.
Messi is currently with Argentina for the defence of their Copa America title.
The 2022 World Cup winners kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 victory over Canada, with their conduct angering Jesse Marsch, who wants them fined.
And ahead of Argentina's second group game against Chile on Wednesday, Messi gave a revealing interview about Guardiola's style of football.
Of course, Messi and Guardiola enjoyed a legendary player-coach relationship as they had an incredible amount of success at Barcelona.
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The Manchester City boss' ideologies have been picked up by other coaches, who have implemented them to their teams, with Mikel Arteta adopting a similar style at Arsenal.
Guardiola's footballing disciples like Enzo Maresca and Vincent Kompany have also benefitted from the Catalan native as they worked wonders in the Championship and have since landed jobs at Chelsea and Bayern Munich respectively.
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But Messi has explained the 'confusion' surrounding Guardiola's style.
"The Guardiola era has caused a bit of confusion. Everyone wants to play like that now," he explained.
"They tell six/seven-year-olds to play with two touches, quickly. At that age, what happened with me needs to happen for these kids... we shouldn’t take away their spontaneity."
But the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner 'learned a lot' from Guardiola, who taught the Argentine about tactics, spaces and ball possession.
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"I didn't pay much attention to tactics and with Guardiola I think I learned a lot," he added.
"It was Guardiola who taught me a lot about tactics, spaces, ball possession."