“Guardiola always mentions my father, but he has modern football”

Jordi Cruyff He is a football legend, someone who changed it and from whom many have learned over the years. And one of them is Pep Guardiolacertainly the coach who has best internalized the idea of ​​offensive and fun football expressed by the Dutchman. In an interview with ‘The Telegraph’, Jordi Cruyff He is grateful that the man from Santpedor always remembers his father when talking about that, football that is attractive to the eyes.

“What people want to see is happy and offensive football, they want to see effort and intention, they want to make the team proud. That’s my father’s religion,” Cruyff said hours before the Liverpool-Manchester United match , coached by two Dutch people (Slot and Ten Hag) who should show what they learned from that philosophy. “Pep always mentions my father and we are very grateful and very proud of it, although as a family we think he has modernized it and all the credit goes to him.”

“In general, the Dutch style is to say: ‘I’m not afraid to lose, I play to win’. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is or if it’s an away game. If we play well the statistics will shows that we have a better chance to win, so I want to dominate and press as much as I can This is something typical of Holland, but it is not just a Dutch thing anymore It has spread to all levels, because there is a clear synchronization and the way he has played at FC Barcelona for many years.”

Cruyff gives an example: “In Germany, the Spanish coach is the champion. In France, the Spanish coach is the champion. In England, the Spanish coach is the champion. Maybe there are small details that are different, but the philosophy is there. My “Father is more would rather win 5-4 than 1-0. I think 90 percent of coaches prefer 1-0, but he also has a romantic feeling, although he prefers to win 5-0.”

“If you look at the big leagues, Spain is more technical and England is more transitional. There are good players with technique, of course, but the games are more based on a back and forth. On Tuesday you can have of a game that “Go in one direction tactically, and on Saturday you can play against a team that plays long balls and you need a different adaptation. That’s the beauty of the Premier League.”

Regarding Ten Hag and Slot, he said: “Ten Hag made the move a long time ago because of what he did at Ajax. Ajax has always been a good export club. If you do well at Ajax, all markets are open. The Feyenoord is also a great club, but with Feyenoord you have to do a lot to see, they are not a team that won the league seven times in 10 years, so Slot has done very well and made a smart decision in by waiting a year when the Spurs came looking for him and he decided to stay.

The figure of the goalkeeper-player also comes to the fore in the statements of Jordi Cruyff: “I’m still curious to know if fans in England still prefer the goalkeeper to throw the long ball and play for the second ball. Are they nervous if ” Is the goalkeeper taking risks and starting from the back or are the fans enjoying it in the club’s DNA Now, even in the lower leagues you see goalkeepers taking a lot of risks and I like that.

And he added: “This idea of ​​the goalkeeper as an extra player was started by my father. He did not see the goalkeeper only as someone who stops balls. He wanted a better development of the game. It has been discussed it was in 1986 -87, when Carles Busquets was the example My father told him to play 20 or 30 meters outside his area to be like Beckenbauer So it was a big shock for people, but now it’s it’s also normal to play inside and believe in the many systems that Pep has developed so much now. If the opponent played with only one forward, he asked himself: ‘Why do I need four defenders?’