Sammer: Guardiola has brought Barcelona style to Bayern Munich
Matthias Sammer has praised Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola for integrating his passing philosophy without sacrificing the club's identity.
The Spaniard lifted the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal in his debut season in charge last term but the former Barcelona boss was still criticized for stubbornly sticking to his footballing principles.
Guardiola's famous 'Tiki-Taka' model brought great success to Camp Nou during his four years in Catalonia but many felt his style was too far removed from the one favored by his Bayern predecessor Jupp Heynckes, who won the treble in 2013/14.
The shock 5-0 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League added further fuel to that argument, but with Bayern already 11 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga in December, the club's sporting director Sammer has applauded the 43-year-old.
"He obviously tried to integrate the strengths of his players into his football," he told the club's official website.
"He also needed time to realise what would work and what wouldn't. His inter-connect and integration of style has been a wonderful success, though. This is his great achievement."
Sammer added his admiration for Guardiola as a person and said his values were a perfect fit for the club's values.
He added: "It's been a pleasure to work with him, he fits wonderfully as a man with Bayern. Personally I can say that we have absolute trust. We have a very, very close relationship."
Germany's World Cup success led to fears several players would fail to maintain the same levels of motivation after claiming the game's biggest prize, but Sammer again said the experience of Guardiola has been key to avoiding that potential pitfall.
"The conditions were really difficult. We had very little recovery time after the World Cup with injuries, but we've done really well in the first half of the season.
"It was very important that we had a coach who had already experienced this situation in 2010 when Spain won the World Cup."
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