Ten Hag vs. Guardiola: Remembering when the duo worked together at Bayern Munich

Karan Tejwani

• 2 Oct 2022 02:00 CDT
• 5 min read

Erik ten Hag squares off against Pep Guardiola for the very first time in his career on Sunday afternoon as Manchester United take on Manchester City in the Premier League.

Ten Hag had a tough introduction to English football, losing his opening two games, but his side have been in resurgent form, winning four on the bounce in the league, including successes over Liverpool and Arsenal.

Guardiola, meanwhile, has already established a legendary status in England, winning four Premier League titles and a host of cups, and Ten Hag will become the fourth Manchester United coach he faces in his tenure so far.

The two have a history together as well, when they were at Bayern Munich between 2013 and 2015 as the Catalan coached the senior team while the Dutchman had control of the second team.

Related articles

Football Transfer News LIVE: Tomiyasu signs new Arsenal contract

Out of contract in 2023: The best free agents available on a Bosman

European Golden Shoe 2022/23: Haaland triumphs over Kane and Mbappe

Erik ten Hag and Pep Guardiola have Bayern Munich history

Ten Hag joined Bayern Munich in 2013, having taken Go Ahead Eagles from the second tier to the top-flight in the Netherlands, but the opportunity to work with the German giants and Guardiola was too big to pass up.

Guardiola himself was a new face, joining the club after a year-long sabbatical, but his work at Barcelona before that was well known having won the Champions League twice in his four-year stay.

Bayern Munich II were playing in the Regionalliga, the fourth division, and they needed a new manager following the departure of Mehmet Scholl, who was widely criticized for treating the job as a part-time role, juggling his coaching gig with a role on TV, where he was a commentator national broadcaster ARD.

Names such as Heiko Herrlich and Stefan Effenberg, who had experience coaching in Germany, were suggested for the role but Bayern Munich Technical Director Matthias Sammer was adamant on bringing in Ten Hag, who he had observed for several years before.

Sammer first came across Ten Hag when he worked for the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, the German FA. As part of his role, he used to travel to various Dutch clubs and observe their methods as well as their facilities, hoping to pick up a few ideas.

Ten Hag was with FC Twente at the time, working as an assistant to Steve McClaren – incidentally, now Ten Hag’s assistant at Manchester United – and his work and attention to detail impressed Sammer, eventually earning him a job at Germany’s biggest club having previously spoken at various coaching conferences in the country.

Ten Hag was also keen to work with Guardiola and the feeling was reciprocated: both had a similar vision of football, inspired by Johan Cruyff, and they could exchange ideas.

One of Ten Hag’s objectives in his Bayern role was to take the second team as high up the league ladder as possible and he had various talents to work with including Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Mitchell Weiser, Julian Green, Alessandro Schöpf and Lukas Raeder. Sadly for Ten Hag, he wasn’t able to have them all at the same time.

Many of his players split their time between the first and second teams and while they couldn’t achieve promotion, the players and Bayern bosses were positive about Ten Hag’s two-year stay, lauding the impact he had on the side, and praising the fact that they only missed promotion by a whisker.

Players were receptive of his in-depth analysis, as he designed specific plans for each of his players ahead of each game, and his extensive use of video to analyse opponents was also well-received. For Ten Hag, it was also an education, as his office was close to Guardiola’s, and he would frequently observe his training sessions.

Oftentimes, when players were away on international duty, Guardiola would also give Ten Hag permission to lead first-team training sessions, showing the faith the Catalan coach had in his understudy, and adding to the Dutchman’s experience and education in Bavaria.

Ten Hag left Bayern Munich in 2015 and had a successful stay at Utrecht, before going to Ajax where he became their greatest coach since Louis van Gaal and is now in his role at Manchester United. He has fond memories of his stay in Munich.

Ten Hag said he learned plenty from the role. Speaking to NOS, the national broadcaster in the Netherlands, in later years, he said: “I was formed by the Dutch style, but Munich has sharpened my vision. The experience there, always wanting to win and Pep Guardiola’s dominant football, that appeals to me very much.

“The mental part and the team building are very important. It’s not just about the first 11, but about the entire dressing room.”

Now, Ten Hag and Guardiola are set for their first meeting against each other and it comes in England, in charge of its most successful clubs at present and in history. Life has come full circle for Ten Hag, and a win over his old mentor could well be his biggest scalp in football management.