Paul Breitner says Pep Guardiola s distinctive style of play is not working yet at Manchester City and did not prove decisive during his time at Bayern Munich.
The Bavarian giants dominated domestically during Guardiola s time in charge, winning the Bundesliga in each of his three seasons at the helm.
But, having guided Barcelona to two Champions League titles with the famed tiki-taka philosophy, he was unable to replicate that European success at the Allianz Arena, exiting the competition at the semi-final stage in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16.
That failure has seen him judged somewhat harshly compared to his predecessor Jupp Heynckes, who steered Bayern to continental glory prior to his departure at the end of the 2012-13 campaign.
Pep has got a very special way in which he wants his team to play, Breitner said at a club event on Thursday.
This works at Barcelona, this worked here at Bayern, [but] it doesn t work that [well] at Manchester where he is now.
But his high-speed football and all the things he wanted to or did [perfect] here, or wanted to develop further when he took over from Jupp Heynckes, didn t mean that we won everything while he was here.
It remains to be seen if Carlo Ancelotti, a three-time Champions League-winning coach, can fare better than Guardiola. The Italian s Bayern side registered a crushing 5-1 win over Arsenal in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Wednesday, while Guardiola and City are due to take on in-form Monaco on Tuesday.
