The day Guardiola took off Henry because he scored a goal

Pep Guardiola is a tactical genius, he has managed the biggest names in the game and most of them praise him but he can also been too strict in his philosophy as Thierry Henry will tell you.






Thierry Henry was already a legend when he made the switch from Arsenal to FC Barcelona. The Gunners historic goaler was looking for a new challenges in La Liga and eager to join his new teammates like Xavi, Iniesta, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a young Lionel Messi.

Above all relearned the chance to be coached by Pep Guardiola. During a Champions League group stage match in 2008, Thierry Henry made a fatal mistake in Guardiola’s eyes by scoring a goal.





During a training sessions, Guardiola would divide the pitch into two side that is right and left. Players from one side couldn’t move to the other side of the pitch. Henry said: “He had a plan. If you don’t actually do what he’s asking you to do here, you’re gonna be in trouble.

I wanted to be clever one day. Sometimes you kinda don’t listen to your manager. Because you haven’t touched the ball for a little while and they’re enjoying football over there, let me try and see if I can be part of it.”




So Henry went over to the right and played some passes with Messi and scored the opener. Henry also said: “We come back at half time, all nice and everything…He took me off! When Pep has a plan Respect His Plan.”

Thierry Henry went into great detail explaining Guardiola tactics: “Stay in your position. Trust your teammate on the ball and wait for the ball. In the last third of the pitch that’s where freedom begins. Pep used to say My jobs is to bring you up until the last third. Your job is to finish it.”




Guardiola would never dream of telling Henry how to solve a one-on-one against the goalkeeper but every single player on his team have to respect his process for getting into those situations because when you play under Guardiola it’s the pep way or the highway.