Guardiola continues to surprise using 2-3-5 formation against Wolfsburg

You only have to look across to his time with Barca to realize that he has been experimenting with his teams for years.

It was unheard of at the time, but Guardiola dared to put just three at the back, forming a 3-5-2 formation, which later transformed into a 3-3-4 during attack and 5-4-1 during defense.

The formation was hailed as a success after Barca managed to string together a set of wins which included a 2-0 victory against Pellegrini's Real Madrid side in 2010.

On that day, Barcelona played with the following 11: Valdés; Milito, Piqué, Puyol; Dani Alves, Keita, Busquets, Xavi, Maxwell; Pedro and Messi. When Guardiola’s side attacked, Maxwell and Dani Alves almost became two extra strikers to deliver crosses into the box for Messi and Pedro.

When the catalan side were on the defensive, the two wide wingers would retreat and form part of a solid back five, with Messi dropping to the centre circle to become the only outlet for attack. 

Since arriving to Bayern Munich, Guardiola hasn’t stopped searching for the perfect tactical system. Even though during his first year in charge of the German side he didn’t make any drastic changes to his winning formula, he did try to perfect perfection. 

This year, even though it already looks like he’s run away with the title, Pep hasn’t stopped trying outlandish things.

For Bayern’s match against Köln, Guardiola surprised all with a strange 2-3-5 formation which converted into a more normal 4-3-3 formation when defending.

Bayern formed the following starting line-up, which contained rather a few offensive players to say the least: Neuer; Rafinha, Boateng; Lahm, Vidal, Alaba; Robben, Coman, Müller, Douglas Costa and Lewandowski.

With only Boateng acting as a central defender when Bayern had the ball, Rafinha would slot into the defense when they were without. Both Alaba and Lahm would join them at the back when the bavarians lost the ball, but both were playing in very offensive positions.

The experiment seemed to pay-off for Guardiola as Bayern ended up winning the match 4-0. This was the repeated on Tuesday against Wolfsburg in their 3-1 victory.

For the latter, Pep repeated a similar formation however Javi Martínez was substituted for Rafinha. 

The resounding 3-1 victory would seem to suggest that the Catalan manager knows what he’s doing, who seems to reinvent himself every week.