WATCH | ‘Pep Guardiola is bad for football,’ says SuperSport coach Gavin Hunt

Outspoken SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt says the influence of Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola is not good for football because everyone wants to play the same way. 

Guardiola mastered the tiki-taka football style, which is characterised by short passing and movement, at Barcelona and now at City where he has also won the Champions League. 

“Pep Guardiola is bad for football because everybody wants to play the same now. Everybody wants to play this beautiful brand of football but we don’t have the players,” Hunt said. 

Hunt was joined by daughter Kaitlin, who is a development coach, to talk about issues regarding modern football such as technology, styles of play and the availability of information to players. 

The hugely experienced coach talked about the influence technology has had on the game and how it has opened up so much more information to modern players, which Hunt believes works best when combined with old school coaching.

“On my side, the biggest problem we still have is the practical side. To actually coach a player, to spot that technical fault in a player. You can tell him all the data, but can you spot that technical fault he's doing. 

“Receiving the ball on the back foot, receiving it on the front foot, or whatever; his running patterns — for these types of things you where need coaching. 

“I still think the old way of taking them out on the field and showing them [works best]. Showing them the movement, this is what you want, where you want them creates better players, plus all the information we didn't have as players. 

“We never watched games of ourselves playing. There were black and white TVs and you had one game a week and that was Kaizer Chiefs, and you were lucky to play them [to be on TV]. It started with a hand-held camera and then the technology came in.

“There's so much more you can do. I was at Man City and when you go into their analysts' room there must be 10, 15 people all working on computers. I don't know what they're doing, but all they're doing is giving information.” 

Hunt said he believes he has been unfairly portrayed as a coach who only knows how to play direct football despite having won four league titles and produced some of the country's most exciting talents.