Bayern needs more time to reach top form, coach Guardiola claims

Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola says he still needs time to get his team playing the way he would like – despite some excellent pre-season form.

Bayern defeated Guardiola’s former club Barcelona 2-0 at the Allianz Arena to win the Uli Hoeness Cup last night, but the Catalan was not totally satisfied.

That win – authored by goals from Philipp Lahm and Mario Mandzukic – followed respective 4-0 and 5-1 victories over Bundesliga rivals Hamburg and Borussia Monchengladbach while Bayern also put three goals past Brescia and four past Hansa Rostock without reply.

But ahead of Sunday’s first true test of the season, a German Supercup clash with Borussia Dortmund, Guardiola called for more time to perfect things.

“I’m happy with what we’ve done so far, but we still need a little more time,” he said.

“We still have to improve a bit in terms of our finishing.”

Nevertheless, Guardiola is not just making excuses in advance of a possible failure to beat Dortmund on Saturday.

“We are going to be well prepared and play a good game there,” he promised.

One area where Guardiola cannot make promises is the distribution of places in his starting XI and, with the summer arrivals of Mario Gotze and Thiago Alcantara, his midfield is now overflowing with talent.

Toni Kroos was given a chance to impress last night, but Javi Martinez was absent following the Confederations Cup and Bastian Schweinsteiger started on the bench. Gotze, meanwhile, is not expected to be fit for a few more weeks.

Kroos remains philosophical about his chances, saying: “Everybody wants to play but it’s mathematically impossible, of course.

“That is why we have these games for the players to prove themselves and then the coach will gather his impressions to pick his first team, but that does not mean that those players will play in every game in a season which will hopefully be a long one.”