Beckham criticising Pep Guardiola’s tactics would make a hell of a headline, we must admit.
That’s what happened at ESPN Brasil, where the former Everton midfielder Rodrigo Beckham was interviewed about his time in the Premier League.
The Brazilian spent only one season at the Toffees, where he played between 2002 and 2003 on a loan spell from Atlético Mineiro.
“The call came after a very good start of the season at Atlético-MG in 2002, where in 13 games I scored 13 goals and became the team’s top scorer,” Beckham told ESPN Brasil.
“This was the 2002/03 season, almost 13 years ago, but it was the first time I had the opportunity to really get to know a professional management. Everton, despite being an average club, was a club that had a very special technical direction. My coach was David Moyes, who spent many years there at Everton and then eventually moved to Manchester United.”
“My manager, David Moyes, had several post-training conversations with me, to ask how I liked to play, how I felt more comfortable on the pitch, for him to find a role where I could work on functions for the team.”
“Everton had real English football. English with Scottish, because our manager was Scottish. So it was a fluid football, ugly to see. Much fight, a lot of competition and a little inspiration.”
The player made the move to Everton with a knee injury, which was aggravated during his time at Goodison Park. He ended up returning to Brazil with only four appearances for the club.
The 40-year-old believes he didn’t get enough time in English football, where he believes he could have grown much more.
Out of nothing, the former player started commenting on Pep Guardiola’s work at Manchester City. And Beckham is not happy with that. Not at all.
“I confess that I was disappointed with what I saw from Guardiola’s Manchester City. I expected more. I saw them playing in a 4-3-3 formation, Guardiola is a guy who has trained top teams. There I see a team with individual qualities, but I haven’t seen a lot of organisation, I didn’t see much aggression, it’s far below from what I expected.”
