Pep Guardiola encountered a specific problem upon his arrival in Bavaria. Having already conquered the world as manager of Barcelona, the Spaniard had been appointed by Bayern Munich to further establish its dominance in Germany.
Bayern Munich quickly began to see more of the ball than ever before, but some Bundesliga sides managed to surprise the man in charge. Above all else, Guardiola noticed the differences between Spanish and German sides when it comes to counter-attacking up the field.
Guardiola appreciated the value of inverted full-backs during his time in Munich, as the central positions held by those players made it difficult for opponents to instigate counter-attacks.
In his first Premier League match in charge against Sunderland, Guardiola used his favored 4-3-3 system with inverted full-backs protecting the team from counters.