Pep Guardiola Discusses Lionel Messi's Secret Power and Why He Loves to Roam the Pitch

Pep Guardiola has detailed exactly what its like to manage one of the world's best playersin Marti Perarnaua'snew book,Metamorphosis.

The book is a follow up to Perarnaua's first book on the currentManchester City manager and largelyfocuseson his time spent in Germany with Bayern Munich. Whilst the book is a biography, it still includes extracts directly from Guardiola, who happens to explain why Lionel Messi spends some of his time walking around on the football pitch.

Manchester City fans: if you see Barcelona's Lionel Messi walking on the pitch, be afraid - Bitter And Blue (blog) https://t.co/scjhlO2GK5

Guardiola and Messi enjoyed four successful years working together at Barcelona winning multiple Champions Leagues and La Liga titles.

Rumours suggested that the pair's relationship had weakened towards the end of Guardiola's reign with the Catalan giants, but the manager still speaks highly of his former player.

He said: "Look at Messi when he's out there, it looks like he's walking around the pitch¦.he sees that he's alone; when he sees that they're watching him, he distances himself¦"

The Barcelona hitman can sometimesseem to be drifting in and out of games and has sometimes been criticised for his relaxed manner. However, Guardiola revealed that the Argentine is doing more than simply wandering about and much like apredator,heis just waiting for his moment to pounce.

"Messi spends the game walking, x-raying every single moment. He's the player who runs the least in La Liga “ but when the ball comes to him, he has the complete x-ray of space/time. He knows exactly where everyone is. And then Pam!" explains Guardiola.

This 'x-ray theory' would certainly help us to understand why Messi is so good and just how he is able to pull off the things he does. Arguably the greatest player of all time, the Barcelona front man has an astonishing record of 482 goals in 612 games for club and country.

So next time you see the little genius wandering around the pitch, think twice before you comment on his laziness.In reality, he's just observing the game and preparing to pounce on an unwitting opponent.

X-ray vision - no wonder he's so good!