News Analysis: Mastermind Guardiola: Get ready for big boys with surprising answers and new problems

Top football coaches have to be masterminds - and Pep Guardiola is a mastermind delivering surprising answers to basic questions.

The Bayern Munich conundrum in the first leg in the last 16 of the Champions League against Schakhtar Donetsk 0-0 was: How to fix the defense before Europe's big boys cross Bayern's path on the road to the 2015 final in Berlin?

Guardiola found a possible and surprising solution to his team's weakness, which was obvious during the last few weeks in the Bundesliga and in last season's semi-final against Real Madrid when their opponents were counter-attacking and operating with long fast passes behind Bayern's defense. Midfielder David Alaba, also a left-back in recent games, was Bayern's second central defender alongside Jerome Boateng, both pacy players.

At right and left back were Rafinha and Juan Bernat respectively. For 65 minutes, Bayern was well-organized and dominated the game without giving too much space for Donetsk to counter attack. But then Xabi Alonso was sent off after being shown a second yellow card and will miss the second match now.

As well as things worked in defense but Bayern had problems going forward and this even after scoring 16 scored goals in the group stage and an 8-0 win over the Hamburger in their last Bundesliga match four days ago. With a 0-0 draw the German Champions now has to pin its hopes of reaching the quarterfinal with a victory in the second leg in Munich on March 11.

"It's a highly dangerous result for us," said Bayern's Director of Football Matthias Sammer. "Now the truth is: If you want to get to the next round you have to win at least one game. We've solved the problem of being prone to counter attacks but we have a lot of space to fill. It's not where we want the team to be and it will take some hard work to get in best shape."

And Mario Goetze admitted: "We had problems in the last third of the pitch. We'll have to improve and quick."

Guardiola's second answer to the discussions about his central midfield was not an either or, but Bastian Schweinsteiger and Alonso. With both on the pitch, the pundits felt that Bayern's game lacks speed and on top, with two in charge, it is impossible to find the right direction. In Lviv where the game took place due to the crisis in eastern Ukraine, the Schweinsteiger and Alonso combo worked quite well, that is until Alonso was sent off and looked totally frustrated.

Until then Alonso had done a lot of important defensive work, which was vital to Guardiola's system (4-2-2-1 or 4-1-2-2-1) which sought a healthy balance between the risky attacking game and the defensive duties. Even Frank Ribery, down the left wing, and Arjen Robben, right wing, helped out at the back, sometimes as far back as Bayern's box.

Bayern dominated the difficult game but had weak moments as far as converting scoring chances was concerned. Maybe Thomas Mueller as center forward (Robert Lewandowski was on the bench) and Mario Goetze behind him were the ones to blame, and Ribery was far from best shape as well after his injury break.

Especially Mueller was far from his incisive self. After Alonso was given his marching orders his 100th Champions League game, striker Mueller was replaced by defender Holger Badstuber who slotted into defense alongside Boateng with Alaba moving up to midfield to partner Schweinsteiger.

Lewandowski then replaced Goetze (75th) as Bayern were having their problems up front. The Pole has the ability to shield the ball so that his teammates can catch up. An important factor when one is down to 10 men.

Not scoring a goal despite having up to 85 percent of the ball against a mainly defensively-oriented team like Donetsk in the first half, Bayern's balance was more in danger than before. Schweinsteiger and Boateng saw yellow cards for bad fouls. In total Bayern's record, when it comes to shots on goal, was not enough to come away with a win. Only eight shots at the end despite Arjen Robben (14 goals in the Bundesliga) being in, some say, the best shape ever.

Despite a not too satisfactory result, new discussions about the role of Robert Lewandowski will grow as the striker seems to have problems being a vital part of his team. Some say it is because he does not get to many chances to play under Pep Guardiola as the coach is not satisfied with Lewandowski's performance so far. Guardiola expects Lewandowski (8 goals in 21 league games) to drop back into midfield as well, much more than he ever had to do in Dortmund.

When Bayern reaches the next round, it will be vital to solve the "goal problem" as teams like defense-minded Chelsea, Barcelona, Paris or Real Madrid have much more quality up front. Endi