I think he's a brilliant manager, watching the documentary shows you what a type of manager he is and the management styles he uses. I think they're only a world class signing off winning European trophies.
Shankly for me. Ferguson won a lot more trophies and he deserves credit for doing what a lot of managers before and after him didn’t but Shankly transformed an average L2 side into what they are today.
I dont get the City defence. Garcia and Cancelo arent good enough for regular starts for me and i think the Fernandinho in defence was stop gap thats been well well overdone and especially is difficult to understand in a back 3. Cant get away with it every game in top competitions. Despite the media being down on Stones i think him alongside Laporte and Zinchenko (maybe also Mendy) + Walker are their best defensive options. This is basic and changing formation to accommodate Cancelo and Fernandhino, leaving Silva / Foden / Silva / Mahrez seemed to show he was more worried about defence rather than creativity. back fired. Stones needs to leave as he clearly isn't in Peps plans and When its obvious they cant play out from the back with these players he Remained on the bench. Hi England future depends on him playing games.
We’ll just have to disagree on that one. Pep has managed teams who have produced the greatest quality of football Of all time. Ferguson? Great manager but not even the best of all time at Man Utd. Looking at what Busby had to do (twice) with the resources he had compared to Ferguson, puts him on a different level for me.
Didn’t even realise they played a back 3, only put it on at half time. Makes it even stranger. A right footed left wing back when your two left backs are better going forward than defending & leaving all the creative players except De Bruyne on the bench. If everyone matches up with their best sides there’s probably only Liverpool & Bayern I’d favour over City’s 4-3-3. They just completely outplayed Real Madrid with that system. No reason to tinker with that
Yeah it's the standard test, he really should quit at City and go prove himself at Yeovil. Klopp did well at Mainz to get them into the Bundesliga but also got them relegated. He should pack in now and give Wycombe a go.
It's just the latest evolution of football tactics. People have realized how to nullify and exploit the weaknesses of his system. Over the past 30-odd years, managers have found new ways of making their teams successful, but a system neve stays at the forefront for long. When I first started watching, almost everyone played a 442, but then managers realised that by playing 532/352 with wingbacks they could always have the numerical advantage all over the pitch and it became the "go-to" system. Then clubs realized that if they moved to a 451/433 style, they could peg back the wingbacks and nullify the threat, so all the top clubs started doing it. Then we had two managers come up with two polar opposite systems. Mourino took the 451 and made his teams stupidly difficult to break down at the expense of possession, while Pep took the same shape, but got his team dominating possession and became unbeatable that way. Now the Gengenpress has countered and exploited the previous two systems' weaknesses. I can see the Gengenpress reigning supreme for the next 4 or 5 years, before some up and coming manager created his own system to trump it, and the cycle will continue...
It is really. Rewind ten years to when Mourinho was Pep, and people were saying the same things, then look at him now that he's not at a club where he can buy whoever, whenever.
I think he's very, very good at taking the blood money from his employers without a word of dissent, whilst happily protesting about the arrests in Catalonia. It's next-level stuff from the Spanish Eddie Howe.
Pep has been and remains a fantastic manager. His tactics and approach though have never changed and he’s being found out a little. Take Ferguson for example. He built a European cup winning team playing 4-4-2 with two out and out centre forwards playing at all times. He then moved on and changed his approach and shape - be that 4-5-1, 4-3-3. He actually played 4-4-2 again in the 2008 final but with Rooney coming deeper and Ronaldo drifting inside from the left, Hargreaves tucking in from the right sometimes. He changed - he also calmed the hairdryer stuff he used a lot of the time in later years when he realised players wouldn’t take that anymore. Pep, Mourinho, they’ve never seemed to change anything about their approach. It is arrogance, not lack of ability, which will derail their careers if anything. Nobody will win champions league titles without spending a lot, so I don’t buy into that argument, but managers need to progress with the game. The high press rules supreme for now, it’ll be something else in a couple of years.
Great post. I think a big change is that the ‘number 10’ role is dying. A few years back every team seemed to have one. Players like David Silva & Juan Mata practically had premier league teams built round them. Players of that ilk now have to play wide or they don’t get a game. Klopp flogged Coutinho, Silva’s now a central midfielder, Mata plays wide in a front 3, most of the time Maddison & Grealish play wide. Teams are a lot more flexible now rather than having one luxury player that most of the play goes through.
Pep isn't anywhere near the same league as Sir Alex. He took over a side that wasn't doing well and spent 27 years there dominating everywhere whilst having to rebuild successful side after successful side to keep them at the top level.
Sir Alex was an outstanding manager but I think even he would admit that they underachieved in Europe. I’ve heard Gary Neville say they did. They only won it twice despite been one of the best handful of teams in Europe for about 17 years. It’s a hard competition to win & there’s no shame in losing to top sides but like when Fergie went out to Leverkusen, Porto (& Monaco once I think) Pep will be disappointed at losing to teams like Spurs & Lyon in the last two quarter finals. It’s not good enough for a side that good.
Give over. At every club he has managed he has had comfortably the best squad in the league. His failure to win the Champions League with Bayern and City reflects very poorly on him. He's nowhere near the greatest of all time conversation, I don't think Mourinho is the best ever but I'd put him ahead of Pep considering their respective achievements.
Yes, in general. A manager with a new tactic can beat that. A manager who can evolve their team and their style can get round that too. Guardiola brought in tiki-taka at Barca, benefiting massively from the players at his disposal in his first job (other than managing the same players as kids as Barca B manager) and has traded off that since. His relative lack of success compared to what would be expected of a manager in the jobs he's since taken shows he's really not the best manager ever. He's still time to prove me wrong, but I think it's far more likely he'll quit City in a year or two and go to PSG. He's treading exactly the same career path as Mourinho, albeit without the initial winning of the Champions League with an underdog side, and hasn't yet let his head be boiled by another manager being more successful (Ferguson).
Think he brought in a style of play that although not new was taken to another level. ( Lots of Dutch sides played possession football, Liverpool playing pass and move) His development of this style was so immense that it became his signature and when played to the vision he held was a pleasure to watch and devastating... So should the question be is he the Manager that will be forever associated with a new and exciting way of playing that had not been seen at this level before...and not is he the greatest Manager ever ( No I don't think he is by the way) the best Premier league Manager was Fergie.. Know what I mean apologies if worded badly......
