Please vote for your favourite manager in the poll at the end of this article.
Pep Guardiola is a winner, his philosophy to keep the ball is part of his goal to win. By keeping the ball his opponents do not have a chance to score, while his players have the opportunity to create chances and goals. Would Bayern Munich get rid of Pep or would he choose to leave them? How many managers match the ambition of a club like Bayern or have the chance to manage a club that expects and normally win trophies?
Would Mourinho leave Chelsea? No, he wants to win the Champions League with Chelsea, as winning it for the third time with three different teams would prove he is one of the greatest managers of all time. Chelsea winning the Premier League this season was an incredible achievement because Mourinho spent less than either Manchester City or Manchester United did in the last two seasons. Chelsea now sell players on high wages that are no longer guaranteed starters (Frank Lampard, Juan Mata and David Luiz) and reinvests in younger talent (Thibaut Courtois, Mohamed Salah, Cesc Fabregas and Kurt Zouma). He is constantly evolving his team and people who say Chelsea are a club that buys success are making up B.S. Other Champions League teams like PSG and Barcelona spend more and do not fall in line with the financial fair play rules.
I do not see Diego Simeone leaving Atlético Madrid. He has done a brilliant job changing the Rojiblancos from underachievers for decades to a team that wins trophies and beats its richer bigger brother Real Madrid. He took a side unfancied to succeed to a Champions League Final in 2014 and won the 2013-14 La Liga against the more historically powerful Barcelona and Real Madrid. This is a real achievement because these teams normally have a duopoly on winning trophies in Spain and Europe. They will probably always have more money to buy the best players and create better squads, and larger fan base and better media support than Atletico.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has criticised Simeone, saying his team play “little football and mostly with aggression.” If Rummenigge’s Bayern had more aggressive defenders perhaps they would have been able to stop Barcelona’s deadly strike force in the Champions League. When teams defend nowadays they are criticised, but people forget that teams who are organized are often the Champion at the end of the season.
The quote “haters will broadcast your failures but whisper you success” describes a world we live in where the moment someone in the public eye falls down they are mocked. The success of people like Simeone or Mourinho often makes them attacked by people who don’t like them upsetting the dominance of established historical Champions such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Therefore Mourinho and Simeone will always have haters so long as they remain at ‘smaller’ less historical clubs. Simeone wisely signed a contract keeping him at Atletico until 2020 and I believe he can continue his fight against the favourites.
Pep could have stayed in Catalonia and never grown as a person and manager. His Barcelona had won everything so had nothing left to prove and he realised only by leaving your cosy life and experiencing new challenges in a different football culture do you gain a better wisdom of life/football and so become a happier person. He is the ultimate perfectionist and his Bayern keep winning trophies in Germany. People might say this is easy but under the previous managers, Jupp Heynckes and Louis van Gaal, Dortmund won the Bundesliga twice and the German Cup. Pep has a talent for improving his players.
Look at the incredible level of talent Messi reached under him. Pep won La Liga three times and two Champions Leagues. Look at the World Cup his players, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Manuel Neuer, Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Jerome Boateng and Arjen Robben, had after a season of his management. They were decisive in their countries’ wins in their most difficult moments in Brazil. Think of Neuer’s performance against Algeria, Robben outrunning and scoring against Spain’s center backs Ramos and Pique or Schweinsteiger controlling the midfield against Argentina’s best midfielder Javier Mascherano in the 2014 World Cup Final.
Guardiola has shown he is a top manager by the success of the national teams of the leagues he managed in. He won La Liga in 2009-10 with Barcelona then Spain, with many of these Barcelona and their rival Real Madrid players won the 2010 World Cup. Spain became World Champions with the same tiki-taka style he employed at Barcelona.
He then coached Bayern to the 2013-14 Bundesliga title against Dortmund, a strong team, shown by them being the previous season Champions League finalists. Then these Bayern and Dortmund players won the 2014 World Cup. Germany also used Bayern’s high pressing game in the same way that Pep’s Bayern put pressure on organized and dangerous counter attacking teams like Dortmund. In the same style of play Germany were also able to beat a, up until that point, very defensively solid and dangerous counter attacking Brazil side and a very organized Argentina.
Manuel Neuer set high standard for the role of the sweeping keeper he played under Guardiola with very composed performances by Bayern and Germany. Many times he was crucial in closing down or winning the ball from strikers high up the pitch. He saved Germany from conceding first in many of the knock-out games against organized sides that you do not want to be a goal down to, like France and Algeria.
Pep’s Bayern won the league this year, conceding only 13 goals in 30 games – 0.43 goals per game. This shows a wiser and better approach in training his players in the arts of organization than in his previous time at Barcelona. The criticism Bayern can’t defend does not stand up to the evidence. Bayern lost 3-0 to Barcelona in Camp Nou and this was a painful defeat for Bayern fans. However Bayern showed they are still a top team and restored some pride by beating Barca 3-2 in the 2nd leg.
In football success is never guaranteed and next season Guardiola will no doubt strengthen his Bayern team, signing players in positions they are weak in (a center back, right back and defensive midfielder) and moving on players, who are in decline or no longer needed. Evolution is key to create a future of success and trophies.
Who is the best club manager in the world?
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