Throughout the time we mostly talk about players. Be it football or any other sport. Little do we talk about the guy on sideline. The animated characters who jump left right and center making weird movements and hand gestures. Yes, the coaches. And football coaches are arguably the most celebrated coaches around the world. Speaking of football coaches, one debate remains on everyone's head. Who's the best coach in the world? And why is it not Pep Guardiola? Well, there are some proper logics to that debate.
Let's dissect about what type of a coach Guardiola is. Pep is a brilliant coach. There is no doubt in that. He has a very coherent system that works flawlessly against almost everyone. He is a one trick pony. No matter what happens, Pep's system might change in the minor details, but the broader approach has always stayed the same. So that isn't an argument. Pep Guardiola is a pragmatic coach. Pep has learned his skills from the great himself. The father of Tiki Taka, Johan Cruyff. And just like him, Pep's coaching career started at Barcelona too. He didn't had to go through the pains of promoting a lower league team. Or he didn't have to manage a below par team at the start of his career.
I'm saying these things because you wouldn't expect a newbie coach to get appointments from the biggest clubs in the world. They aren't dumb to bet their money on someone unproven, especially when the stakes are at the highest. But Pep has been one of their own, also he has been recommended by Cruyff himself. Who would turn him down now? Barcelona took him in. And Pep, mixing his ideas with the base Tiki Taka style, had made a formidable team that was feared by everybody. After that he went to Bayern. Won the league multiple times. Now in England. Turning the premier league into a farmers league. All that is good. But the problem starts when you see his expenses. Guardiola is the coach with the second most highest spendings in his career, at 1.44bn pounds. Trailing Mourinho at 1.54bn pounds. Here Mourinho actually has signed way more players for that money than Pep, mostly because Mourinho has been around in coaching for almost a decade longer. So price per player wise, Pep spends the most. But where's the output? Pep wins the league yes, but the champions league? That's something he hasn't seen since he left Barcelona.
Guardiola spends so much yet his achievements outside the league is next to none. Why? It's because how he is as a human. Pep does not communicate with players like other coaches. He treats them like pawns in his system. There are several reports of several players claiming the fact that Guardiola may be a very good man tactics wise, but he isn't one human wise. And not letting players make decisions on the field, and playing their game for them by binding them to a set of instructions, is where Pep Guardiola fails.
To win at the big stage you need kings, not pawns. So when the king's moment arrives, the players fail. Guardiola is arguably the best tactician on earth right now. But there's more to coaching than just tactics. A coach is like a teacher. You have connect too as well as teach. Guardiola has never had to produce something out of nothing. And whenever he did, he failed. It's because of how ruthlessly he treats his players. The motivation isn't just there.
But I'm sure he will come around. I plan on dissecting other coaches in a similar fashion as well.