The greatest manager ever

Since the day Pep Guardiola was announced as manager of FC Bayern Munich, I had been patiently waiting for the day his UEFA Champions League path will cross that of FC Barcelona. Guardiola has transformed Bayern from a high octane football team, to one absolutely obsessed with keeping the ball; while keeping the ball has been Barcelona’s plan A for winning games, at least in the last seven or so years. Ultimately, I wanted to see which manager would abandon their principles and beliefs to win the game. Luis Enrique’s side played deeper than you’ll normally a Barcelona team play, had less than 50% of the possession and ended the game as runaway winners. Enrique had adapted to a superior passing manager and beat him convincingly.

When stripped to the core, 95% of managers in the major leagues have a style of play they are biased to. For Guardiola, it is an endless possession, for Enrique is it possession and quick combinations in the final third, Wenger is almost enslaved to fluid attacking movements and transitions, Simeone’s two lines of four you can almost always see when his team is without the ball. Even less popular managers like West Ham’s Alladyce and Roger Martinez have what they believe in. The former this season has let the opponents have the ball, choosing to increase security in and around his box; the latter will almost always build from the back. Ultimately all these managers are predictable.

When Chelsea met Athletico in last season’s Champions League, I knew the Portuguese was in for a tough 90 minutes. Simeone is almost the tactical mirror image of Mourinho; his defensive tactics wouldn’t beat Simeone, because Simeone won’t really attack. All bar one of the teams that have trumped Mourinho recently have done it on the base of solid defending, not attacking. Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Newcastle. Most people don’t see Mourinho as predictable, but in every big away game this season, he has paired Matic with Zouma, Ramires or Mikel. He went against this principle away at Spurs in January, pairing Cesc and Matic and lost. When Mourinho “parks his bus”, he isn’t respecting the opponents, he is merely doing what he is comfortable with. In a way Pep and Mourinho are exactly the same thing, you know what they will do, they’ll do it and still almost certainly win the game.

There should be cool points awarded to managers who eschew the principles they believe in and come up with different tactics to cope in games where their everyday tactics might not work. Like what Enrique did on Wednesday night, he could have placed emphasis on possession and played Xavi, instead of Rakitic. When Ancelotti’s Real Madrid played against Bayern in last season’s Champions League, he had the firepower of Bale, Ronaldo and Benzema. He could have stood toe to toe with the Spanish manager; after all he had the more expensive and explosive squad. But that would have been arrogance. He sat his team back, absorbed pressure, and sucker punched them time and time again. When Arsene Wenger went to the Etihad in January, he could have attempted to match City for attacking prowess. For once he didn’t, Arsenal sat back, finished the game with 35% possession, and came away with his first victory over City in 3 years. Juup Heyneckes had Robben and Ribery and Kroos who had been wrecking attacking havoc on teams all season long. He met Barcelona, prioritized defensive organization, outworked the Catalans, and embarrassed them with a 7-0 aggregate score line.

The greatest of the Great War generals are those ones who decide how to fight based on the terrain, setup and weakness of the opposition. Maybe Pacquiao won’t have lost the fight of the century if he hadn’t been punching away so mindlessly. When it is all said and done, adaptability is a priceless thing in football, and there is none more adaptable than the greatest manager I’ve seen. Sir Alex Ferguson.

Adaptability was why Sir Alex Ferguson was able to stay relevant in the most dynamic, competitive league in the world for 26 years. While you state the exact philosophy used by other main rivals over the course of 26 years, you can never pin point exactly what pattern Sir Alex was using. His pattern was whatever pattern might work on the day. On some days, it involved crossing against teams who were susceptible to crossing, on some other days, it involved passing and passing some more, there were days were counter attack was the order of the day, especially against teams of similar stature, and some days it was as simple as asking his players to get stuck into the Arsenal players and bully them into submission. While Mourinho might have reservations about attacking against a defensive team, or Arsene Wenger defending against an attacking team, Sir Alex would play however against whoever, as long as it gave him a good chance of winning, and that ultimately, makes him different from everyone else.

Adedamola Obisesan