Ibime:
Alonso is just class in everything he does. His movements, his touch, his interplay, delivery and set pieces. If only he had pace, he would be complete.

not only pace, he needs the strength to be able to beat a player comfortably and stay on his feet.



Batshuayi for dey great if to say em get pressing, movement and positioning.

Eruditor:


I gave a fact. You finished how many points behind 4th placed Liverpool? And did you not win your last how many games of the season? So what are you on about?

We did not win because the focus had since shifted to the Europa league...We were fielding academy players...

patrickmuf:
Porto vs United, 2004...
Inter vs Barcelona, 2010...
Bayern vs Inter, 2010...

How was it against the odds? That is all I am asking.

Celts have beaten Barca.
Shaktar as well.
Inter still beat Bayern under (Leonardo)

So are the managers also tactically better?

patrickmuf:
We did not win because the focus had since shifted to the Europa league...We were fielding academy players...

Against who and when?

United gave up because they were many points behind 3rd, 4th and 5th. Simple.

Eruditor:


Against who and when?

United gave up because they were many points behind 3rd, 4th and 5th. Simple.

Google is your friend.

popizaino:
yet jupp heckynes couldn't win it 2x in a row?

He didn't face depleted teams(Bayern handpicking)

Eruditor:


How was it against the odds? That is all I am asking.

Celts have beaten Barca.
Shaktar as well.
Inter still beat Bayern under (Leonardo)

So are the managers also tactically better?

I can't help.

patrickmuf:
Google is your friend.

And he told me you are yarning opaks.

As if you spent over £100M to finish 6th and chase Yuropa. LOL.

Eruditor:


And he told me you are yarning opaks.

As if you spent over £100M to finish 6th and chase Yuropa. LOL.

Well, we won it, the only trophy we had never won...Pep on the other hand spent £200m to get knocked out by a young Monaco team...

popizaino:
lol.


Y wait for the third season when you guys almost deaf our ears with mourinho second season is always the best?

am no a manu fan o

raumdeuter:


Mourinho has Martial Pogba Lukaku Matic Bailly DDG Mata very high grade players

ofcourse because if you be coach na to swap lukaku for lewandoski, vidal for matic, thiago for pogba, bailly for hummels, ddg for neuer, martial for james rodriguez, mata for robben.

shey them be very high grade players.

It's easy to know people that started watching football from 2014. Inter that won three consecutive Serie a title before Mourinho came is called an under dog........Smh

raumdeuter:


Is it not the same Juventus that shamed several top clubs that Pep beat?

you guys played knockout 9times in cl in those 3 and juve was the only top europe team you beat

patrickmuf:
Well, we won it, the only trophy we had never won...Pep on the other hand spent £200m to get knocked out by a young Monaco team...

Your legendary manager won 2 UCLs in 26 full years at your club.
And you downplay pep because he didn't win one in 3 years?.I hate your stupidity I swear.

Someone didn't live the Calciopoli, you can read about it.
I won't be surprise if he argued that Zlatan, Viera, Zambrotta, Thuram and co never played for Juventus...
Over sabi.

patrickmuf:

Last season, we had to give up on our top four chase in order to concentrate on the Europa league and we won it.
This season is just about a half way gone, 12 points isn't insurmountable.

2. Mourinho is tactically better, he has been able to use to right tactics to win against the odds and with average players.

3. Grooming? Mourinho brought Varane in to the first team and he coached him to reach the very top level.
Today, he is working wonders with Lingard and Martial.

4. Lingard is having his best season under Mourinho, Martial is on course too.
At Inter, Milito reached levels he never could imagine, Schneider improved to world class standard with Mou.

Man management? The quote from former players speaks volumes of Mourinho's man management skill.

1. Whether you gave up or not is no ones business bottom line you finished 6th Pep finished 3rd.

2. Tactically better yet he was chopping 5-0 and back to back home defeat

3. Varane was aleready a first team player before Mourinho bought him from France. And Varane isnt a world class defender yet. Busquets was brought from academy with 0 first team appearance and he is the best if not top 3 DM in the world

Neymar1095:

Your legendary manager won 2 UCLs in 26 full years at your club.
And you downplay pep because he didn't win one in 3 years?.I hate your stupidity I swear.

Twitter won't help you here...Run along.

I will tried to give a logical explanation and counter the narratives describing him a fraud.

These are the arguments generally put forth (atleast this is what I’ve seen):

He takes over “highly successful” squads, which previously were Barcelona and Bayern.
His tactics are the “same” (called as tiki-taka by popular media, whereas his philosophy is called as positional play). Any team that sits deep can beat his team with counterattacking football.
He can’t do a Mourinho- take a “small” team like Porto to success.
Now let me try to counter these points one by one:

When he took over Barcelona, they had gone trophyless for 2 years and the squad lacked motivation. Players like Xavi and Iniesta weren’t regular starters for Rijkaard’s Barcelona (and Xavi was considering leaving for Bayern in 2008). Messi was an injury prone precocious younsgter (he had 5 injuries in 3 seasons before, missing 50 games including the 2006 CL final- Lionel Messi - Injury history). Guardiola took over a team ending a cycle, refreshed it and created history with it. He didn’t have it easy there, not by a long shot. He was announced as the next Bayern manager in January 2013, even before that year’s CL knockouts had begun. I’ve argued that his time at Bayern shouldn’t be considered as an outright failure here (did he know that the side he was going to take over would be treble winners?!).
His tactical outlook is derided as “boring”, “one dimensional” etc by people who seems to prefer other outlooks of playing football. I would berate long ball always, crossing always and sitting back and going on the odd counterattack as boring. This depends on how you prefer to view football. However calling his tactics outdated, easy to beat etc is stupidity, when his team dominated the current English champs at their home and won (the scoreline would have been higher if not for some bad end product by City players, not entirely in his control).
People say that he can’t take over a small team and achieve anything with them, primarily pointing out Jose Mourinho’s success with Porto. I would argue that such results, though you should laud Porto’s victories back then should be partly attributed to the knockout nature of CL (that year, heavyweights AC Milan and RM were knocked out by Deportivo la Coruna and Monaco respectively, Milan bottled a 4–1 lead from first leg and Real were beaten on away goals!). Mourinho hasn’t been able to lead Chelsea and Real to CL success during his stints there, which shows the nature of knockout competitions like the Champions League. Also managers of the ilk of Pep, Mourinho and Ancelotti typically tend to manage the “big” clubs (Porto was the last “small” club Mourinho managed, small in European sense). If you pose such questions to one of them, you should pose it to all of them (because I haven’t seen people ask the same of Ancelotti!). To me, this point reeks of double standards.
A large portion of the footballing world- players, managers and journalists acknowledge Pep Guardiola as a genius. Andrea Pirlo has acknowledged his excitement at the prospect of playing under Guardiola (which happened in 2010). We all know how Thierry Henry raves about Guardiola. Arrigo Sacchi, the greatest ever manager of AC Milan has lavished praise on Guardiola. I think when professionals by and large have acknowledged his work and success, it’s foolish to deny it and call him a fraud.

What are Pep’s faults? He lives and breathes his way of playing the game. He will never ever compromise on it and “play just to win” (maybe there’s more chance of the sun rising in the west than a Guardiola team going all out defensive). Like Rinus Michels, Arrigo Sacchi and Johan Cruyff, Guardiola will go down for adding new chapters to the tactical rulebook of football.

To quote Mourinho (after his 2017 Europa League success), “lots of poets in football, but poets don’t win titles”, poets like Michels, Sacchi, Guardiola did and do win titles, entertained the spectators and left a legacy which only a few can even hope to match. That is the total package for me. (Edit- Mourinho’s comment was a dig at his detractors in media and not the likes of Pep. I stand corrected there).

PS- If you have lengthy arguments to disagree with my answer, please write your own answer elaborating

raumdeuter:


1. Whether you gave up or not is no ones business bottom line you finished 6th Pep finished 3rd.

2. Tactically better yet he was chopping 5-0 and back to back home defeat

3. Varane was aleready a first team player before Mourinho bought him from France. And Varane isnt a world class defender yet. Busquets was brought from academy with 0 first team appearance and he is the best if not top 3 DM in the world

Varane was nothing like a Dembele or Mbappe or Ramos or Stones...

MoR2:
ofcourse because if you be coach na to swap lukaku for lewandoski, vidal for matic, thiago for pogba, bailly for hummels, ddg for neuer, martial for james rodriguez, mata for robben.

shey them be very high grade players.

fatality to the baldees...

Xavi a Iniesta played a pivotal role in Spains Euro 2008 win but no, it's Pep who made them what they are...

Greatihex:
not only pace, he needs the strength to be able to beat a player comfortably and stay on his feet.



Batshuayi for dey great if to say em get pressing, movement and positioning.

Plus holding up play....dude can't keep the ball when passed to him. Hopefully he improves however I like the fact that he takes chances presented to him most times.

patrickmuf:
Xavi a Iniesta played a pivotal role in Spains Euro 2008 win but no, it's Pep who made them what they are...

Raumdeuter.....ngbo?

raumdeuter:


What were the difference in talents made available to Juup and Guardiola?

Did Pep also have Ribery Robben and Schweini in their prime?

were they above 29years of age. so pep didn't have gotze at his prime, lewandoski, kross, muller, lahm, alaba, boateng, javi matinez etc at their prime abi

patrickmuf:
Xavi a Iniesta played a pivotal role in Spains Euro 2008 win but no, it's Pep who made them what they are...

Xavi and Iniesta were also there when barca went 2 seasons trophyless and finished 18points behind Madrid. Then came pep and like a magician that he is barca won 6 trophies. Pep had so much influence on them as simple as that.

Melvyn11:

Xavi and Iniesta were also there when barca went 2 seasons trophyless and finished 18points behind Madrid. Then came pep and like a magician that he is barca won 6 trophies. Pep had so much influence on them as simple as that.

Okay...

popizaino:
I will tried to give a logical explanation and counter the narratives describing him a fraud.

There is little or nothing to contest in your epistle but it is also not how people has come about his "Fraud nature".

I love his style of play but i don't like him and his fanboys.We have heard and read many things about his ingenuity but little is said about his spendings.

He majors in recruiting mercenaries which is evident as we have seen in City and his time at Bayern with having luck with players like Midget, Xavi,Iniesta,Busquets and Pedro being LA Masia graduates while at Barca.

A top manager needs top players to work with no doubt,but we cannot rule out his ridiculous spending while commending him for his brilliance

I see Pep has won some EPL fans over here. It still remains a stubborn few that need repentance.

Melvyn11:

How is Mourinho record better. Pep has reached 7 semi finals in 8 seasons in the champions league.

how many semis did mou play from 2004 to 2014, infach how many semis has he coached

patrickmuf:
Xavi a Iniesta played a pivotal role in Spains Euro 2008 win but no, it's Pep who made them what they are...

yes it is guardiola that made them especially xavi.Gerald pique would couldn't make sir alex ferguson second team was trusted by pep guardiola yet it is only established players guardiola goes for.

MoR2:
how many semis did mou play from 2004 to 2014, infach how many semis has he coached

You said Mourinho has a better semi final record than pep. Oga explain how.

hardeycute:
There is little or nothing to contest in your epistle but it is also not how people has come about his "Fraud nature".

I love his style of play but i don't like him and his fanboys.We have heard and read many things about his ingenuity but little is said about his spendings.

He majors in recruiting mercenaries which is evident as we have seen in City and his time at Bayern with having luck with players like Midget, Xavi,Iniesta,Busquets and Pedro being LA Masia graduates while at Barca.

A top manager needs top players to work with no doubt,but we cannot rule out his ridiculous spending while commending him for his brilliance

pep is so good he has brought academic players into his first eleven only once in his career, busquets and pedro.

i like pep o, but some people can overhype eh them fit sell you nylon for tissue.