Image: Terry Kearney, Flickr

With Pep Guadiola gone at Man City, is he the best manager the Premier League has ever had? Or has Sir Alex beaten him to it?

Man City Honours

   After his successful decade in Manchester, Pep Guadiola has won everything at Man City including 6 Premier Leagues, 5 Carabao Cups, 3 FA Cups and 1 Champions League. He truly is a legend at City and he will really be missed by the Citizens. He also has won his Premier Leagues in style with 1/3 of them having a 100+ points total which makes him the only manager to accomplish this and probably outdoes the invincibles as you can draw every game and get relegated unbeaten. He also won a historic treble in the 23/24 season winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in one historic season.

Revolutionary New Tactics 

   One key reason that Pep Guadiola will be in PL folklore is his amazing tactics that have revolutionised the way that football is played today, and in all levels from Premier League to Under 14. His most famous playing style was inverted fullbacks, this meant that when attacking and going forward, his wide defenders would go forward to get into midfield to overload the centre of the pitch and give extra passing routes in the midfield. Also, it helped prevent counter attacks when the ball is lost. He also re-engineered the classic false nine shape and made his centre forward drop way deeper into midfield and avoid the penalty area entirely. This invites the opposition defense to push up. This results in the creative, pacey wingers to bomb forward in lots of space to cut in and shoot or cut it back for people in the penalty area. In a constant quest on having transitional control, he ordered one of his centre backs to join the defensive midfielder and the wide players to drop in. This was incredibly useful as is made a 4 man box midfield and it allowed Guadiola's teams to smother and suffocate their opponents moves forward.

Ruthless Squad Managment And Man Management 

    Despite his on the pitch success, Pep also had a huge pedigree off the pitch most notably in his squad and team management. He intentionally kept his squads small to avoid benching top quality players who can really play and lets them leave as they are better off playing first team football elsewhere. Leaving good players on the bench also means that the benched players are unhappy and that helps to create a toxic, hostile atmosphere in the dressing room and in the squad in general. Due to his thin squads, he requires his players to play multiple positions at a high level which benefits the club's economy as they don't have to invest after a departure or an injury. He also had no room for big egos and when a player got too big for their boots, they would be pushed out of the squad. To add on, Guadiola also had a strict fine systems and gives out fines for players being late to training.

Sir Alex Ferguson's Achievements 

    Sir Alex Ferguson is the best manager in the history of Man United. During his 26 year tenure at The Red Devils, he has won a plethora or trophies like 13 Premier Leagues, 2 Champions Leagues and 5 FA Cups plus more as he has a whopping 38 major trophies to his great name. In his 810 games as United manager, has has won 528, which is the second hhighest in the history of the Premier League behind Pep, and has a win rate of 65.2%.  He never finished lower than third place in the Premier League and Manchester United scored 1,627 goals under his rule. 

How Did Sir Alex Play?

   During his amazing stint at Old Trafford, Ferguson played a variety of formations but his preferred choice was a classic 4-4-2 but he also utilised shapes such as 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. He changed his formations to keep up with the way the game was evolving and was actually crucial in developing the modern form of the game. He liked to leverage the wide areas of the pitch and used byline hugging wingers with elite level passing to cross the ball into the box and he believed this was the best way to stretch his opponents and find those all important gaps in the defence. Also, he used his fullbacks like Gary Neville to overlap and create a 2v1 situation on the wing. He used to play direct football using his defensive line to launch long balls over the top to bypass midfield and get the ball into the final third. In defence, he had a high pressing style that meant they pressured defenders and hope the messed up a clearance or a pass or get tackled and can then start attacking again. In the central area of the pitch, he he utilised his midfielders in two different ways. He had a ball winner like Roy Keane to tackle and get it to the creative players whereas he had a midfield like Paul Scholes who can dictate the tempo of the game.

Ferguson's Stint At Aberdeen

    Prior to his legendary Man United career, Ferguson managed Aberdeen and was incredibly successful and won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1983 and broke the Old Firm dominance by winning 3 Scottish Titles and this was an incredible feat as he had a small, tough budget and got the best out of the Scottish club. This stint at The Dons probably makes him the better manager that Pep due to the fact that at Guadiola's previous jobs, he had a huge budget and was at huge clubs. This gives Ferguson the advantage as he has performed well at all clubs he has managed no matter the financial situation but Pep has managed only the best clubs, with the biggest budgets.

Image: SNL, CC BY 2.0

Final Words