Mourinho or Guadiola for Manchester United FC
MOURINHO OR GUARDIOLA: I BELONG TO BOTH OF THEM; I BELONG TO NO ONE ELSE
I recently wrote an article on the demise of Manutd under LVG and some days later,the team came crashing against Norwich at home and Stoke city away hence making it six straight games without victory.Though it didn’t come as a surprise to me,the dismal results has increased speculations from all angles that LVG will sooner or later get the sack,even prompting the manager to request for an apology from the press for such fabricated rumors before angrily walking out of his press conference.
One thing is certain though,it’s just a matter of time before LVG leaves the club whether by resigning or by sacking,which has increased speculation on who to replace him when he departs.A lot of names are being circulated but there are two basic names who obviously everyone is tipping for the position because of their availability; Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho.Opinions have obviously been divided among fans including me but i want to differ here by saying I just don’t care who is in place,manutd should just get any of them for goodness sake before they end up getting none of them.Now let me break it down
ACHIEVEMENTS
Pep Guardiola
Started off at Barca’s B team in 2007 before replacing Rijkard in 2008/09 to become the first team coach.This ended up being his most successful season,winning all the trophies in all the competitions he participated in for the first time in the club’s history also becoming the youngest coach to ever do so.He also became the fist coach to win an El-Classico match 5 times in a row.He also won 2 champions league in 4 seasons defeating manutd in both finals.All in All,he surpassed Johan Cryuff to be the most successful manager in Barcelona’s history winning 14 compared to Cryuff’s 12 in 4 seasons at the club.He’s also won the league cups in Germany and the DFP pokal titles.
He’s usually known for his tiki-taka style of football (not the LVG style) and also a high pressing game off the ball.He also likes his team to play with flexibility and loves a high line of defense which has made him a successful coach and endeared him to having a successful career.
Jose Mourinho
Started his career being an assistant to great coaches Bryan Robson,Louis Van Gaal,Jupp Heynckes at top clubs before establishing himself in Porto,winning the league in his two full seasons with them,alongside the Champions league, defeating Monaco in the finals in 2004 against all odds.He joined Chelsea in the 04/05 season,winning the league in his first two seasons with the club alongside other league cup trophies.He then joined Inter Milan in 2008,winning the League title in his first two seasons with them,he also won the Champions league and other league cup titles.He joined Real Madrid and won the La Liga once and the league cup twice with them.He came back to Chelsea in 2013 and won the league and a cup title in his second stint with the club that lasted about 2-and-a-half seasons.
Overall ,in his 11/12 years career,he has won a whopping 21 trophies among other individual accolades.Impressive.
SKEPTICISM
Pep Guardiola
– Manutd is currently disjointed
The fact about Guardiola is,he’s used to working with the best and makes them exceptional.In Manutd right now,there are no world-class players,the team is wobbling.In Barcelona,he inherited a group of Xavi,Puyol,Ronaldinho,Messi,Deco, added others like Alves,Villa,Henry.He met a team whose Johan Cryuff’s legacy was being built around and added his own lots to ensure near-perfection.In Bayern Munich,same thing,he inherited a team that had just dominated not just Germany but also won the Champions league with Jupp Heynckes with players like Robben,Ribery,Schweinsteinger,Lahm,Kroos and added his own lots Lewandowski,Alonso,Alcantara.A team he blended to his taste and made it more appealing to his taste, but here is the problem with Manutd,the team is wobbling.
I like to think Manutd’s problem started when Fergie handed over to Moyes,he under-estimated the task of taking over from him,hence not giving it to a more experienced hand. Moyes came with a different ugly style,LVG came with a boring style which would never work in the Premier league.My skepticism here is,Guardiola has never handled a wobbling team,he has never handled a team without world-class players,he has never handled a team this disjointed and handling this Manutd team would be a Guardiola in an experiment of resurrection and it would be interesting to watch him do it if given the opportunity.
– His Style Is Different
Fact is Manutd fans are used to the Sir Alex signature of football.The direct style of having pacy wingers who can dribble and cross the ball to the right channels in the box for the strikers to score,not the dull passes kind of football like under LVG. Here is the deal,Guardiola is coming from the tiki-taka school of football, LVG has made the fans despise it.Would Pep come and make the fans like the style? I am personally of the opinion tiki-taka cannot work in the premier league because of the deep line of defense deployed by the oppositions (i might be wrong though).So it’ll be interesting to see him bring his tiki-taka and endear it to the fans and most importantly,see how it works in the premier league.
Jose Mourinho
–He’s Too Controversial
I used to enjoy Mourinho’s antics with the press,his press conference were usually rather interesting than controversial until this season when it become over controversial and Manutd simply wouldn’t need all them antics.Fighting Arsene Wenger,calling him specialist in failure,refusing to shake opposition coaches,walking off the field before the game ends.The British press doesn’t care about your success they just wait for a loophole to capitalize on and how Mourinho is still playing to their gallery despite years of experience with them still baffles me.Its impossible to please the press,you are not working to please the press either, but the millions of manutd fans around the world, and it takes distractions off the club issues and shifts direction to unneccessary issues to the detriment of the club. No one would want a Mourinho constantly blaming referees,fighting opposition coaches,quarreling with the FA’s.He should learn to handle these people better ,just like Fergie did with them.
-Academy Players Might Suffer
Manutd has a tradition of bringing up young players through the ranks,Gary Neville,David Beckham,Paul Scholes,Ryan Giggs and most recently Jesse Lingard. Having an academy player in the match day squad for 3000+ games running right now, the question is,can Mourinho sustain such achievement? Xavi once said about Mourinho “He just likes winning at any cost,meaning he cant stay true to a playing style,the end dont always justify the means,i respect his will to win but it’s not a style i like”.And you seriously can’t fault the man’s will to win at any cost even when playing ugly like under Fergie in occasions,but will we be ready to risk it at the detriment of our academy players under Mourinho.Loftus-Cheek had a few bad games under Mourinho and never saw the light of football at Chelsea,even coming under public criticism. Would Mourinho be ready to risk academy players in his squad and have patience with them to develop? Hopefully,he finds a way to merge all factors and make our academy players continually function and become part of the first team squad.
WHY IT SHOULD BE GUARDIOLA
Guardiola is an exceptional coach who has established himself for his style and his ability to mastermind opponents tactics.Right from his days at Barcelona,his ability to make Messi a world beater is unquestionable,turning Messi from an orthodox winger to a world-class forward.14 trophies in 4 seasons is quite an unbelievable achievement and every club would definitely have an eye on him once he’s available.He also went to Bayern Munich and emerged out of the shadow of Jupp Heynckes direct style of play to a more enticing tiki-taka style of play hereby making the likes of Lewandowski and Muller world beaters.This has also made him win various trophies for the club,although yet to win the Champions league.Its only right for manutd to try all they can to get such a world-class coach.His ability to also twitch his formation to adjust to oppositions style would also work in an EPL where there are multiple patterns of play.He is one of the very few coaches who uses the 4-4-2,4-3-3,3-5-2,3-4-3,etc comfortable due to his high tactical nous. Manutd should just do all they can to get him.
WHY IT SHOULD BE MOURINHO
Mourinho is an exceptional coach with an exceptional career cabinet of trophies,he would be proud of.Having won the league in every country he’s coached,its only right for manutd to look in his direction.Also won the league cups in all the countries he’s been to,winning the champions league with Porto and Intermilan.He also has the ability to mastermind the opponents downfall,asides has the ability to make a home ground a fortress and could do same for old trafford that has been polluted by Moyes and LVG.His will to win is totally unquestionable and hardly has time to experiment with younger players.i guess manutd fans wouldn’t mind though,all we care for is,take us back to the top in order not to suffer the same fate as Liverpool,crashing for 20+ years.His hunger,drive would be needed to resurrect the confidence of players whose confidence are right now at its lowest and make the club bounce back to winning ways as soon as possible.Although he had a terrible season with Chelsea,he probably might want to make a statement with the manutd job and if he can bring his winning mentality of the guy who has won 21 trophies all over the world,i think manutd would bounce back to its glory days like it was under Sir Alex Ferguson.
WHY IT SHOULDN’T BE ANYONE ELSE
The question here is asides these two,who else is available with such cv as these two?As far as im concerned,taking anybody would be risky but loosing out on any of these two would even be more risky.This manutd team right now is all shades of disjointed and anybody coming in has a lot of work to do to take the team back to glory days.Who else is available? Antonio Conte? Good but what has he done outside italy? Diego Simeone? Interesting option,Massimiliano Allegri? couldn’t do much with a disjointed Ac Milan,Gary Neville? currently facing reality with Valencia,Carlo Ancelloti wouldve been awesome but he’s off to Bayern Munich,Pochettino is another interesting option but would he be ready to leave the dynasty he’s building at Tottenham? It’s just evident it has to be a Guardiola or Mourinho because they are just the best among the rest right now and manutd should be glad they are available to be hired at the moment.The level of successful experience they’ve both had during their career is unquestionable. Manutd should not dare lose out on any of them as far as I’m concerned .A dynasty needs to be rebuilt and i see no better person than any of these two to build the dynasty.I BELONG TO THE BOTH OF THEM AND NOBODY ELSE.
Written By King Chuks (@Chuksypablo)
