The famous football website FourFourTwo has published a ranking of the best football coaches in the history of this sport. In first place, which is not surprising, the British publication put his compatriot Alex Ferguson.
Behind him were the Dutch Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff. Of the current mentors, Pep Guardiola is the highest, in fifth place. It is curious that the top ten was closed by Valery Lobanovsky, whom the compilers of the ranking considered a pioneer in the development of football statistics, since he was one of the first to pay great attention to match numbers.
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All these assessments are purely arbitrary, since each fan or expert can have their own arguments in favor of this or that candidate. The Scot managed Manchester United between 1993 and 2013, winning 13 Premier League titles, four FA Cups and two Champions Leagues. The achievements are great, especially in the context of the club’s problems in the last decade, but are they enough to be called the best?
Let’s not go too far, let’s take the most recent example: Guardiola. Over 15 years, he has accumulated 11 champion titles from Spain, England, Germany, two Cups from each of these countries and three Champions League trophies. Furthermore, it was the Spaniard who can be considered the founder of the most memorable style of football of the 21st century: tiki-taka. Is he saying that this is not enough to be considered a more important mentor for football? Very controversial.
Now let’s return to the “orange” specialists. Only in third place was Cruyff, who was an absolutely brilliant footballer and who later changed Barcelona’s history again as a coach. Before him, the Catalans won 36 trophies during the 89 years of the team’s existence, but in the 32 years after he appeared as coach they won 54 titles, including all five Champions League cups.
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In each of these successes there was a piece of the great Dutchman, who put more emphasis on technique than on physical strength, he redid the work at La Masia and gave the team a game based on attack and possession of the ball, which It is still venerated in Catalonia as a true sanctuary.
Michels cannot boast of a colossal number of titles won, but he created an absolutely unique style of play, which every football fan knows even half a century later – total football. The successors of his ideas may be Cruyff and Guardiola themselves, who developed them and slightly modified them. So it is Rinus who can be considered the progenitor of all the most ingenious football tactics of recent decades.
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Do you still think Ferguson is the best in history? It seems that you love Manchester United too much; Otherwise, it is difficult to explain.
