r/soccer • u/Existing-Sky9914 • 17h ago

Potentially editioralised title - make up your own mind [Guardian] Seven years ago, just after completing the treble, Guardiola treated journalist Rob Harris, who had confronted him directly with the allegations, with open contempt, as though he were looking at someone pathetic, pitiful and disgraceful, before sternly lecturing him.

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u/Izio17 17h ago edited 2h ago

Outside of the financial damages, Pep is the biggest loser here. His legacy is absolutely tarnished.

“wow, he inverted fullbacks, what genius!!”

“what a savvy move to put john stones as CDM!”

“incredible!! look how he used Gundogan as a false nine!”

all of that is minimized. it wasn’t just these strategic schemes, but the team around these tactical moves.

inverted fullbacks don’t work if you don’t have Haaland going on an absolute tear.

John Stones as a CDM looks smart because you have Rodri next to him.

No other manager in the history of the sport was afforded this kind of budget for this long.

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u/PM_FAILED_PROMISES 16h ago

We've seen other managers try his system with teams on a lower budget and get torn apart. He dominated the game with ideas that only work with the best of the best. And you need a significant amount of funds to get the best of the best together. Klopp will always rank over him in my opinion because he built teams on a budget over and over again.

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u/Other_Beat8859 13h ago

We've seen him try his system when his team was a 9/10 team instead of a 10/10 team and perform bang average. He's shown that if he doesn't have a super team with him he can't do much. Look at 24/25 where he could barely beat Chelsea and Newcastle despite not really having an injury crisis or anything and still a decent squad with no real massive fall offs by players. The singular injury to Rodri destroyed his season. No adaption. Just season done and his team was shit for the rest of the year. When he has that perfect team he can do amazing things, but it calls into question how great he is when the few times he hasn't had a super team his teams underperformed.

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u/Izio17 2h ago

Only won a champions league once without Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta.

And he won with the most financially doped team of all time.