4 drawbacks that question Pep Guardiola's reputation as a world class manager
In his seven-year-long managerial career, Pep Guardiola has won more trophies than he has lost, more than many other successful managers who have been in the game way longer than the former Barcelona manager.It was Guardiola who was chosen ahead of Jose Mourinho for the job when Frank Rijkaard was released as Barcelona’s manager. His takeover saw him transforming the team into a world-beating team right from the first season as they won the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and the Champions League and Guardiola became the youngest manager to win the Champions League.The following season, Guardiola and his Barcelona side finished with six trophies, a record that was probably never aimed at by any man before.However, the joy ride lasted for just four years before Guardiola called it a day at Camp Nou, with reasons perhaps both personal and political. Guardiola’s successful record with silverware landed him a job straight at Bayern Munich after the end of his self-imposed break.But in this slideshow, we discuss four drawbacks of Guardiola as a manager; these are the mistakes that pundits and supporters have always been critical about, and which question his reputation of being a world-class manager.
#1 Poor handling of players
The hostility that Zlatan Ibrahimovic had faced during his days at the Catalan club was brought to attention through his auto-biography I am Zlatan. The Swedish’s transfer was seen as one of the clubs’s biggest move, and why wouldn’t it be. It is not everyday when Barcelona break the bank for a record €69.5 million for a player.
Following Barcelona’s defeat to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan back in the 2009-10 season in a Champions League semi-final, the relationship between Ibrahimovic and Guardiola detoriated to a point when both of them stopped talking to each other at all.
“Guardiola sacrificed me,” he wrote on his book. “That’s the truth. One of my mates told me: ‘Zlatan, it’s as if Barca had bought a Ferrari and was driving it like a Fiat,’ and I thought: ‘Yeah, that’s a good way of looking at it.’ Guardiola had turned me into a simpler player and a worse player. It was a loss for the whole team.”
“He wouldn’t even say good morning. Not a single word. He avoided eye contact with me. If I went into a room, he would leave. ‘What’s going on,’ I thought. ‘Is it something I did? Do I look wrong? Am I talking funny?’ All these things were buzzing around in my head. I couldn’t sleep,” he adds.
The presence of a player of Ibrahimovic’s calibre in a side could have fixed Barcelona’s problem of depending on Lionel Messi more than the Argentine could handle. Not that Messi is not capable of handling the pressure. He has always thrived under the pressure, leading Barcelona to several silverwares almost single-handedly. But, at the end of the day, he has always been just another human.
Guardiola’s stubbornness to keep playing Ibrahimovic on the right wing despite his complaints proved to be a deal killer.
Another nightmare of a deal for Pep was the signing of the Ukrainian defender, Dmytro Chygrinsky. He was good, fast and had a good idea about how to position himself.
Chygrinsky was bought from Shaktar Donetsk for 25 million Euros. He knew he needed to justify his price tag and tried extremely hard to overcome the language barrier and also to adopt himself into a new style of playing while trying to justify the faith, the coach had in him.
Chygrinsky, unfortunately managed only 14 games that season leading the club president to sell him back to Donetsk for 15 million Euros due to some financial issues that required budget cut, relating to one of the most worst signings, ever done by Pep.
Keirrison, Alexander Hleb and Martin Caceres are also counted in as Pep’s top 5 worst signings ever.