How would Pep or Mou do managing a mid table team?

Barcaman

Administrator
Staff member
This is a question we heard a week or so ago by some La Liga manager (can't remember which). So here's a debate for all of us.

Maybe the obvious thing to look for is a style of play and in what level does a manager rely on a team-play versus individual efforts.
I'm not convinced that either of the two would have done much better than 9th, 10th or 11th place with Osasuna, Sporting or Malaga, which is exactly what current coaches of those teams managed this season.
 

Pedram123

New member
Mourinho wouldn't do much better - He WOULD do better then the previous coach but the results wouldn't have varied by much.
I don't know about Pep, tbh dont think he'd do too good either, but at least he'd play some attacking football.
 

10Rivaldo

Hoy, mañana y siempre traductor
Mourinho took a mid-table team in Portugal to the highest table position in their history (5th).
 

Canto

Johan Dalin part II
Mourhino would do alot better then Pep anyway I'd say. He's always done well at every place he's been at. While look at the squad Pep more or less inherited which was amazing but obviously he has done wonders for him too as they all look up to him it wouldn't be that hard.
 

Metaphysical

Bomb Dropper
Mourhino would do alot better then Pep anyway I'd say. He's always done well at every place he's been at.

ah yes. let's have a look, shall we?

Porto: richest team in the country
Chelsea: richest team (by far) in the country
Inter: richest team in the country, rest of the league still recovering from Calciopoli
Madrid: richest team in the country

HOW DOES HE DO IT?! THE MAN IS A GENIUS!

(the man is a genius, but being able to throw oodles of money at players to squad stack -and the squad is usually one of the best in the league anyway- has been a major factor in his successes)

Pep would outperform him. for sure. he has a more clearly defined system, which you can implement throughout the club, making it easier to draft youth teamers in to fill the spaces in the squad thus making more money available for signings. his training gets the best out of players with limited technique, and can get them playing well above their level. and his smaller squad sizes generally means no one feels left out and everyone gives their all.
 

La Furia

Legion of Doooom
Pep did a good job with the B team but never had the opportunity to really work in a top league on a budget. Mourinho took a nothing club to 5th place, but he's changed a lot since then and has likely been spoiled. As far as I'm concerned I don't see how people can choose one or another confidently since it's hard to say.

I would say if Pep tries to be as rigid as he is with a poorer club that doesn't have this much talent he'd run into problems. Mourinho's commitment to grinding would probably translate well, although without the budget to have 2 of everything I could see him wearing out a team. Based on what we know, I'd still give the advantage to Mourinho, but we really don't know how pragmatic Pep is willing to get without the ability to build around the greatest Spanish playmaker of all time and an unguardable Argentine.
 

Ocelot

New member
We can't really say about Pep, But i think Mou would do better, Anti football works better for smaller teams.
 

Guardian

New member
ah yes. let's have a look, shall we?

Porto: richest team in the country
Chelsea: richest team (by far) in the country
Inter: richest team in the country, rest of the league still recovering from Calciopoli
Madrid: richest team in the country

HOW DOES HE DO IT?! THE MAN IS A GENIUS!

(the man is a genius, but being able to throw oodles of money at players to squad stack -and the squad is usually one of the best in the league anyway- has been a major factor in his successes)

Pep would outperform him. for sure. he has a more clearly defined system, which you can implement throughout the club, making it easier to draft youth teamers in to fill the spaces in the squad thus making more money available for signings. his training gets the best out of players with limited technique, and can get them playing well above their level. and his smaller squad sizes generally means no one feels left out and everyone gives their all.

Yep, Meta, I was going to say the same.
Not only that but Mou left Chelsea, because Abramovich stopped the crane with money there and decided to be more economical, and that pissed off the pampered Mou. This was the reason to leave Inter. Mou realised that this Inter team couldn't be motivated more and Moratti also stopped the money (poor Benitez, he got all the negatives of this). Also, Mou had made pretty poor transfers at both Chelsea and Inter (Quarezma, Muntari, Mancini, Wright-Phillips, Ferreira and many others) and ruined the future of ths clubs in long term prespectives. He never ever developed any youth system, he's just coming at rich clubs, getting old experinced players (Lucio, Ballack,) or young and expensive ones.
He fell out with Valdano at Madrid, because he kept crying about transfers, even though he had 90M to spend.

Guardiola can improve players (Pique, Abidal), develope the youth system (Pedro, Busquets) and do with less resources very well.
 
Last edited:
J

Jordzibob

Guest
Yep, Meta, I was going to say the same.
Not only that but Mou left Chelsea, because Abramovich stopped the crane with money there and decided to be more economical, and that pissed off the pampered Mou. This was the reason to leave Inter. Mou realised that this Inter team couldn't be motivated more and Moratti also stopped the money (poor Benitez, he got all the negatives of this). Also, Mou had made pretty poor transfers at both Chelsea and Inter (Quarezma, Muntari, Mancini, Wright-Phillips, Ferreira and many others) and ruined the future of ths clubs in long term prespectives. He never ever developed any youth system, he's just coming at rich clubs, getting old experinced players (Lucio, Ballack,) or young and expensive ones.
He fell out with Valdano at Madrid, because he kept crying about transfers, even though he had 90M to spend.

Guardiola can improve players (Pique, Abidal), develope the youth system (Pedro, Busquets) and do with less resources very well.



Not that I disagree with what your saying, because I agree with most of it, but dont think Mourinho has a poor transfer record. He signed the likes of Drogba, Cole, Essien, Cech for Chelsea, for Inter he signed Sneijder, Milito, Eto, Lucio was old but was until Benitez took over, a fantastic defender and absolutely crucial last year, and for Madrid he's signed the likes of Di Maria, Ozil, Khedira, all of whom are fantastic long term investments for the future. Yes, he operates with huge amounts of money, and although yeh I agree Pep would do better with the limited budget, Mourinho's transfer record with the money hes given is generally good, hence the reason a large part of his success is down to the money hes given. He makes some poor signings yeh, but the large part of them are successful.
 

Guardian

New member
Not that I disagree with what your saying, because I agree with most of it, but dont think Mourinho has a poor transfer record. He signed the likes of Drogba, Cole, Essien, Cech for Chelsea, for Inter he signed Sneijder, Milito, Eto, Lucio was old but was until Benitez took over, a fantastic defender and absolutely crucial last year, and for Madrid he's signed the likes of Di Maria, Ozil, Khedira, all of whom are fantastic long term investments for the future. Yes, he operates with huge amounts of money, and although yeh I agree Pep would do better with the limited budget, Mourinho's transfer record with the money hes given is generally good, hence the reason a large part of his success is down to the money hes given. He makes some poor signings yeh, but the large part of them are successful.

I think that large part were unsuccessful. His incompetent transfers harmed Chelsea in long term perspective and this is why they were so economical in the last 3-4 years (apart from this winter window). 12M for Jarosik, 12M for Tiago, 20M for Ferreira, 30M for Carvalho, 12M for Del Horno, 31M for SWP, 13M for Boulahrouz, 23M for Obi-Mikel.
Actually Mourinho had only few really sane and successful transfers.

As for his Inter period, most of his transfers were bad too. It was Barcelona who saved his head, with the Ibra transfer he got the money he needed for Sneijder , Lucio and the rest. He was more lucky in his final Inter's season. His transfers before that were highly unsuccessful too.
 

Birdy

Senior Member
Mourinho will do a lot better in his first year (Anti-football is easy to implement and works wonders in weak teams), but after 2-3 years pepe will do better as he will have developped a team with attacking, possession style and he would take this team beyond its level (if Osasuna for example, he can finish 3rd, 4rth in this Laliga fighting wiht valencia and villareal ...)
 

gingerless

New member
Mourinho will do a lot better in his first year (Anti-football is easy to implement and works wonders in weak teams), but after 2-3 years pepe will do better as he will have developped a team with attacking, possession style and he would take this team beyond its level (if Osasuna for example, he can finish 3rd, 4rth in this Laliga fighting wiht valencia and villareal ...)

i agree with this too, imagine if pep was doing this with one of those teams, it would be so good to watch imo
 

Yugi

New member
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