1) How hilarious to say that Pep destroyed football.. The guy that revolutionized football, that introduced a new era, a new philosophy, that shook fundamentally all concepts of how to play until then, and above all did all this with STYLE, with attacking football and flair, with proactive approach, with the desire to impose his style, to dominate the opponent..
Pep true team in only Barca. He could remain a king here forever, a new Ferguson for Catalonia, growing one generation of players after another untill getting 65 and winning numerous titles and CLs.. He was the only man who could evolve tiki-taka in a new formation and fashion with core principles remaining.
His decision is pretty hard. You could see today how hard it is to instill tiki-taka in a team that is not hard-wired in it, like Barca is..
But, i understand that he is young and wants more experiences and proving himself elsewhere. Some day he will understand his mistake.
2) Yes, Mourinho has NO football identity or philosophy.
His philosophy is win at any cost, and his name above everything, and of course the easiest way to do it is by defending.
Old and known (non)philosophy, but no one will remember him for any school of football, no ideas he contributed to the history of the sport. They will remember him only for his record and his clown-like statements and games.. He is not Herrera even in his utmost fantasies. Herrera introduced Catenacio. What did Mourinho introduced in his 10-12 year spell at top-level football?
Only mind-games, how to play with the media, how to inflate your ego, how to feel bigger than your club, how to disrespect football history and of course Maciavelianism all the way..
Mourinho was so unhappy at Real Madrid, bcz the club was bigger than him and its tradition prevented him from applying his miserable philosophy. The history of the club didnt allow to prioritize win at any cost over some principles. The result was an in-between solution that was his demise in the club. Mourinho was a complete failure at Madrid. Now he has returned to a team where he can feel bigger than the club again..
He was the second to introduce a way to react against the massive and invincible tiki-taka by presenting a team happy to spend the whole game in its own box (Inter 2010). Hiddink 2009 was the first with the same ingredients, but Mourinho performed it better. We show the same story all over again with Chelsea and Di matteo in 2012..
One thing i really appreciated in Ferguson is that he rejected putting his team in the box both in 2009 and 2011 finals. He came out to play with his style (with variations maybe but with his style). He lost and in the end he said that we were playing against a better team. Fair and Honest.
But, no one should be naive enough to consider a method of denying playing as a method of winning tiki-taka. Of course not. Any new tactical variation becomes a novel method of playing football only if it can be applied to all the opponents indifferently and win them all..
Stealing a title is never the same as winning a title. True winning always goes hand in hand with imposing your style over the opponent.
This goes also to the many fools around that still advocate that every winner of a title, no matter how, is a deserved one.. Bullshit!
The fact that not all the winners are remembered gives the answer..
3) But indeed, beside Mourinho and his antics, we show a true team that was able to win tiki-taka not by rejecting any style and parking a bus inside the box, and this was of course Hyunkes' Bayern. Its a pitty both that Guardiola left Barca, Huynkes left Bayern, and guardiola is now at bayern..
We should have watched a real clash between them over 2-3 years time. A CL final in 2012 (which Barca might have won) and CL semi-finals in 2013 (which Bayern would have won as they did but with much less gap btw the teams).. Not bayern at its full blossom versus a disjoint barca or Barca in disguise as Bayern now which can only imitate the brutal force of Pep's team..
