Voetbal International had a few weeks ago a good look back on the final two years of Cruijff as a coach (1994-96). I thought it is interesting to share. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler The Nero of Camp Nou In his ten-year trainer career, Johan Cruijff has constantly balanced on the wafer-thin line between genius and madness. About the failed attempt by Cruijff to raise a new Dream Team from the ashes of the previous one. [...] The story that is not told is that of a coach who reinvented himself in the tail end of his career. Who freed himself from all the boxes in which he had always colored. A coach who became more and more flexible in the application of his tactics and took a young group of players without, at hindsight, exceptional class to great heights. The Johan Cruijff from his last two seasons most resembles the trainer Pep Guardiola is now. Working from a clear template and principles, but extremely pragmatic in its applications. Take the away match against Bayern Munich in early April 2016. Bayern operates from a 5-3-2 with Lothar Matthäus as the libero behind the defense. Cruijff puts an ingenious tactic against this. When Bayern has the ball, he alternates a 3-4-2-1 with a 4-2-3-1 field occupation. In the latter variant, the right midfielder temporarily becomes right back and the left midfielder changes to a controller. Albert Ferrer, who is positioned in the left defense, then shifts a bit further to the wing. If Barcelona has the ball itself, there is much more movement. Cruijff, for example, has a special role in mind for Roger García (19) and Albert Celades (20). Both home-grown products are trained as a midfielder, but are full-back against Bayern. From that position, however, they have the freedom to move towards their beloved positions. That is in coordination with wingers Luis Figo (left) and Georghe Haghi (right), who both also regularly go inside. To add to the confusion for Bayern, striker Óscar García plays from midfield. With running actions, he can take advantage of the spaces Bakero drops as the most advanced pawn. Cruijff's plan works like a train. Barcelona takes a 1-0 lead and gets a series of opportunities to extend the lead. At half-time, Bayern coach Otto Rehhagel intervenes with a double substitution. He also changes the system and in the confusion that arises just after the resumption, his team scores two goals. After fifteen minutes of chaos, Barcelona regains control, comes back to 2-2 and leaves chances for more. Rehhagel praises the Barcelona team in the press. "I saw wonderful football today. We're not that advanced yet. " Cruijff, who, with his son Jordi (22) and Ivan de la Peña (19), has invaded two more talents to the great work as substitutes, is completely delighted. "Not only because of the result. I look at how the young boys performed, how we defended and how we won the admiration of all of Europe with our game. " At that point, historiography looks to become rather mild about Cruijff's final year. Not least because Cruijff himself says that Barcelona is working on maybe the best season under his leadership. "We are in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, in the cup final and are only five points behind in the league. So we still participate for all prizes. That has not happened before since my arrival, and only rarely since the beginning of the club." As it is, this is the first time that Cruijff shows his vision can deliver success without great players. The talents on which he builds his team, unlike the football players at Ajax, they do not go on to have a successful career. With the exception of Luis Figo, a player he wanted himself. But as a collective, they are worth more than the sum of their parts under Cruijff. Only the grueling season turns out to be just too long to harvest rewards. At that time, the Primera División consists of 22 teams, which means no less than 42 league matches. In addition, Barcelona plays ten matches in the UEFA Cup tournament and seven in the battle for the Copa del Rey. For a squad of players with no fewer than eleven footballers aged 22 or younger, this tax turns out to be too much for the good cause. In the four games that will be played between April 10 and April 19, the entire season will be wasted. The series begins with a defeat in the Copa del Rey final, in which Atlético Madrid triumphs 1-0 after an extension. Bizarrely, Barcelona has to play an away game against Racing Santander two (!) days after this defeat, where the 1-1 is collected two minutes before the end. Another three days later Bayern Munich comes to visit. Despite a brave final offensive, Barcelona fails to exploit the spacious starting position: 1-2. So no new European final. With a victory in Camp Nou, Atlético also deprives the Catalans of the last glimmer of hope for the title. For Johan Cruijff, his trainer's career ends in a minor key. That he has replaced an entire team in a bizarre short time, transferred a series of players from La Masia, and has been more flexible than ever in his tactics, is forgotten due to the lack of a tangible price. https://www.vi.nl/pro/analyse/de-cruijff-doctrine-nero-van-camp-nou-1 https://spielverlagerung.de/2016/03/24/traineranalyse-johan-cruijff/ https://www.bdfutbol.com/en/t/t1995-961.html Some weeks ago I also saw something in the France Football magazine about him as a coach, with commentary by a few people. I've said it before but imho Michael Cox his idea that he gave a lot of freedom to his attackers, was all about intuition, and Guardiola is more similar to the methodological Van Gaal, is imho at least incomplete or not nuanced enough. That makes them stock characters a bit too much.
FourFourTwo has this month also their 100 greatest managers. I find this, and the text, less good as the France Football one. I'd say someone like Goethals merits it to not be below Ranieri or Beenhakker. And a few females on this is also contentious (so far, until now - I'm all for integration, but perhaps anything before ~2005 shouldn't count as professional management/coaching). A positive is FFT has some lesser known ones in. https://www.fourfourtwo.com/feature...title-triumph-jorginho-fowler-zamora-and-more 100. Roy Hodgson 99. Fatih Terim 98. Vaclav Jezek 97. Roberto Mancini 96. Gerard Houllier 95. Hassan Shehata 94. Ferruccio Valcareggi 93. Antonio Conte 92. Juan Lopez Fontana 91. Raymond Goethals 90. Claudio Ranieri 89. Jupp Derwall 88. Stan Cullis 87. Mircea Lucescu 86. Vic Buckingham 85. Richard Moller Nielsen 84. Alberto Suppici 83. George Ramsay 82. Fulvio Bernardini 81. Silvia Neid 80. Sepp Herberger 79. Enzo Bearzot 78. Leo Beenhakker 77. Marcelo Bielsa 76. Guy Roux 75. Walter Smith 74. Tina Theune 73. Didier Deschamps 72. Dettmar Cramer 71. Howard Kendall 70. Carlos Bianchi 69. Hennes Weisweiler 68. Cesar Luis Menotti 67. Gavriil Kachalin 66. Joachim Low 65. Carlos Bilardo 64. Fernando Santos 63. Emerich Jenei 62. Stefan Kovacs 61. Nevio Scala 60. Tomislav Ivic 59. Vittorio Pozzo 58. Luis Carniglia 57. Frank Rijkaard 56. Don Revie 55. Carlos Alberto Parreira 54. Willie Maley 53. Franz Beckenbauer 52. Sven-Goran Eriksson 51. Jimmy Hogan 50. George Graham 49. Aime Jacquet 48. Luis Aragones 47. Otto Rehhagel 46. Bobby Robson 45. Bill Struth 44. Tele Santana 43. Diego Simeone 42. Albert Batteux 41. Rafa Benitez 40. Jill Ellis 39. Luiz Felipe Scolari 38. Udo Lattek 37. Guus Hiddink 36. Zinedine Zidane 35. Bill Nicholson 34. Viktor Maslov 33. Kenny Dalglish 32. Jupp Heynckes 31. Helmut Schon 30. Jock Stein 29. Jurgen Klopp 28. Jose Villalonga 27. Mario Zagallo 26. Alf Ramsey 25. Herbert Chapman 24. Fabio Capello 23. Arsene Wenger 22. Bob Paisley 21. Bela Guttmann 20. Louis van Gaal 19. Nereo Rocco 18. Carlo Ancelotti 17. Ottmar Hitzfeld 16. Miguel Munoz 15. Vicente del Bosque 14. Giovanni Trapattoni 13. Marcelo Lippi 12. Jose Mourinho 11. Brian Clough 10. Valeriy Lobanovskyi 9. Ernst Happel 8. Helenio Herrera 7. Matt Busby 6. Arrigo Sacchi 5. Pep Guardiola 4. Bill Shankly 3. Johan Cruijff 2. Rinus Michels 1. Alex Ferguson
It's more about who they put on the list. Frank Rijkaard doesnot belong on it despite winning a CL trophee. He in fact acknowledged that by retiring very young. Rinus Michels on 2 is simply stupid. Nr 1 in my eyes is Ernst Happel. Did you read VI's special on Feyenoord's Cup win? There are comments about Happel I made years ago here in BS. Nr 2 should be Cruijff, as he in fact was the one who recognized the brilliance of Happel's 4-3-3 system and in fact forced Michels to adopt it. Michels in my eyes is a wake surfer. Bill Shankly on 4 is also ridiculous. He was incapable of understanding when he faced Ajax he had to do something on his tactics, but he failed even after being wacked 5-1 in that fog match. Actually looking at it longer the sillier the list gets.
When Cruijff started as manager he used this novel zonal division of the training pitch, for the positional play, field occupation, and the defensive organization: Slightly later modified and perfected to this by him and Guardiola: Taken from: T. Escher (2020), Der Schlüssel zum Spiel: Wie moderner Fußball funktioniert. Escher tracks him down as the "inventor", and while that is maybe only a half-truth, I'd say this is something fundamental where he distinguished himself from Michels.
For Michels it is maybe hard to exactly pinpoint, but I think Van Gaal deserves some credit for specific things. As the 'data hackers' book mentions, he was one of the first managers/coaches to use video analysis in a rigorous way, and then brought it into some of the biggest clubs (outside Ajax and Barcelona). (this also shows the difficulties of the modern football economy and finances, and how difficult it is to remain state of the art) Maybe that Cruijff did it too (already in the 1970s, less systematic) but Van Gaal was one of the first to do it very rigorous. Olsson is not alone. I had the privilege of knowing Johan Cruyff when we were young men. I first interviewed him for television in 1972, and two years later we worked on a 16-week newspaper series, “Cruyff’s Eye View,” analyzing specific players and tactics of the coming 1974 World Cup. Cruyff had a home videocassette recorder before they were on the market. He had his own library of tapes on players who interested or inspired him. Di Stéfano was a reference point, but we also pinpointed what made Gerd Müller an exceptional scorer for West Germany, how Kazimierz Deyna made Poland tick, the way that Roberto Rivellino bent those Brazilian free kicks, and how his friend Johan Neeskens put the fighting spirit into the Dutch Oranje. Sometimes, the tutorials were physical and not just verbal. There were insights beyond what a spectator, or even an average pro, would see. There were moments in his living room when Cruyff rearranged the furniture and used cutlery, salt and pepper and even cigarette packets to illustrate a point. When asked at what stage he might attempt a 40-yard pass as Germany’s Günter Netzer imperiously did, Cruyff responded: “I don’t answer. First, tell me who the pass is for?” He meant which Dutch colleague was in which position on the field. This, remember, was the gestation of “Total Football” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/...sformed-ajax-barcelona.html?auth=login-google Regardless of what the revisionists and megaphones might say, the training was far ahead of their time, with the UEFA and co out there to sabotage it and no special perks from the supranational authorities. No wonder some players struggled elsewhere...
Here's my Top 50: 1 Michels 2 Ferguson 3 Guardiola 4 Sacchi 5 Cruyff 6 Happel 7 Meisl 8 Lobanovsky 9 Clough 10 Herrera 11 Mourinho 12 Shankly 13 Sebes 14 Trapattoni 15 Busby 16 Lippi 17 Ancelotti 18 Muñoz 19 Paisley 20 Klopp 21 T. Santana 22 Rocco 23 Guttmann 24 Pozzo 25 Capello 26 Van Gaal 27 Hitzfeld 28 Del Bosque 29 Chapman 30 Heynckes 31 Wenger 32 J. Stein 33 Zidane 34 Zagallo 35 Lattek 36 Maslov 37 Benítez 38 Rehhagel 39 Hiddink 40 Scolari 41 Simeone 42 Robson 43 Liedholm 44 Dalglish 45 Aragonés 46 Schön 47 Weisz 48 Czeizler 49 Beckenbauer 50 Eriksson
I don't think there is a real case for Sacchi over Happel to be honest, and also not Cruijff, who achieved more in a similar period of time.
The resistance against Sacchi's football was enormous in Italy in the beginning and most people really wanted his innovation to fail. To stick to the attacking mentality under these circumstances was truly brave and revolutionary. Cruyff was already a living legend when he started coaching and that made things easier for him.
Yeah, I see that line of thought (and that opinion climate), but I think Cruijff had a challenge as well in that respect. Consider here that Rexach fell out with Cruijff and they weren't on speaking terms later (similar to Clough and Peter Taylor). (from Hunter his book on Pep's Barca) See for more elaboration: https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_STA_114_0035--fighting-for-legitimacy-the-zonal.htm https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137467959_5 I also think (and Ferguson said the same too) it is important whether the manager has the full backing of the board. For this, Berlusconi was fully on the same page, with his galactic thoughts and plans for the Champions League with entertainment football for the armchair. Berlusconi wanted this football and didn't necessarily want the cautious turn Capello later took after the departure of the Dutch cohort (or wanted Dino Zoff as manager ). As a hyperbole: Berlusconi was the leader and man with the broad entertainment vision, Sacchi the manager. This helps a lot. For Barcelona this was always less obvious (25 board members) and Wilson contextualized it in this way: "Crowds had fallen and those who did still go to games were split on whether to support the players or the president. With elections coming up that June, Nunez needed a dramatic move to regain popular approval. Cruyff was an obvious solution. Bringing him back turned out to be perhaps the best decision in Barcelona's history but it was effectively forced on Nunez by the weakness of his position. In easier times, he may not have been so willing to work with such a headstrong figure. Years later of course, it was sometimes as if he stood above this (from Diego Torres his book about Mourinho): He was a living legend but also a sometimes divisive figure, who by critics was seen as a poor copycat of Di Stefano from a B-country (see the first link for the aversion against foreign influences, the aversion against everything from the north, and not from a similar culture/language!). Add in a split and fractured board and it could have failed spectacularly. Legendary footballers and club legends were until that point often not a success as a manager. Also Di Stefano was seen as a relative disappointment compared to the aura he had as footballer, it didn't enhance his mystique. That in later times Ancelotti, Zidane and Guardiola found a stepping stone because of their status as club legend, obscures the situation that until this point it was largely not the case. Nowadays Manchester United wants to have their own Guardiola or Cruijff as well. "When he became manager, the academy was still employing its 'prueba de la muñeca' - the test of the wrist - which sought to weed out by means of a bone scan players who weren't going to reach 1.80m in height. Cruyff didn't care about size. He wanted touch, energy and tactical intelligence and scrapped the test, while insisting every side, from under-eights upwards, should play the 3-4-3 and become comfortable with this system." Of course, the likes of Clemente ridiculed all of this, and there was also internal resistance. I'm not sure whether that internal resistance quite holds for Sacchi. That internal backing from higher up is important. Here an illustration. You said yourself as well this: "Of course there were no teams having a 70-80% possession (although Liedholm's Roma could sometimes keep possession in a very elegant manner). 1) Because there wasn't the know-how and 2) because the ideas of how football "should" be played was still dominated by the Herrera-Rocco style, where possession was unwanted. Rocco is famous for his quote before a match, where a reporter said "May the best team win!" and the Milan coach answered, in Triestine dialect, "Speremo de no" ("Let's hope it won't"). Only with Sacchi's Milan there was a team that wanted to dominate matches and was also able to do so. But that was mainly a Dutch revolution - Sacchi's Milan without Van Basten Gullit Rijkaard is unimaginable - just like the step-by-step Barcelona revolution in the last 25 years." Guess what, all these three had worked with Cruijff for a prolonged period of time (a year or longer) before they became players of Sacchi. As for why I think Happel has to be ahead: by and large he checks the 'vanguard' box as well, and for the rest he has more of everything (more success with national teams, more league titles, more European Cups) and did this in three different leagues. Sacchi was in the end only successful in one country and with one or two teams.
I'd also think Eriksson might be a bit higher in your list. Apart from winning leagues, or very close finishes, with a wide palette in teams, he also reached five times a final in Europe, with three different teams and three different leagues. Only Trapattoni, Ferguson and Cruijff have more UEFA finals (six each). Five finals in 13 European seasons is a strong record, in particular with different clubs of different kinds. He found success or near-success with a number of very different teams I think. If he didn't win the league, then he got close with it (Roma in 1985-86, with an excellent Boniek; Sampdoria in 1993-94, bolstered by Gullit at the peak of his powers). Also in light of your (justified) previous remark here, where he was the manager and laid the groundwork: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/daily-mail-top-50-players-ever.1066278/page-55#post-29101807 "This means that Scandinavian teams had to be much better than their opponents - just better would never be enough - to qualify." I think he is vastly underrated (as remarked by me in 2018): https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/t...whats-your-top-25.630523/page-2#post-36297123 A weak point is perhaps what he managed to do with national teams (but we can also say this for Capello et al.), his record post-2001 and not being as good when money is no object (Man City in 2009).
From a recent Statsbomb article, connecting to the above: Edwin van der Sar was somewhat of an early template for the modern-day goalkeeper. He was certainly not the first custodian to show proficiency with the ball at his feet, but he was one of the most prominent examples of a goalkeeper with that skillset in the years directly following the outlawing of the back-pass in 1992.[I'd say this is because he had actually assists at tournament level, the first since Valeri Qazaishvili in 1966, and CL level... PvH] [...] His completion rate of 79% was comparable to those of Alisson or Manuel Neuer in last season’s competition, but was also achieved with a longer average pass length. It’s worth noting, too, that a greater proportion of his passes were attempted under pressure. That completion rate dropped slightly over a larger sample size for the Netherlands at Euro 96 but was still within the range of some of the modern game’s most competent distributors.
Roberto Martinez (Belgian NT coach): "Before, it was thought that a player defended without the ball, and attacked with the ball. That changed with him. [...] Johan had something paradoxical. A contradiction in his personality," says [Roberto] Martínez. And he clarifies: “The great, great players do not see the detail because they can do things that nobody can do. However, he had that ability to dissect the game. When a player is the star of his team, he has to think about everything at the individual level in order to be at the highest level and thus be a star. The coach is the opposite. You have to have the ability to understand people, to persuade them, to work as a team. Cruyff mastered both aspects. He adapted and did it in an exceptional way." https://elpais.com/deportes/2020-05-27/cruyff-hacia-obras-maestras-con-lo-basico.html
Guardiola says: "Firstly we should apologise to black people for how we have treated them for the last 400 years, I feel ashamed for how we have treated them." Wow— Sam Lee (@SamLee) June 17, 2020 All with the backdrop of “visit abu dhabi “ where the human rights are appalling— David Curwen (@davidcurwen) June 17, 2020 What an incredible clown this sometimes is.
Hi guys, Anyone ever considered breaking down best managers by year, in a sort of 1st/2nd/3rd Ballon d'Or format? Thought it might be fun Not sure what methodology to use, mind
If it is difficult to make a list of the best players, making a coach seems almost impossible to me because I think it is a much more complicated position to measure. Which coach has more merit, the one who wins several Champions League with the best teams on the continent or the one who manages to win a League with a team that at the beginning of the season its only objective was not to go down to the second division? Is what Zidane did with Real Madrid by winning 3 consecutive Champions League more meritorious or what Ranieri did by winning the Premier with Leicester? As I say, it is very difficult to assess who has the most merit. For me, the great coaches are those who have changed the style of play or managed to win important titles on different teams. Rinus Michels cannot be absent among the former. Despite being a great winner, he has gone down in history mainly because of the way his teams played football, a style that changed this sport forever. Among the latter I will highlight, for example, three coaches such as: - Ernst Happel: I consider this coach an absolute genius since under his leadership Feyenoord win their only European Cup (something this club has never been close to repeating), Hamburg win their only European Cup (as well as the Dutch have not been close to repeating since Happel left), Bruges were runners-up in the European Cup and the UEFA Cup (something they have not been able to repeat in the last 40 years) and with the National Team from the Netherlands managed to be world runner-up in 1978 when it seemed that due to the absence of Cruyff this team would not be able to repeat the successes of 1974 (it was unlucky enough to face the host team of the championship such as Germany and Argentina in both finals). That is to say, the tops of these 3 clubs and of this national team have been with Happel as coach (it is true that the Netherlands won the Eurocup in 1988 but in World Cups Happel's result is the maximum equaling those of 1974 and 2010). - Brian Clough: another genius, only he can take two teams in the second division, raise them to the first division, win the Premier with both and take one of them to the semifinals of the European Cup (which may not seem like a big deal but it is that we are talking about Derby County not Manchester United or Liverpool) and winning two consecutive European Cups with Notthingam Forest. For me, Forest's feat of winning the Premier League just after climbing up from the second division and then winning two European Cups in a row seems to me to be one of the great feats of this sport. - José Villalonga: coach probably not as well known as the previous two but who for a decade did very important things with three different teams. This coach trained for a short time but managed to win the first 2 European Cups in history with Real Madrid (in addition to other titles). It is true that this was a legendary team and that after his departure he continued to win in Europe, but he was the first and who opened the way to success for Real Madrid. But if Villalonga is on my list it is because later he went to Atlético de Madrid and won the Cup Winners Cup, it may not seem like a big thing but Atlético did not win a European competition again until after ¡¡48 years !! Perhaps with what has been said so far it is not enough to consider him a great coach but the definitive fact is that with the Spanish National Team he won the 1964 Eurocup and Spain did not win a European title again until ¡¡44 years!! then. Without a doubt a great coach. We can also talk about Alex Ferguson who, based on spending many years in a great team like Manchester United, achieved a spectacular track record in which 13 Premiers, 2 Champions and a Cup Winners Cup stand out. These are enough numbers to be considered one of the best of all time but for me what gives him a “plus” is his time at Aberdeen, a “small” team that managed to break the dominance of the two great Scots (Rangers and Celtic) winning three leagues and mainly winning the 1983 Cup Winners' Cup against Real Madrid (which that season was coached by Di Stéfano). For me, winning big titles with 'small' teams has enormous merit in my opinion and for Ferguson his years at Aberdeen are a good complement to his years at Manchester United.
This was not as remarkable as it would be now. There was not a big gap between the English first and second divisions at the time. Second Division clubs won the FA Cup three times in eight years between 1973 and 1980. On one of those occasions, the Final of 1976, Southampton defeated Manchester United, who had also been in the Second Division the year before. Teams finishing in the Top 3 of the First Division since 1947 immediately following promotion: 1948 - Burnley 3rd 1951 - Tottenham 1st 1954 - Huddersfield 3rd 1962 - Ipswich 1st 1965 - Leeds 2nd. Also FA Cup finalists. 1976 - Manchester United 3rd. Also FA Cup finalists. 1978 - Nottingham Forest 1st 1983 - Watford 2nd 1992 - Sheffield Wednesday 3rd 1994 - Newcastle 3rd (Premier League) In addition the following teams won the First Division title during their second season after promotion: 1964 - Liverpool 1968 - Manchester City 1992 - Leeds 2016 - Leicester (Premier League)
And 1995 - Nottingham Forest 3rd (Premier League)! Not under Brian Clough though (but with quite a high number of 'his players' still at the club of course, and largely using his style of play and formation etc still).
Yes I had forgotten them. Relegated under Clough in 1993. Roy Keane left the club but they came straight back up again under Frank Clark. Then third the following year as you say.
Although it was not so exceptional as now, I think it is very worthwhile, keep in mind that in the list that you have put in almost 50 years only three teams won the league the year immediately after being promoted and Nothingham also managed to win two consecutive European Cups something that no one has achieved in history (I mean to be in the second division, go up and win the Premier and the following year win the European Cup). The great merit of Clough is that he did it twice with two different teams (to get promoted and win the Premier in a few years), which shows that it was no coincidence, for me he is one of the greatest.
He would probably tell you that he might not be the greatest.....but he'd be in the top 1! No, in seriousness, he never claimed to be the greatest manager of all-time I don't think, but he did make that joke (not necessarily the best, but in the top 1) about being the best manager, or having been the best manager, at a particular time. He also joked about walking over the River Trent, so he had that kind of sense of humour (but also the self belief/pride in his managerial ability that the jokes suggest I suppose, which is partly why he did suffer a lot of stress about that relegation...having until then always finished in the top 10 of the league with Forest ever since the league championship and European Cup wins you refer to).
My Top 15 Managers of all time: 1. Jupp Heynckes 2. Marcello Lippi 3. Carlo Ancelotti 4. Diego Simeone 5. Jurgen Klopp 6. Sir. Alex Ferguson 7. Antonio Conte 8. Thomas Tuchel 9. Pep Guardiola 10. Zinedine Zidane 11. Massimiliano Allegri 12. Luciano Spalletti 13. Jose Mourinho 14. Louis Van Gaal 15. Mauricio Pochettino