Debunking every misconception the Twitter pseudo-experts told you about Pep Guardiola; Thread.

#1: Pep only takes on easy jobs

The reason this is so popular is because it is very easy to believe if you don't think about it for more than 10 seconds. It is built on the assumption that a job at a worse club is harder, when the opposite is true.

Ask yourself this - are the standards higher at a club where the previous manager won the treble or where the previous manager finished 6th in the table? Also, Pep was hired for the Bayern job in January I doubt that they won any silverware at that time.

#2: Pep goes to teams with ready made squads

Below are two images, one of the La Liga table the season before Pep and one breaking down Man City's performances and statistics in the season before Pep.

The season where Pep won the league with 100 points City boasted one of the youngest squads

#3: Pep can't develop players / build a squad

As we saw previously, he revamped the City squad completely and won the league. He lost most the players that were there before him and is on course to win the league again. He also has replacements in for players like

Zabaleta, Joe Hart, David Silva, and Vincent Kompany.

I put together a small list of players, showing their goal returns before, with, and after Pep. This is just a small sample of mainly attacking players that can be expanded into a list of ~20 players.

At Barcelona he improved players like Thiago, Pedro, and Seydou Keita. He won 2 CLs there with minimal spending. At City he has improved almost every player, including the likes of Foden, Zinchenko, Cancelo, and De Bruyne.

At Bayern he made do with Rafinha at RB at times, brought over and trusted in Thiago Alcantara, and improved players like Højbjerg, Coman, and Kimmich

A coach with no eye for talent or potential would not recognise the potential in moving players like David Alaba, Lahm, Zinchenko, Delph, or Kimmich. Let alone be able to successfully guide them through the transition to other roles.

#4: Pep left Bayern in a worse state than when he joined

Bayern's squad age was around the same before and after, but he also brought in a number of new talents and improved their squad drastically. Let's take a look at a few players from Bayern's 2019/20 UCL Final lineup

MOTM: Thiago Alcantara, who Pep gave his breakout season
Defender of the season: Joshua Kimmich, who Pep came up with the idea of moving him to DM
CB: David Alaba, who Pep helped master different roles and positions
Kingsley Coman: Bought by Pep

#5: Pep only won the UCL because of Messi

Nobody can deny Messi's role in that team. But it's evident that Messi isn't solely the key to success. Messi has been playing for ~15 seasons and only contributed to 3 UCLs. By twitter logic anyone can win it with Messi tho?

#6: City's defence is improved because they spent a billion

Yes, individual quality does help. But Pep made tactical changes that saw our wide midfielders track back more and left us better prepared for the counter. We have also improved at keeping the ball.

#7: Pep limits a player's creativity and freedom with his robotic, systematic approach

These takes usually come from people who have never coached. Pep takes away meaningless freedom, in return for giving the players freedom in the right place and time.

An example would be how Pep isolated Mahrez on the flank through overloading the other side. Mahrez was not fully free but this maximised his ability to use his skillset through creating 1v1 situations for him, where he uses his *creativity*

#8: Spending/good players -> winning

There are countless examples throughout history of teams with world class players / expensive players underachieving. Such as but not limited to, England 00s, Chelsea 2020/21, Real Madrid 00s

Perhaps managing world class egos is not as easy as Twitter tells you. Who would have thought?

Enrique is the only Barca manager since Pep to see out his contract. All the managers after Pep had Messi as well. But it's an easy job??

#9: Overthinking UCL ties

This has happened on two occasions as far as I'm concerned. Last season against Lyon (where Laporte and Sterling both made mistakes) and against Real Madrid. The latter which I would excuse as it was within days of Tito's passing

In the tweet above there are two narratives for what happened. Regardless Pep took the blame. In over 10 years of countless UCL KO round games, Pep was overthinking in two. His other losses at Bayern came at the hands of MSN, who were unstoppable then, and Simeone

who has won 18 of the 19 two-legged European ties against teams without Ronaldo. Not saying that Pep needed Ronaldo to win, but it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

As players like Laporte and Ederson have cost him with individual errors. No one bats an eye when Pep gets knocked out because of one of his players. But when his players play well they carried him. 0 consistency.

#10: Pep should prove himself at a smaller club

When you have GOAT potential, it's beneficial not to waste your years at Real Zaragoza and Coventry Utd. Nobody asks Messi to go to Betis or Ronaldo to Spezia.

Pep going from Barca B to Barca with the success he did changed the landscape of coach recruitment. Everyone looked for the next Pep, in Zidane, Ole, Arteta, Lampard, etc

Plugging this gem and you should follow @FutbolIdealist if you like the content. https://twitter.com/hwestwoodp/status/1356381443837059072