It definitely has taken some time to sink in but at this point, Pep Guardiola must be the greatest football coach of all time.
While it is difficult to picture the Spaniard deliver these words in the bellowing defiant tone Muhammad Ali did after shocking the world with a beat down of Sonny Liston, he doesn’t need to do so.
After all, the actions of leagues he has coached in, national teams, fellow coaches, referees and all stakeholders in football, communicate that Pep is indeed the greatest to ever do it.
No man or woman has had this much influence on how the beautiful game is played, enjoyed and perceived than Pep.
It is for this reason, Bastian Schweinsteiger will pin the poor performance of the German Men’s national football team on Guardiola.
Well why wouldn’t he? Instead of playing efficient, fast counter attacking football, that relied heavily on crosses to feed strikers like Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose and Kevin Kuranyi, the Germans have been bitten by the Pep bug ever since Guardiola infused his possession heavy style into Germany’s team, Bayern Munich.
Playing with a false nine marked Guardiola’s way of moving off Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o while accentuating Lionel Messi’s march to becoming the greatest in his own right. Playing Messi centrally worked so well that the most dominant team in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, Spain, applied it and won a third international title in a row.
La Roja won the 2008 Euros and 2010 FIFA World Cup on the back of using Guardiola’s Tiki Taka system and switched their way to European glory by playing midfielder Francesc Fabregas as a central striker. Teams want to play and win like Pep’s teams after dominating in Spain, England and Germany while winning the treble with two teams in two countries.
If all this doesn’t make you believe Pep is the GOAT of coaches, then why would an elite goalkeeper like David De Gea be unemployed at the time of writing this piece. For a false nine system or tiki taka system to work, the team’s goalkeeper must be comfortable with the ball at his feet since the keeper is for the most part, the initiator of possession.
While Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag showed a lot of patience throughout last season with De Gea’s inefficient passing especially in losses to Brentford and Brighton early in the campaign, Sevilla later in the season, the breaking point came in the FA Cup loss to Man City.
David De Gea led the entire game in wayward passes with the former Atletico Madrid stopper playing an eye-gouging 18. That’s a goalkeeper registering more bad passes than outfield players who touch the ball more, to put things in perspective.
Despite keeping 190 clean sheets in 545 appearances, winning the 2022-2023 Golden Glove award and a handful of Man United Player of the Season awards, it still wasn’t enough to keep De Gea at Old Trafford beyond the campaign.
By snapping up Andre Onana from Inter Milan, Ten Hag not only reunites with the Cameroonian international he worked with for multiple years at Ajax but also his fine shot stopping skills and most importantly for Man United and Ten Hag, his ball playing ability. Onana’s traditional goalkeeping abilities are quite understated but are good enough to hang with the best of them.
For instance, Onana registered a 77.8% save rating while De Gea registered a 73.5% rating last season. De Gea’s clean sheets mark stood at 43.1 compared to Onana’s 46.3 clean sheet mark and all these stats come on the back drop of Onana playing 41 games to De Gea’s 58 according to the BBC. When adjusted, Onana’s numbers should be at par with De Gea’s numbers if not better.
Aside passing, saving penalties is another Achilles heel of De Gea and even his vaunted shot stopping skills aren’t as great as they look compared to the marks he set earlier in his career especially in the most turbulent post Sir Alex Ferguson years.
So aside getting an upgrade in Onana in passing and chance creation categories, De Gea’s biggest selling point-preventing goals- isn’t such a big sell after all and adds up to justify Ten Hag’s decision to move off him.
The Ten Hag era is really going to kick into gear in his second season at Old Trafford and it is likely to continue to be without a recognized striker.
Getting Harry Kane is a very long shot this season just as getting Victor Osimhen while Kolo Muani and Rasmus Hojlund aren’t accomplished enough to entrust them with the enormous responsibility of leading the offensive line on the back of what is sure to be a huge financial layout from the Red Devils.
Seeing Man United play Wolves on August 14 with Anthony Martial as the team’s sole striker should be no surprise and while Martial looks the part, how he has applied himself in the role is questionable just as his ability to stay fit.
This means Ten Hag has to roll out a Pep Guardiola system with wingers/ wing forwards in Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Amad Diallo and Antony leading the line. Guardiola used this system to win the 2021-2022 EPL title after Sergio Aguero missed significant time to injury.
Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling led the line so well, Aguero had a hard time getting back into the starting lineup. It also marked recently departed Ilkay Gundogan’s best goal scoring campaign in the EPL (13). Ten Hag has Mason Mount and Bruno Fernandes ready to replicate this kind of production.
Having Onana’s ball playing skills and athleticism and awareness to play as a keeper-sweeper should help Man United inundate opposing team’s boxes to force teams to make mistakes.
Had Man United rolled into the season with no recognizable striker and had De Gea in post, teams equipped with the right quality in personnel and tactics would easily exploit the gaps in between the lines created by having a goalkeeper with passing deficiency who lacks the athleticism and confidence to step up and be a third center back passing option.
Having this in play gives Man United the chance to create mismatches and overloads which is essential in building attacks.
Man City’s successful EPL title winning season with a striker less system was made possible by having a ball playing goalkeeper in Ederson in post; with Andre Onana, Man United has the right guy to do same.
Ten Hag and Guardiola worked together at Bayern Munich and having seen his former boss use the striker less system to win an EPL title, Ten Hag has all the tools now to beat season expectations of a third place finish.