Comparing Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho: Who is the better manager?

In the era of modern managers,Pep Guardiola and Jos Mourinho are two names that inevitably come up in every discussion. Few managershave had a betterprofile in the last decadecompared to these two.They are two different individualswhohavedifferent ways of organisingthemselves,different football philosophies,but aregreat in their own regard.The Catalan will be remembered as the mastermindof what many regardas the greatest Barcelona side in the history of the club.The Portuguesemanager has built his reputation withhisability toassemblewinning mentality into every team he manages.But which of the two is the better manager?It's a tough taskto compare managers.Unlike players, each manager has a different set of objectives, resources andproblemsat any given time. Both managers began their managerial careers as assistants to Louis van Gaal. WhileMourinhostarted hismanagerial journeywith Benfica in2000,Guardiola started hiscareerwith Barcelona B in 2007.Their beginnings were humble, but they have since gone on to conquer Europe.Here isacomparison between the two managers. Who is better?

#1 Win Ratio

MANAGERIAL RECORD

	Matches	Won	Drawn	Lost	Win %
Guardiola	364	266	65	33	73%
Mourinho	704	474	139	91	67%

People might argue that Mourinho managed smaller clubs like Benfica, Porto and Uniao de Leiria. Mourinho, who is said to be a result oriented manager, organises his teams to get the desired result. However, Guardiola sets out his team to play with a certain philosophy and with results being a consequence of that style. Going by the percentage of games won, and the fact that Guardiola has fewer losses than Mourinho, Guardiola comes out as a clear winner.

In terms of games managed, Mourinho has managed many more than Guardiola. The Portuguese has been at six different clubs during the course of his managerial career whereas Guardiola has only managed three with one being a second division side. The number of games lost (going by %) by Guardiola is significantly lower than Mourinho.

#2 Trophies

TROPHIES WON

	League	Champions League	UEFA Cup	UEFA Super Cup	Domestic Cups	TOTAL
Guardiola	5	2	0	3	6	16
Mourinho	7	2	1	0	10	20

In terms of the number of trophies won, Jose Mourinho holds an upper hand over Pep Guardiola. People might argue that Mourinho has managed for seven years more than Guardiola, but a trophy won is an achievement in itself.

The Portuguese has won the Champions League with two different teams whereas Guardiola has won it twice with Barcelona. Mourinho has won two more league titles and four more domestic trophies than the Spaniard; which include the FA Cup, Coppa Italia and the Copa Del Rey, to name a few.

Jose Mourinho still hasn’t won the Uefa Super Cup, a trophy which he would surely like to add to his trophy cabinet. The Chelsea boss easily comes out as the winner in terms of trophies won, which is even more impressive considering he has won them in more challenging environments like the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga.

#3 Transfer Activity

TRANSFER ACTIVITY

	Money spent	Money received	Net spend	Duration
Guardiola	£345.59m	£201m	£144.6m	2007 -
Mourinho	£566.1m	£255.5m	£310.6m	2004 -

Until a few years ago, many football fans wouldn't have had any idea who Pedro or Sergio Busquets were. Now, they are famous, playing a key role in one of the best club teams of all time and also former World champions Spain. They're among the best in the world and the credit for that must go to Pep Guardiola.

Some of the Barcelona players were already talented, but they would never have become top notch players if Guardiola hadn't trusted them. It displays courage on the part of the manager, who is always under pressure to win trophies and play attractive football, to give such major opportunities to youth academy players.

It will be a tough task to think of any young talent that Mourinho has moulded. The Portuguese manager usually prefers to rely on experienced, established players instead of thinking about the future like Pep Guardiola. Mourinho has spent over £300 million at Chelsea till now and still hasn’t managed to win the UEFA Champions League with them.

Mourinho however is a smart seller, which is evident from the sales of David Luiz (£40 million), Juan Mata (£37 million) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (£40 million). Guardiola is cautious about his finances, which is evident from the difference in the net spending of both the managers .

A few examples of the players they bought in the transfer market:

Jose Mourinho: Andriy Shevchenko (£30.8 million), Diego Costa (£32 million), Cesc Fabregas (£26.3 million), Nemanja Matic (£22 million).

Pep Guardiola: Thiago Alcantara (€25 million), Robert Lewandowski (free transfer), Gerard Pique (€5 million euros), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (€40 million plus Samuel Eto’o).

We would be curious to know how other lesser known managers would have fared if they had such finances at their disposal.

#4 Head-to-Head record

Matches	Draws	Mourinho wins	Guardiola wins
16	5	3	8

Guardiola and Mourinho have been fierce rivals since they met for the first time in the UEFA Champions League Group stages in 2009/10. Mourinho was the manager of Inter Milan and Guardiola was at Barcelona. They met four times that season (they were in the same group with Barcelona topping the group) with both teams qualifying for the semi-finals. Inter Milan edged out Barcelona and went on to win the prestigious trophy that season. Their rivalry didn’t end there and they were destined for more battles.

In May 2010, Mourinho moved on from Inter Milan to manage Real Madrid after the sacking of Manuel Pellegrini. He managed the La Liga side for three years and had many run-ins with Guardiola and Barcelona.

The Catalan manager got the better of Mourinho on most of the occasions losing only twice in the 12 matches they faced off in. These included their meetings in La Liga, Champions League and the Spanish Cup. More recently, they came face to face in the UEFA Super Cup in 2013 where Guardiola came out as the winner.

#5 Style of Play

Both managers are poles apart in terms of their philosophies, each one good at their own style of play. Guardiola likes to keep the ball and move it around, whereas Mourinho is a defensive-minded coach who likes to sit back and attack when the opportunity arises.

Guardiola's Barcelona team was one of the greatest and technically superior sides in world football. Their 'tiki-taka' passing style was difficult to break down most of the time. Versatility and comfort on the ball are some of the qualities demonstrated by players under Guardiola, as shown by the likes of Dani Alves, Javier Mascherano and Eric Abidal. He is trying to instil a similar philosophy at Bayern Munich, which is evident from the midfield as well as defensive roles of David Alaba and Philip Lahm.

Mourinho has earned the reputation of being a defensive-minded coach, but his tactics have brought him considerable success over the years. Also, given the financial backing and support of the management, Mourinho's teams have been no less attractive in terms of their style of play, with Real Madrid averaging nearly 2.5 goals per game under him. He sets out his teams in a very compact manner, giving very little away in terms of possession.

In terms of playing style, both are excellent in their own respect. Guardiola stamps his philosophy on each of the clubs he manages, whereas Mourinho works on devising different tactics according to the situation to achieve the desired results. Guardiola’s tiki taka style brought about a successful era in Spanish football with not only Barcelona but also the Spanish team which plays a similar brand of football.

The question to be asked here is, till when can these two great managers continue their successful run in Europe?