Taking a look at coaches who have excelled in European football this season

The job of managing a football club has never been as rewarding and as tasking, as it is now. To an outsider, it appears like all that managers do is to pick a team of players and substitutes, teach them tactics and watch them work.

Nowadays with the advances in medicine, psychology, fitness training and many other aspects of the game, managers are having to become multi-talented and knowledgeable in a lot more than tactics.

The 2017-2018 season in European football has seen the demystification of some great coaches (Carlo Ancelotti at Bayern comes to mind), the “arrival” on the scene of some previously unheralded managers (Ernesto Valverde at FC Barcelona is a case in point) & the rise of some young-ins.

Here, we take a look at 5 of this season’s most impressive coaches who will be in with a shot at being named the best manager in Europe come the end of the season.

#5 Marcelino García Toral (Valencia CF)

Marcelino has been brilliant for Valencia as the club looks set to move on from its troubles

Taking over the basket case that is Valencia is a challenge that would have scared even the hardiest of coaches but it is a challenge that the Villaviciosa-born manager has embraced wholeheartedly.

He joined the club at a time when Los Che was in utter shambles which coach, after coach had tried, but failed to correct.

Marcelino has transformed the team into a rugged, cohesive unit that plays brilliant attacking football while remaining solid at the back.

Over the last 10 years, Valencia had regularly sold its best players to raise money but given the paucity of quality he had inherited, for the first time in a long while, no big sales were made.

Instead, he has worked wonders with a team consisting of loanees (players like Goncalo Guedes, Jeison Murillo & Geoffrey Kondogbia), reasonably priced players (Francis Coquelin, Gabriel et al) & youth team graduates (Jose Gaya, Toni Lato, Carlos Soler).

Most importantly, under his leadership, Valencia are getting the best out of a collection of players that have looked lost and dispirited before. Players like Simone Zaza, Ezequiel Garay, Santi Mina, Rodrigo are playing brilliantly while captain Dani Parejo is now the closest thing to a prime Xavi in La Liga.

The team currently sits third on the La Liga table and are in the quarter-finals of the Copa Del Rey, feats that would have been impossible to imagine before Marcelino joined.

#4 Bruno Génésio (Olympique Lyonnais)

The mild-mannered Génésio has taken a young Lyon team shorn of some top players to great heights

The display of a young & vibrant Les Gones team against heavy spending league leaders PSG last weekend served as a reminder of the quality which the team possesses and much of the credit for that and many other performances goes to the mild-mannered 51-year-old Génésio.

In proving the maxim that “talent is universal but opportunity is not” true, the French tactician who is Lyon through & true was handed the reins to the club in 2015 after the departure of Hubert Fournier.

He has had to work with a squad that has constantly being raided by European giants desperate to get their hands on the graduates of the club’s brilliant Centre Tola Vologe set-up which has seen many a brilliant footballer pass through.

Out have gone the stellar talents of players like Corentin Tolisso, Alexandre Lacazette, Maxim Gonlalons and while these exits have brought considerable monies to the club’s coffers, it is Génésio that has had to pick up the pieces and rebuild.

Making full use of the club’s academy as well as young signings with a point to prove (Memphis Depay & Mariano Diaz among others), Génésio has fashioned a pacy, cohesive unit that seeks to break opponents down by attacking relentlessly with pace and precision.

While this philosophy places a lot of responsibilities on a relatively inexperienced defence to keep it tight, the forward line led by irrepressible captain Nabil Fekir is scoring for fun.

The team are second in Ligue 1 and safely navigated its Europa League group stage with great performances against the likes of Atalanta & Everton.

#3 Maurizio Sarri (SSC Napoli)

Sarri is leading an exciting Napoli side to mount its first genuine title challenge in years

Few teams are operating at the level that Sarri’s Gli Azzurri are currently operating and all credit is due to the wily tactician.

Keeping possession while circulating the ball in a quick and precise manner has become the hallmark of this Napoli team with the forwards attacking at breakneck speed and always pushing the opposition onto the backfoot.

This becomes even more remarkable given the lack of significant investment in the summer’s transfer window with young winger Andre Ounas (Bordeaux) the only purchase.

A lot of teams especially the big ones would suffer if their top striker with an extended injury lay-off but Napoli have coped magnificently with the loss of Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik.

Sarri’s influence is all over the team and while his insistence on the all-round action football takes a lot out of his players and leads to quite a number of injuries, his players are among the fittest in Europe and this helps them to outlast opponents who are less fit over the course of 90 minutes.

A hard taskmaster who demands perfection from his players in everything they do, he has led the Neapolitans to the top of the Serie A table and while they may be faint, there are whispers among the Partenopei faithful about a first Scudetto title since the heady days of the Diego Maradona era.

#2 Ernesto Valverde (FC Barcelona)

Valverde has brilliantly navigated the murky waters at Barca and the team is looking ominous

Quiet and unassuming with a face that never seems to smile, Valverde has proven to be an inspired choice as FC Barcelona manager and is on course to help Cules forget their dislike of the current Josep Bartomeu-led board and the dark last days of former manager Luis Enrique.

A wily tactician who is always looking for ways to improve his team, the former Athletic Bilbao manager has somehow managed to make Barca more solid defensively while losing none of the team’s famed attacking potency.

He has made better use of the squad and has done wonders in improving the performances of players like the much-vilified Andre Gomes, Paco Alcacer and Jordi Alba among others.

He has made full use of the squad and his rotation policy has done wonders for keeping players fresh and hungry which has been reflected in performances that have seen the Blaugrana 8 points clear of the opposition in La Liga as well as remaining unbeaten.

The performance of the team in the 3-0 demolition of arch-rivals Real Madrid in El Clasico and his handling of the fallout from the Neymar transfer saga has won him the respect and admiration of all at the Nou Camp and with him at the helm, Barca are now heavy favourites to replace Los Merengues as UEFA Champions League winners.

#1 Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)

Pep's brilliance has left rivals trailing in his wake

The undoubted star of the European season so far has been the bald-headed Catalan and such has been his impact that rival teams in the so-called “most competitive league” are in a mad scramble for the 2nd to 4th positions.

Obviously, his debut season in English football didn’t go as planned which would have grated on the perfectionist and has served as fuel for his determination to get it right.

His belief in possession-based, fast passing and intricate movement football has never for once being shaken but unlike last season, he has been able to get in the personnel with which he can execute his plans.

The effects of Pep’s continuous coaching of his players in training and during matches can be seen in the difference in performances between last season and this season among various players.

Players like Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Nicolas Otamendi, John Stones among others have been almost unrecognizable from last season as their performances have been brilliant while those players who performed creditably last season (Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, David Silva, Fernandinho) have gone up a notch.

With just two losses so far all season, it would take a collapse of epic proportions for Pep & his men not to win the Premier League title and they are looking good in other competitions as well.