Pep Guardiola has been called as a revolutionary coach following his successful spells at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Many young coaches try to model their teams on the basis of how Guardiola lined his teams up. However, former Brazil coach, Vanderlei Luxemburgo thinks otherwise and believes that Guardiola is yet to prove himself.
The 45-year-old has won 21 titles as a manager, with 14 of them coming in just four seasons at Barcelona. Now, this might count as a success story for most people. But, Luxemburgo believes that Guardiola is not as good as people consider him to be.
“He is more about marketing than being a coach. Guardiola won a lot of titles with Barcelona but then Luis Enrique arrived and he won the same. Guardiola went to Bayern Munich, he prepared, he learned the language and he didn’t achieve the same [as Jupp Heynckes], who won the treble at 70 years old, but he didn’t,” Luxemburgo noted.
Luxemburgo, however, did mention that Guardiola can be termed a success in case he does win titles with Manchester City, just like Carlo Ancelotti did with AC Milan. Having won the UEFA Champions League twice with Barcelona, he failed to win the elusive trophy with Bayern Munich.
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“Carlo Ancelotti was a champion in Milan, in Madrid. I think that for Guardiola to prove he’s better he will have to win with Manchester City. I will only be convinced if he wins with Manchester City,” Luxemburgo said.
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On the other hand, Ancelotti, who is the present manager of Bayern Munich, has expressed the ease with which he is able to handle the Bayern players, who were under Guardiola's regime until last season.
“It's easy because the team has a lot of football knowledge, and a fantastic quality. I think they build this quality up with Guardiola. I found the team was in really, really good shape, good condition and with great knowledge.
“The foundations were really good so I never wanted to change them. Every coach has his own idea of football so I tried to implement my idea without having a revolution,” Ancelotti remarked.
Luxemburgo has had 32 managerial jobs spanning from 1983 until 2016. Most recently, he was in charge of Chinese League One side, Tianjin Quanjian, but was fired in June 2016.
The 64-year-old managed the Brazil national team from 1998-2000 including at the 2000 Sydney Olympics where Brazil lost 2-1 to Cameroon despite having a two-man advantage.
It remains to be seen whether Guardiola can live up to Luxemburgo's “expectations” and win titles with Manchester City, who are leading the English Premier League table after seven games.
