5 football managers who don't deserve the criticism they get

Being a football manager can be lonely and sometimes depressing life at times. If a team happens to be going through a bit of a dodgy patch, the manager is always, always the one who gets it in the neck.Regardless of whether the person in charge can be seen to be doing his absolute best, the buck has to stop with someone and invariably it’s at the managers door. It’s why we’ve seen so many changes at that level in recent times.Clearly some of those in charge don’t deserve the abuse. Let’s take a look at five of them:

#1 Roberto Mancini

Roberto Mancini has been criticized for his spiky nature.

Is a manager’s personality largely to blame if he were to be criticised for any reason? Arguably yes. Roberto Mancini is a prime example.

Whilst at Manchester City he authored their first top-level title win, in utterly incredible circumstances, in 44 years. Rather than celebrate it with him, some sections of the media preferred to concentrate on his spiky nature and how so many players had fallen out with him.

Ditto Inter Milan. The Nerazzurri are third in the Serie A table at the time of writing and sit just four points away from leaders Napoli.

Only 13 goals conceded is the best in the division and only behind Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid in the whole of Europe. Yet Mancini is being castigated for being “boring.” For playing a typically Italian game which, frankly, is proving to get the results required.

Inter certainly can’t be discounted as title contenders at this stage. Does it matter how points are gathered as long as they’re gathered? Would fans rather a team play sweeping, attractive football and lose?

#2 Jurgen Klopp

Klopp has been suffering a lot at Liverpool already.

You have to admire Jurgen Klopp. A manager for whom football is very obviously a way of life. Watching him on the sidelines each week it’s clear that he lives every moment.

And more often than not he is fully able to engage with his playing staff tuning in to exactly how they’re feeling and how best to channel that, whether good or bad. His management style is like a breath of fresh air in the Premier League.

Yet Klopp is suffering already. Why? The weight of Liverpool history.

Fans of a team that haven’t won the Premier League or its previous reincarnation the First Division Championship, think the Reds have a divine right to it within weeks of a new manager taking the helm. Brendan Rodgers almost delivered the holy grail but ultimately fell short.

Now, just over 100 days into his tenure, Klopp is expected to be presiding over a team of world beaters. Cultivating a winning team takes time and the German did say at his opening press conference to give him three years before judging him.

Shame the locals didn’t listen.

#3 Arsene Wenger

Wenger is criticized for the lack of silverware.

If there is one manager who should be above any type of criticism it is Arsene Wenger. Aside from perhaps Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Arsenal are a team that are revered for the way in which they play football. A style that has its roots in Arsene Wenger’s earliest days in north London.

Here is a man that has kept his team competitive and his club in the black for much of the time that a brand new stadium was being built. Here is a man that has no qualms about introducing young talent into the squad, investing time and effort into their development. Here is a man whose legacy will live on at the Emirates Stadium long after he has retired.

The lack of silverware has been a bug bear for the Gunners fans, but would a Premier League trophy or two make him one of the best all of a sudden? No.He’s in that bracket already.

#4 Pep Guardiola

The media is never happy with Pep Guardiola.

In just four seasons at Barcelona, Pep Guardiola amassed a stunning 14 trophies including the club’s first-ever treble of La Liga, Copa Del Rey and Champions League. But more than the trophies, the style of football that Barca were playing at that time was on a completely different level to any other team in the Spanish top flight and in Europe.

Guardiola’s Barca were the benchmark.

Subsequent to his Catalan adventure, Pep saw fit to try his luck in Bavaria and although he has failed to deliver the Champions League whilst there, he’s done everything but. Securing the Bundesliga title in record time, winning more and losing less than ever before. Conceding so few goals as to be barely comprehensible.

Men against boys in almost every game yet that is still not good enough for some. Media and public alike appear keen to eulogise on how Guardiola makes life too confusing. Why he needs to change tactical formations every week, move players into positions that are unfamiliar.

Why it appears that he is never happy. Evidently losing one game in 17 this season, winning 15, scoring 48 goals and conceding just eight isn’t what anyone wants to see!

#5 Paco Jemez

Rayo Vallecano fans want Paco Jemez out.

If you haven’t heard of Rayo Vallecano’s Paco Jemez you soon will. The manager is loved for his honest appraisal of any match, pulling no punches, and for the way in which his teams play football.

Even if it means Rayo are on the end of a four, five or even six-goal thrashing, you’ll hear no words of blame from the manager if his team have played the right way, in their manager’s opinion.

Only Real Madrid’s 10-goal blast has got under his skin recently, the manager calling it disgusting after his team were reduced to nine men whilst leading 2-1. It was a huge blot on his copybook. A resume that could well shortly see him installed as Vicente Del Bosque’s successor for the national team.

Held in high esteem in the corridors of power, but local support is starting to wear a little thin. They are tired of the “joke” that they believe their team has become, putting the blame squarely at the manager’s door. Wanting him out.

But Rayo’s supporters need to be careful what they wish for because they’ll miss him when he’s gone.