Pep Guardiola - A Coaching Success Story

Pep Guardiola is a Spanish football manager who is currently in charge of Manchester City. Regardless of who you ask, he easily is one of the greatest football managers of this century. Sports Show considers him the fifth-best individual in its list of all-time most successful football managers.

The formative days

Josep started as a player, spending most of his career at Barcelona. However, he also played for Al-Ahli, Brescia, Dorados de Sinaloa, and Roma. While at Barcelona, Josep lifted six La Liga titles. He also won the European Cup in 1992, the same year he helped his national team win the Olympic gold medal.

Coaching career

He was handed a coaching job at Barcelona in 2007, where he was assigned to lead the club's B team. Pep was quickly promoted at the end of the 2007-08 season to manage the senior team when Frank Rijkaard left.
He managed a lot on his first campaign, bagging a treble of the La Liga trophy, the UEFA Champions League, and Copa del Rey. The achievement was Barcelona's first-ever, and Pep was only 37 when he led the lads to the achievement.

Winning the UEFA Champions League with Barcelona at the tender age made him the youngest coach to lift the continental trophy.

Overall, he spent four seasons at Camp Nou, winning 14 trophies spread over six different competitions.

After a year's break, Pep returned to coaching in the 2013-14 season, taking over from Jupp Heynckes as the Bayern Munich manager.

He won three back-to-back Bundesliga titles with the Bavarian side. Pep also helped the side clinch the DFB-Pokal trophy, the UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup. Aside from winning the Bundesliga for every year he coached Bayern Munich, he also helped them win two domestic doubles.

The English job

After three seasons in Germany, Pep signed a contract with the English Premier League team Manchester City. In the 2016-17 season, the Cityzens finished third. The 2017-18 campaign witnessed a continued buildup where they broke the English League record for the most successive wins, bagging 18 straight wins between August and December 2017.

The first silverware of the 2017-18 season was the Carabao Cup, which they won after beating Arsenal 3-0. Manchester City dominated the entire season, winning Guardiola his first league title. They did so in style, scoring a record 106 goals. Overall, they won 32 of the 38 games, bagging 100 points in the process.

Style and tactics

The Spaniard prefers a disciplined form of play with a focus on possession with aggressive pressing. His reliance on the 3-4-3 formation has proved effective primarily when the opposing team fronts two attackers.
While Guardiola's teams are known for their emphasis on retaining possession, dictating play is also a priority in the coach's style. He has coached more than 720 matches.

Pep holds the record for the most consecutive league games won in three leagues. The Spaniard saw Barcelona to a La Liga Record of 16 games during the 2010-11 season before guiding Bayern Munich to 19 back-to-back wins during the 2013-14 league campaign.