Do you agree with this list of the top 20 managers in Europe…
Join us as we count down Europe’s top 20 managers with this list, which comes courtesy of the highly respectable ESPN. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers battle Borussia Dortmund rival Jurgen Klopp inside a packed top ten, while Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are the perennial contenders for top spot.
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Check out the full list below:
20) Rafa Benitez (Napoli)
The Spaniard has almost been one of the greatest victims of Pep Guardiola’s victories, given how the Catalan’s tactical approach ensured Benitez became a little out of step with the game’s most sophisticated football. That did not render him irrelevant, though; far from it. Few are better at setting up a solid team.
19) Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)
In annually reaching the Champions League, the veteran continues to produce the minimum expected, which is something that so many others fail with and not to be scoffed at. The only issue is that he used to be about so much more. He used to strive to finish first. Arsenal now finish exactly where they are expected to.
18) Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham Hotspur)
The Argentine hasn’t yet lifted a trophy, but he has now lifted two separate teams — Espanyol and Southampton — to league positions and levels of football beyond their status. Having achieved with lower expectations, he must now guide Tottenham to the level they expect – the Premier League top four.
17) Cesare Prandelli (Galatasaray)
One of the keenest tactical minds in the game, he offered a keynote achievement in beating Germany with Italy to unexpectedly reach the final of Euro 2012. That tournament saw Prandelli repeatedly reshape his team, and it said much that it took a side as historically brilliant as Spain to stop their charge in the final.
16) Vicente del Bosque (Spain)
He was key to Spain becoming the first side to hold three major international trophies (2010 World Cup and European championships of 2008 and 2012), setting a certain tempo and regularly fine-tuning the team so they stayed at the top. He couldn’t quite keep that up during the misery of the 2014 World Cup collapse.
15) Frank de Boer (Ajax)
The only surprise about De Boer’s managerial career so far is that he hasn’t yet followed so many of his former key players out of Ajax. It illustrates the promise of his management, however, that he still produces victories not just in the Eredivisie, but the Champions League too.
14) Marcelo Bielsa (Marseille)
One of the most influential coaches in the game, but it’s not all theory with Bielsa, even if practice rarely makes perfect with him. The Argentine restored both Chile and Athletic Bilbao to prominence and showed that virtually any squad can play a vigorously attractive style. Has taken Marseille to the top of Ligue 1 this season.
13) Joachim Low (Germany)
Low illustrates one of the problems in judging coaches who are with teams so obviously better than the majority of their opposition: it’s even more difficult to separate the squad’s quality from managerial input. Low has made Germany so imposingly difficult to play against. In six years, there’s barely been a slip or an error.
12) Unai Emery (Sevilla)
In winning the 2014 Europa League, Emery finally had the piece of silverware to prove his pedigree. The 42-year-old oversaw Valencia during one of the most difficult periods in the club’s history, as they suffered from a raft of financial problems, but still competed against Spain’s biggest sides with some technically excellent football.
11) Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid)
In 19 years of management, Ancelotti has won as many domestic titles as he has European titles. One of those stats is historic, the other is much more questionable. Overall, there is a clear contradiction to the Italian’s career. He is better at navigating the nuances of fortune in knockout football rather than the deeper, more thorough nature of a league campaign.
10) Roberto Martinez (Everton)
It sums up much of the debate about the Spaniard that in the same week he sensationally won the 2013 FA Cup with Wigan Athletic, his club were finally relegated. However, that is the wrong way to look at it. It wasn’t that Martinez sent Wigan down. It was that he had produced heroics to keep up for so long one of the least resourced clubs in the Premier League.
9) Rudi Garcia (Roma)
The football dazzles, but the achievements should be considered in the same light. Garcia took Lille to a supreme Ligue 1 win that was almost France’s equivalent of Borussia Dortmund, and already threatened to do the same with Roma. That side certainly look threatening in attack, as they have offered blistering football.
8) Antonio Conte (Italy)
He’s the coach who returned Juventus to glory by commonly reshaping their tactics and setting records along the way. His standout achievement was probably the 2011-12 unbeaten season, but there were so many it’s hard to pick the best. Now in charge of Italy, and looking to return them to greatness after several years of under-performing.
7) Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool)
A man at the forefront of a new breed of manager, defined by their positivity and technical excellence. These have also been the hallmarks of Rodgers’ teams. They can rise to near unplayable levels through sheer technique. He did it at Swansea, and last season he took Liverpool to within a Steven Gerrard slip of winning a maiden Premier League title.
6) Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City)
The Chilean may have just won the first trophies of his career in Europe with the 2014 Premier League and League Cup, but they are far from his first feats. Pellegrini defied finance to produce brilliant football with Villarreal and then an asset-stripped Malaga, before then using cash superbly to produce some of the most sensational football ever seen in England.
5) Louis van Gaal (Manchester United)
The 63-year-old launched a moderate Dutch side to the World Cup semifinals, relaunched his legacy and reminded everyone he was still the coach who brought Ajax to the 1995 Champions League trophy and Bayern Munich to the 2010 final. Van Gaal remains one of the most astute tactical minds in the game.
4) Jurgen Klopp (Borussia Dortmund)
He set the trend for the likes of Simeone and Brendan Rodgers in managing feats that were supposed to be way beyond their finances. Dortmund’s successive titles between 2010 and 2012 were among the greatest achievements in the modern European game, as they levelled Bayern and so many other sides.
3) Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)
On the eve of the 2014 Champions League final, Atletico Madrid midfielder Tiago attempted to put Simeone’s management into words. One stood out. “I think for us, for all the club,” Tiago enthused, “he’s like a god.” The Argentine’s Atletico side have defied the current economics of the sport, making a mockery of the resources available to Real and Barca with last season’s title win.
2) Jose Mourinho (Chelsea)
For all the controversy, all the theatrics and all the debate he creates, one thing about Jose Mourinho has always been clear: if he is in charge of a team, they will be genuinely challenging for trophies. It has been a constant of his career. The Portuguese introduces a certain intensity, and that in turn ensures a baseline of ultra-competitiveness.
1) Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich)
The real brilliance of Guardiola is that he didn’t just change Barcelona. He changed football itself. They blew so many opposition sides away, and thereby blew the game open. Barca were as oppressively dominant in terms of silverware as they were on the pitch. On top of that, Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga ludicrously early last season.
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