22 Mar 2016 14:45:07
Ed01 whilst I do rate PEP G. highly, I still couldn't agree more with this assessment of yours "As a coach it is difficult to leave out Pep Guardiola. He does need to prove himself with lesser teams, and to take teams forward over a long period, to be fully sure he is great. I do wonder if he is that good, Barcelona slid back under him and now Bayern are doing the same".
I really want to get further insight into the Barcelona and Bayern slid you talked about here. Thanks in anticipation.

{Ed001's Note - they have gone backwards in his time with them. His first season was his best, by his final one the team are no longer playing as well as they did. Each time they started off light years ahead of the rest only to slowly get worse under him. He took on a team with no comparable equals in Germany, that were playing incredible football, and has turned it into a team that are now only slightly ahead of the competition. At Barca he did the same. Walked into a great team that had a few issues, sorted those issues and made them play great football, but gradually the football got worse until he jumped ship.

The day he stays and completes a successful rebuild, instead of running away when things get tough, is the day when he can claim greatness.}

1.) 22 Mar 2016
22 Mar 2016 16:32:05
looks like man city are in need of major surgery ed001, imo if he does not win the cl with Bayern he has failed, and having seen how lucky they were against juventus I cannot see that happening, this discussion about managers/ coaches is interesting because in the premier league we have so many different types, he won't get it all his own way in England that's for sure.

{Ed001's Note - this will be a test of him, but he will have the full backing of the richest club in the history of football.}

2.) 22 Mar 2016
22 Mar 2016 16:54:00
Why would anyone rate a coach as a top "coach" that has taken 2 teams backwards one after another. He will be found out very quickly in my opinion.

3.) 22 Mar 2016
22 Mar 2016 17:53:27
What about Pochettino Ed01? I have read various reports. statements about his ways as a manager and the small details he looks to change etc. I know he hasn't done much as a manager as yet but what are your thoughts on him and where he could get to with time?

{Ed001's Note - he is a disciple of Bielsa, less mad but still a hard taskmaster. Poch can become a great, but he has to show he can make a team last a full season, rather than fade.}

4.) 22 Mar 2016
22 Mar 2016 17:30:34
Would you rate Enrique of Barcelona then ed1? He's clearly got Barcelona back on track on probably the leading team in world football now? Or is it just an easy (easier) job with the players at his disposal?

5.) 23 Mar 2016
23 Mar 2016 02:06:26
Enrique, i wasn't sure about when he first started. But i was thinking the other day. At the moment i think the current Barcelona is better than peps barca, Taking messi out of peps Barcelona the goals they used to score were tap ins, pass it across and tap it in, Villa had a few nice goals but was sold.

Barca still score a lot of tap ins but MSN all score sublime goals. Messi has stopped going past 10 men all the time now, still gets a few nice solo goals but he doesn't need to anymore. We all know how good Luis is and Neymar i think has really grown into playing for Barca.

The way those 3 interact with each other is on another level. They have great synergy. At times it's like oh just pass the ball up to those 3, they will score all the goals for us.

6.) 23 Mar 2016
23 Mar 2016 04:35:20
Kind of like when we had Borini, Lambert and Balotelli!

{Ed001's Note - exactly, when you have 3 of such ..... quality .... you can just leave them to sort themselves out and worry about the rest of the side. Enrique was not the one who made the change to put Messi right and Suarez down the middle. That was the players on the pitch themselves. Now that is also good management, because he led them to water and let them not just drink, but realise why they should drink. The only issue is whether that is his intention or he just got lucky?}

7.) 23 Mar 2016
23 Mar 2016 06:04:26
I think Coutinho, Firmino and Llalana are similar in some ways because they are all so adaptable and starting to feed off each others skill and movement (albeit obviously a different level vs MSN) . Given time, my sense is they could become a very dangerous unit.

We could do a lot worse than just let those three get on with it in attacking midfield and worry about the Defence, midfield (although looking good with Can and Hendo there) and striker.