The origins of Pep Klopp vs
Who are their managerial inspirations?
For as much as Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have had similar success in football management, their playing careers, interestingly, couldn’t have been any more different. While the Spaniard won major trophies, such as the Champions League in 1992 and six LaLiga titles between 1990 and 1999, and sharing dressing rooms with world-class players at Barcelona, the Stuttgart native was in the second division of German football fighting for survival with Mainz. Despite the various differences in their professional lives as footballers, it was at their respective clubs that the tacticians would have their most profound educations in the sport.
In Guardiola’s case, he was brought up in Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, which has produced, and continues to produce, some of the world’s most prodigious of talents, such as Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, three stars Guardiola would go on to achieve unprecedented success with as a coach. The popularization of football’s foremost production pipeline was brought to the Catalan club by the legendary Johan Cruyff and his “Total Football” philosophy, and it was the three-time Ballon d’Or winner who promoted the midfielder to Barcelona’s first team from the club’s B side, before moving the then 20-year-old from the right side of midfield to the midfield’s base,
Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola are arguably two of the best managers in world football, coaching two of the best teams in world football in Liverpool and Manchester City. Two former footballers with contrasting educations in football management and styles were headed for a collision course that would captivate the world, a where Guardiola became an expert at controlling games and dictating play. “I am very lucky to be training Manchester City, and before to have coached at Bayern Munich and Barcelona, but that’s because of (Cruyff’s) knowledge. He taught us – not only me but to a generation of players – to understand football,”Guardiola once remarked of the Dutch pioneer. Following a trophy-laden 11-year period at the Catalan giants, Guardiola would go to Argentina in 2006 to seek out the managerial expertise of Marcelo Bielsa, another coach the Spaniard was intrigued by and was eager to learn from. In his mind, the Argentine tactician is among the most important people in football. rivalry born in Germany that has gone on to flourish in the Premier League as the two jostle for supremacy not just in England, but also in the UEFA Champions League! This week, Soccer Laduma international football writer Kamogelo Motecwane looks at the beginnings of what has become one of the sport’s greatest sideline battles.
Klopp, on the other hand, was a right back struggling to help keep Mainz afloat in the 2. Bundesliga. Between 1995 and 1997, the German outfit had a coach by the name of Wolfgang Frank, a man who perhaps controversially embodied all the things German football then stood against – high pressing, zonal marking and using a back four without a traditional sweeper, a position that had become incredibly popular in the country due to the success achieved on a global scale by legendary German defender Franz Beckenbauer. After Frank’s ideas and application inspired Mainz to a rather unlikely rejuvenation, Klopp credited him as the greatest coach he ever played under.
With the Rhine club adopting coaching orthodoxies following Franck’s departure, the club was still teetering in the relegation zone and sporting director Christian Heidel wanted dramatic change. He longed for Frank’s football, and, with a large contingent of the squad still present from his time, Heidel appointed Klopp as the team’s head coach following the German’s retirement from football in 2001. After displaying obvious talent on the sidelines over a seven-year spell as manager of the club he once represented, the opportunity to coach Borussia Dortmund came along in 2008 and Klopp accepted the exciting proposal.
Back in Spain, Guardiola’s career on the sidelines began in the same year with Barcelona B, before then-president Joan Laporta, who has since returned for a second reign, appointed the inexperienced manager as first team boss on the recommendation of Cruyff. Guardiola led the Blaugrana to their first-ever treble in his debut season and would claim a remarkable 14 trophies overall in charge of what many consider the greatest club side in the history of the Beautiful Game. Following his departure from Barcelona in 2012 after four seasons, Guardiola took a one-year sabbatical before accepting the Bayern Munich job in 2013.
Reuniting in England after a short battle in Germany
Nobody foresaw it at the time, but this would be the start of one of football’s most entertaining manager rivalries. While Klopp would win just two of his five trophies at Dortmund following the arrival of Guardiola at the Bavarians, it was clear the German’s fast-paced and intense pressing style was something his counterpart struggled to deal with and the world couldn’t wait to see their battles continue in the Premier League, after Guardiola was appointed by Manchester City in 2016, little less than a year on from Liverpool’s appointment of Klopp.
The German tactician replaced the sacked Brendan Rodgers at An
field in October 2015, and, after an erratic start to life in England’s top division, things began to take shape during the 2016/17 season after Klopp and the club’s scouting department brought the likes of Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum to Liverpool from Southampton and Newcastle United respectively, and after the emergence of academy graduate Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is today widely recognised as one of the best talents in world football. Klopp secured only the second UEFA Champions League qualification for the club during the 2010s in 2016, while Guardiola would finish his first campaign in charge of City without a trophy, which was the first time in his glittering coaching career he had ended a season without picking up silverware.
Since they have both been in the Premier League, there have been arguably no two better teams to watch than City and Liverpool. Guardiola has claimed an impressive three league titles, while Klopp inspired the Reds to their first league trophy in 30 years in the 2019/20 season. Beyond their battles in England’s top domestic division, Guardiola has won a further seven trophies in England in the form of four Carabao Cups, two FA Community Shields and one FA Cup. Klopp has managed just one domestic title, the Carabao Cup, outside of the Premier League, as he has seen the majority of his trophy success for Liverpool come in European and world competitions, with the 54-year-old having celebrated winning the 2018/19 Champions League title, the 2019 UEFA Super Cup and the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup with the Reds.