Actually I am not at all overemphasizing Pep's achievements or exaggerating Barca's problems. Barca was in mid-table in the the middle of the season. After winning the Champions league Barca didn't win anything for the next two years which usually is a big deal at a big club like Barca. During Pep's first year, there weren't many teams who had answers for his style. There is no reason to believe Capello would somehow miraculously figure out what to do vs Pep's dream team within his first year where everyone else failed. Pep's methods have been studied vigorously by every manager out there which is why he struggles much more now than in his initial years.

Its also not fair to compare Ancelotti's current team with the current Barca and draw parallels with Barca 5 years ago. During Pep's years, Barca was the best defensive team in Europe and now they don't have a defence to speak of. I am not saying that Ancelotti hasn't done a good job with Madrid, but he inherited a very strong team which was under development for around 5 years and has made great replacements in the past few years. Meanwhile, Barca has been making terrible transfer decisions for the past 3 years, not to mention aging and general loss of motivation which has made the team very weak. All of this has led to decay from within. If Madrid has put Ancelotti in charge instead of Mourinho, he would have suffered a similar fate.

Mourinho had a terrible record vs Barca during their peak years. Mourinho actually started beating Barca when they were also losing to teams like Milan which was related to general team weakness. People bring up the losses to Inter and Chelsea as examples of great defensive tactics vs Barca's system. Firstly, parking the bus works vs every team. Secondly, both the games were prime examples of the vagaries of any sport. Inter was very very lucky with ref decisions. I know Barca has gotten lucky as well, but what I'm saying is, it happens in sport. The game vs Chelsea was a funny one. Chelsea were passengers in that game. Barca opened them up all game and were up 2-0 when Pep's desire to keep scoring bit him in the ass. Even then Barca won a penalty and Messi missed. We hit the bar, skied shots in front of the goal, while Chelsea were just standing around the box. Again, it happens in sport but that wasn't a result of coaching genius by RDM or deficiency in Pep's method.

I agree that Pep will get defeated more and more if he doesn't add flexibility to his style. His obsession with possession gives teams the opportunity to sit back and wait until a mistake is made. We've seen him experiment with his teams with not just formations but player roles. I'm quite sure he is going to study his faults and come back with solutions

You made a lot of points about Pep which are typically made by fans of other clubs who don't remember what was happening at Barca when Pep took over. Saying RijKaard's last year was a disaster is an understatement. We were struggling to stay in 3rd place. If it wasn't for some key victories in the end of the season, Barca would have finished 4th or even 5th. The board had decided in December that he was going to be sacked but they gave him the new year to pull things together. The team made a good run towards the end of the season but still had bad results especially the loss to Madrid which was the final nail in RijKaard's coffin.

Pep benefitting from Rijkaard: Yes, Pep had a good set of players in the team he got from Rijkaard but this is where you are absolutely wrong - Chemistry. That team had ZERO chemistry and in fact had players who were not interested in playing with each other. Very few people know that Xavi was ready to join Bayern before Pep joined the club. Xavi was completely disenchanted with the team. There is a little known anecdote from Xavi which he recently revealed. When Barca hired Pep, one of the first people Pep called was Xavi. The conversation went like this - "I am taking over Barca and you're going to be the new me. This place is going to go ballistic. " Xavi hung up and decided he's staying.

Rijkaard's Barca played around Ronaldinho. By the time Pep came over, he was drinking, partying and getting fat. Pep's first team talk was, "If you play for me, you have to run. " He immediately decided who was not going to run for him - Ronaldinho and Deco. Eto didn't really like the way Pep treated everybody like a work horse because Eto was a superstar at Barca. Pep made the BIG decision of sending a player like Eto packing. He also determined that Yaya Toure, one of the main stays from the rijkaard era had to go if he wasn't going to defend. When Pep decided to sell Toure and use Busquets, there was criticism from everywhere including people calling him racist because he had sold all colored players (Ronaldinho, Eto, Henry, Toure) for Spanish players.

Pep brought Busquets and Pique (United reject) into the team and gave them world class status, which is something Spain benefitted heavily from. Pedro's career got a shot in the arm because of Pep. Iniesta still says that Pep made him the player he is now for spain and Barca. Xavi claims that Pep changed the way they looked at football even though he was aware of his methods. Above all, Pep made Messi the player he is now. Messi was always considered the biggest talent from La Masia in ages but Pep figured out what his strengths were. Pep's biggest decision was to sell Zlatan (whom he bought for over 70m) because he knew Messi's importance to the team.

Fabio Capello: Three years ago Capello was asked about Pep's Barca (when they were dominating everyone) and he said, "When Barca lose the ball, they move forward. This is new to me. " Capello praised Pep for the innovation he brought into football which he had never seen before like his defensive press and the work rate he gets out of his players. Pep's Barca in 2008-09 would probably have defeated Capello heavily. Pep took Barca from a third place finish 18 points off Madrid in 1st place and finished the next year in 1st place, 9 points above Madrid including the 6-2 demolition of Madrid at the Bernabeu setting the then goal scoring record for the season.

When you say, Pep improved "some" aspects of the game at Barca, you are understating his work. Pep reorganized the way La Masia functioned and it was because of him that Barca decided to construct the newly opened dorm for kids at la masia. He also installed a promotion system for various tiers of La Masia which systematically promote good performers. Bayern hired him partially because they wanted him to work with their academy.

I agree that Pep has a lot to prove but he is currently in his 5th year of coaching. He has accumulated 16 trophies and he might end up winning his 17th (DFB pokal). Mourinho has 20 in his 12 year career. Pep is a very creative coach and he learns from his mistakes very quickly. If he continues at this rate, he will probably go down as the most decorated coach in the history of the sport

I didn't get offended at all. I think its crazy for even football pundits to suggest that Pep is a fraud. Most people who didn't follow Barca until the current team started playing exception football do not know how bad things were at Barca. Anyway, Pep's record speaks for itself. He is very young and relatively new at managing teams but his career has gotten off to an amazing start. You, or someone else, compared him to Juup and how great a manager he was. Well, you have to look at his stats throughout his career. Juup winning percentage is negligible compared to Pep's. Of course, Pep has a long way to go but its not even in the same ball park. In fact, Pep's record in unmatchable for most famous coaches. Juup won around 12 trophies in his entire managerial career. Pep won 14 with Barca alone. He's at 17 at the moment. Mourinho has 20 titles. Capello has 13. You get my point.

Why is there a requirement that Pep start something from scratch? Because he didn't start at a bottom club? His right of passage was creating the dream team which no other manager has managed in the history of the sport. When he became manager of Barcelona, the club gambled on an unproven guy. That could have been a disaster for the club. Ronaldinho was busy partying and getting fat. Xavi was on his way to Bayern. Eto was not really paying attention to anybody but himself. There was no real defence to speak of. Pep put all that together and created the team and took it unparalleled success. That's why he gets to go to a club where world class players are winning trophies for shits and giggles. One can wonder if Pep got lucky with Barca (4 years of success is no luck) and wait and see if he does the same with Bayern but wondering if he is a "fraud" is a ridiculous idea. And it doesn't matter if its coming from your or from a football pundit

Hey Sean, send me a mail to matt@footytube.com, confirming your paypal details then I can settle your prize from last season

Two cool votes for you, , , for agreeing that R9 is Awesome