Klemens Koestler
What is a Good Coach? A good coach can be classified in various opinions and perspectives because everyone has different views on what and who is a good coach. Therefore, it is such an interesting and disputed topic for sport science experts, teachers and students. Do we classify them by how many trophies they won? How great their organization and discipline is? Or how well they understand the players and communicate with them? In my opinion a good coach should be an authoritarian coach. Authoritarian coaches make all the decisions by themself without any input from the players. This creates good discipline among the players and gives the coach respect (especially if he has experience). However, the coach should also let the players and athlete participate in some decision-making and respect their opinion to show they are being valued. Taking that into account, the coach shouldn’t be intimated by the players and still makes the majority of the decision with the skill sets and experience he has achieved. My view and perspective of what a good coach is might vary as I grow older and experience different coaching styles and techniques. Josep Guardiola, current first team manager and coach of Barcelona, has won many trophies, competitions and awards with the Catalan club, FC Barcelona. His contract as first team manager started in 2008 and in his first year with Barcelona, Pep Guardiola won the maximum of 6 trophies in 6 competitions, making him the only coach to ever complete a sextuple. What led this amazing soccer player to become such a good coach and which techniques, does he use? Pep Guardiola, in my opinion, is a good coach because he possesses great leadership ability, has success in his career and is a great tactician who understands the game. His leadership ability might be from the time he served as a coach for FC Barcelona’s B Team. However, I think Pep Guardiola acquired his leadership ability as he started playing soccer in the youth academy for Barcelona. His first debut was against Cadiz FC and from then on Guardiola became a first team regular at the age of 20 in1990. Guardiola was a part of Cruyff’s dream and went on to obtain several competitions becoming on of the key components of Barcelona’s Midfield. After playing 12 seasons with Barcelona, Guardiola had won 16 trophies and decided it was time to change teams. He moved to the Italian league where he played for Brescia and Roma and after changed teams again to Al-Ahli in Qatar, where lots of the elderly great play. He obtained most of his leadership skill by playing soccer himself at professional level and stepped up to the plate to lead his team victories. Pep Guardiola uses the leadership abilities acquired from playing soccer to lead the current FC Barcelona team, who look up to him as a role model from an early age. In addition, Pep Guardiola success has been at an all time high that no previous Barcelona coaches match. In his 4year reign as first team manager and coach of Barcelona, Guardiola has won an astounding 14 titles. He is the youngest coach to have ever won the UEFA champions league and is the only coach to accomplish a sextuple winning a maximum of 6 trophies in 6 competitions in a year. Among those competitions are La Liga, the Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League, Supercopa de
Espana, UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Winning these competitions demonstrates Guardiola achievements and his tactical brilliance, especially since it was done under a year and as his first year as Barcelona’s first team manager. Not only are his successes measured with the titles he wins with Barcelona but he himself received the award as FIFA World Coach of the Year in 2012 with 42% of the votes ahead of Alex Ferguson who ranked 2. Guardiola is the first Barcelona manager in history to beat Real Madrid in el Clasico four times in a row. All these achievements, titles and trophies indicate and confirm that Guardiola is a good coach and one of the very best in the world. He has broken many record both himself and with Barcelona which accentuate his accomplished career. Last but not least, Guardiola has turned FC Barcelona into one of the most attractive teams to watch in soccer with amazing tactics. His tactics resemble those of his former coaches, Johan Cruyff and Van Gaal, however Guardiola’s tactical brilliance surpasses those of Johan Cruyff and Van Gaal. The tiki-taka has become a style to play soccer through short passing, maintain possession and movement. FC Barcelona are masters at the tiki-taka and Guardiola has improved their tactics. Barcelona players are not strong enough to beat their opponents physically so they focus on maintaining ball possession and dictating the game. Their players such as Xavi, Iniesta and Messi have amazing vision in soccer and Guardiola hires players who excel in those certain aspects. In addition, the tikitaka doesn’t require a change in defensive and offensive since they are always in possession of the ball. There tactics have led Barcelona to huge success and let them become one of the most attractive teams to watch in soccer. Therefore, Guardiola, in all aspects, represents what a good coach is and how he should conduct himself because he is one of the most respected coaches who ahs won many competitions individually and with Barcelona. Word Count: 910
Works Cited Coggin, Stewart. "Offensive Game Plan: The 4-3-3 Formation." About.com World Soccer. New York Times. Web. 04 June 2012. <http://worldsoccer.about.com/od/skillsandtactics/a/4-3-3.htm>. "Pep Guardiola." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 06 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 June 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pep_Guardiola>. "Pep Guardiolaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tactics: Drawing from His Mentors Johan Cruyjff and Louis Van Gaal." Theirtactics.com. Web. 3 June 2012. <http://www.theirtactics.com/pepguardiola%E2%80%99s-tactics-1-of-2-drawing-from-his-mentors-johancruyjff-and-louis-van-gaal/>. "Tiki-taka." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 06 Mar. 2012. Web. 04 June 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki-taka>.