Opinion – PVC: Ancelotti, Guardiola and Klopp clash over styles

The world awaits the first Champions League final between Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, in a week that begins with Carlo Ancelotti celebrated for being the only coach to win the five biggest leagues in Europe. Neither Cruyff nor Arrigo Sacchi.

Carlo Ancelotti was Italian champion with Milan, English with Chelsea, French with PSG, German with Bayern and Spanish with Real Madrid. If that wasn’t enough, only he, Scotsman Bob Paisley and Frenchman Zinédine Zidane have won the European Champions Cup three times.

The most winning European manager of all is not treated as the best, and the momentum of Klopp and Guardiola helps to understand why. Ancelotti is the simple, the hard and silent work. Kaká has already defined him as the best talent manager he has ever known.

Certainly dealing with the bonfire of vanities is one of the most arduous missions of great technicians. Training is the big argument, and the justice of decisions, the biggest seduction to the stars.

Guardiola, for Bayern, took 4-0 to Real Madrid, from Ancelotti, in the semi-final of the 2014 Champions League and will try to rematch this Wednesday (4). His duel of ideas is with Klopp. Until 2008, José Mourinho seemed to lead football towards the path of defensive strength and certainty of counterattacks.

Guardiola appeared as if taking football from Mourinho’s hands, going south, and announcing to the world that he was now going north, on the attack. Klopp did the same with Borussia Dortmund, from the 2010/2011 season, and the concept of gegenpressing. In other words, the pressure to kill the counterattack.

The book “Between the Lines”, by English journalist Michael Cox, explains in two concepts the two differences between Klopp and Guardiola. The Catalan made his teams press the opponent’s ball out to have the ball, because without it his team would be exposed. He controlled the game from circulation and passes, and his pressure sought to break the passing lines.

Klopp always puts pressure on the man with the ball, in order to tackle, and go as quickly as possible towards the goal. The German and Spanish coaches have the same goals, with different means. Both were transformers.

​Klopp says there is no number 10 like high pressure, because it would take many passes to leave his creative midfielder in a position to make the decisive pass, while a tackle near the area can also be a way to leave the striker facing the goalkeeper. .

The two transforming managers will be this week’s favorites in the Champions League semi-finals. It is not appropriate to belittle Real Madrid and its 35 Spanish titles, 13 Champions Leagues. Nor disdain Carlo Ancelotti, the only strategist capable of winning the five best national championships in the world and being the record holder for Champions League trophies.

All this with the understanding that football has no remote control and, as the three famous coaches say, it is the player who decides. It’s clear as water, and even more so after Manchester City 4-3 Real Madrid, a tactical massacre of the English, which kept the confrontation open thanks to the talent of Benzema – and also of Vinicius Junior.

May will define the champion of Europe and the victory of a transformer –Klopp or Guardiola– or a detail-oriented one, like Ancelotti.

REACTION

Corinthians’ worst moment against Fortaleza was until they found out how to get out of the pressure imposed by Vojvoda’s team. Fortaleza presses a lot on the side of the ball, at the end of the game. Corinthians only took shape when they improved the quality of the pass in defense.

IRON MAN

Gustavo Gómez escapes Abel Ferreira’s rotation of players. He reached 11 straight games as a starter. It’s the only one. The reason is its ability to recover between games. But Palmeiras shows some signs of feeling the physical and emotional marathon.