Champions League.A Champions between doubts, cuts and precautions
Analysis. Ten young people to discover in the Champions League
“You can imagine how motivated it is for me to be here, to coach this team.
It is the highest honor.
The phrase is attributed to
Pep Guardiola
on the first day he stepped into the FC Barcelona first team dressing room in July 2008, but it could have been uttered by
Frank Lampard
at Chelsea,
Solskjaer
at Manchester or
Andrea Pirlo
when just a month ago he put in front of Juventus.
The greats of Europe have followed the path that was opened at the Camp Nou and that have sublimated technicians
how
Zinedine Zidane
or
Diego Simeone
Charismatic players on their teams before successfully coaching them from the bench. The new batch of coaches, all brilliant players at the turn of the millennium, have swapped boots for suits in a transition so rapid it could raise doubts.
This is the case of Frank Lampard, who took the reins of the
Chelsea
Following the dismissal of Mauricio Sarri in July 2019 and after a brief stint at the Championship in modest Derby County, the entrusted task was to rebuild a team with young values that, after many years of check book strokes, could not go to the market by a UEFA sanction.
The result was a fourth place in the Premier that opened the doors of the Champions League again and a painful 7-1 defeat in the round of 16 against
Bayern
.
"It's a great platform to learn because you're playing against the best," he remembers that defeat, which toughened his players and himself. With the restrictions lifted and with the base already worked, the signings of Haverz, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwill, Ziyech and Thiago Silva sweeten Lampard's first assessable project, which starts this Tuesday against Sevilla. The former English international has made his debut season bitter
Mikel Arteta
, which left him without the FACup at the helm of Arsenal.
Who was captain of the
gunners
heads a new attempt to find another
Arsene wenger
.
Did not set
Unai emery
, who was replaced in November 2019 by another former player:
Freddie ljungberg
.
This time the experiment did not go well.
The Swede trained the subsidiary and, with the arrival of Basque, he joined the coaching staff.
But at the head of the team he only endured six games.
The management turned to Arteta, who since his retirement as a player had enrolled in
staff
of Guardiola in the City.
Mourinho to 'Babyface'
Another English team that changed an experienced coach for a new one but with ancestry among their hobby was the
Manchester United
.
TO
Mourinho
he followed
Solskjaer
, the hero of the 1999 Champions League, the calm after the storm.
He began his career in the lower divisions of the
reds
, but after a brief experience at Cardiff City, he took the lead at Molde, with whom he won the Norwegian championship in 2011, 2012, as well as the 2013 Cup. He did not have it easy in his first months at Old Trafford.
His past did not seem enough until he hit the key that made the team wake up. The bet has not only been in LaLiga and the Premier.
Also in Serie A they emerge, and with visibility in the Champions League that starts today.
The last
Andrea Pirlo
.
His career has been the most brilliant.
On July 30 it was announced that he would be the coach of the subsidiary but, after the fiasco in the final phase of the Champions League,
Sarri
He was fired and the fine midfielder sat on the bench.
Fifth at the start of the competition, his challenge will also be the Champions League, where Barcelona, Dynamo Kiev and the Hungarian Ferencváros await him.
Simone inzaghi
, who has been managing Lazio since 2016, and
Genaro Gattuso
who, after being a coach at Sion at the end of his career, jumped from the Milan subsidiary to the first team in 2017 after the dismissal of
Vicenzo Montella
.
They were not 82 easy games in two seasons at San Siro, enough to curdle and accept the challenge of replacing
Ancelotti
at Naples, with which he has won his first title, the Italian Cup.
The key: the knowledge and the 'staff'
What do these novices have that they impose on other coaches with more curriculum?
Does having been part of the club have more value than having baggage?
“The key is knowledge, not experience.
You can enter a dressing room being a great player, but not without knowing what you are doing and being surrounded by a good
staff
", Explain
Robert Fernandez
, former coach of Barça.
«Knowing the club is important, its style, its way of playing, but not the most important thing.
There are some who want to have ex-players around who are being molded, because being a great player has nothing to do with being a good coach, ”he clarifies. Robert does not even believe that this emergence is due to the crisis and the market contraction, also of coaches.
“The clubs make great efforts to sign players, but they want to win.
And if they see that they cannot do it with a figure from their past, they will stop it, "he concludes.
To continue reading for free
Sign inSign up
Or
subscribe to Premium
and you will have access to all the web content of El Mundo
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more