Liverpool versus Manchester United will be another fascinating clash between two "personas" in an era in which Premier League coaches have become superstars in their own right. How different it was in the 1960s and '70s, when coaches were often semi-clerical figures stuck in a lonely universe of ideation and obduracy as football teetered on the border of professionalism. They slogged their way through their calling, often as isolated flag-bearers. They were curmudgeons.
Fast forward and today top managers are front and centre of their respective clubs, demigods when successful, and reviled when not. That reverence is a consequence of football’s inclination to be a zero-sum game: results are all that matter, even more so with a dense proliferation of big clubs in the Premier League.Mourinho is Lessinho
For long, José Mourinho was an uncontested champion in the English league, with an outstanding record, a charismatic personality and an ego bigger than the Battersea Power Station. Today, there is an entire universe between him and his German Liverpool counterpart Jürgen Klopp. The Special One feels like a relic, belonging to an age in which high-pressing football was less prevalent.
The Portuguese is pragmatic, who loathes the idea that football could be anything more than results-oriented. Welcome to the world of a self-proclaimed antagonist. He has always advocated that there simply isn’t a higher good in the game than winning. In the past decade, Mourinho was the high priest of practical football. But that role play – Mourinho and his team versus the rest of an evil, vile and alien world – only worked as long as the Portuguese maintained his aura.After a dramatic second stint at Stamford Bridge, the aura is now gone. The Mourinho nimbus has slowly been punctured, with a rather large needle. Even the dramatic impact he used to make in interviews and press conferences has faded. Can the Portuguese save Manchester United and his own career with mere tactical fine-tuning, without the man-management skills that made him a virtuoso once?
That was a long time ago. Maybe Mourinho has reached his expiry date, the way Arséne Wenger declined after his first decade in north London. Evolution wears coaches down. They get stuck within a template that may no longer be compatible with the contemporary game. In desperation, they cling on.Klopp won't be clipped
In the modern game, possession and pressing are the cornerstones. Klopp is another exponent of that neoteric school – but the German also has a captivating personality. His touchline behaviour – the intensity, the agitation, and, often, the elation – offers a masterclass in sociology.
Klopp is hugely likeable. He is a cuddly oversized teddy as well as the overaged lead singer in your neighbour’s rock band. He strikes a chord. Klopp orchestrates emotional football, carried by an entire club and an entire set of fans. His aura matches that of Mourinho yet his ego fits into in a small chocolate box.
In just over a year’s time at Anfield, the former Mainz coach has galvanised a club that, for too long, had been on the wane on account of poor boardroom decisions, indecisive coaches and amorphous squads. Klopp was to be the new messiah. He inherited a club in disarray and a gallimaufry of systems and players left by his predecessors Roy Hodgson, Kenny Daglish and Brendan Rodgers. Slowly, he implemented his renowned system "Gegenpressing".Last season’s second half collapse against Sevilla in the Europa League final still stings in northern England, but this season Liverpool may be genuine title contenders in the Premier League. All because of Klopp, who is the avatar of modern coaches. He combines emotive football with sophisticated tactics, a blend that Mourinho once mastered superbly.
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