Classy Pep Guardiola will always be counted above Jose Mourinho

Mourinho JibesJose Mourinho never misses a jibe on Pep Guardiola. It’s a fair reflection of the amount of insecurity he lives with. On eve of Barcelona’s Champion’s league 2014-15 first leg clash with Bayern Munich, Jose celebrated his third EPL title with Chelsea with a quote – “I could choose another club in another country where it's easier to be champions, but I chose the most difficult league in Europe”Later in the same speech he went on to detail his exploits with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea again.After Barcelona “Messi-merized” Bayern at Nou Camp (3-0), Jose followed up with another jibe at Guardiola and Barcelona, in veil of praising Lionel Messi.“He played a Champions League final with Guardiola, he is most likely going to play in this season’s Champions League final with Luis Enrique and if, one day, he plays for Anthony, Anthony will go to a Champions League final with him.”Later in same speech he went on to detail how he has been successful in stopping Messi as coach of Inter Milan and Real Madrid.Two jibes within the same fortnight, two times self-announcing his achievements; during Pep Guardiola’s worst week of the season.Was Pep criticism justified?The English media meanwhile went ballistic on how Pep Guardiola had weakened Bayern Munich with his tactics and how the German team could do with bit of Mourinho school of thought. The prime concern being that Pep started the Nou Camp semi-final encounter with only three defenders at that back.What mainstream media conveniently overlooked is that the three man defence had been re-jigged to a four, within 15 minutes into the game. That besides, Bayern went into that game with four starting players injured and their leading striker playing with a face mask. They held on for 77 mins till Messi, Alves, Suarez, Rakitic and Neymar wreaked havoc.At the time of writing this, Barcelona’s record in all competitions read: played 30, won 27. Fitter, stronger, more varied than ever; Their aggregate score over the last eight games read: 27-3. They are in the Copa del Rey final, Champions League final and one win (out of two games) from winning their seventh La Liga title in 11 years!Contrast Pep’s exit to how Jose Mourinho’s team went out of Champions league 2014-15 at Round of 16 stage. Chelsea were playing at home (Stamford bridge), lead the encounter twice, had a man advantage for over 80% of the game and lost to routine set pieces vs a team who didn’t have any Messi amongst them – PSG.Yet the criticism on Mourinho was far lesser than what Pep has been subjected to.Mourinho’s conductOn other side, the praise in general to Mourinho has also been far lesser than he deserves. He has been overlooked entire season for the Manager of the Month award. His constant jibes at ex-players, referees, representatives of the FA, Premier League and League Managers Association does his case no good.The constant bickering and ugliness he generated at El Classicos during his stint at doesn't give fond memories to anyone in Spain either. Since he left, El Classicos are more about goals, than red cards or eye pokes.Pep Guardiola meanwhile carries one of the best images as a manager. His stoic silent stance in face of all such jibes (barring one breakdown at Bernabeau press box in 2011) or on field reverses, does his reputation a lot of good.Classy PepZlatan Ibrahimovic has used every possible opportunity to mock at Guardiola and Barcelona, even to sensationalize his book (in 2013) and sell copies. Camp Nou maintained silence.Time surfaced the de-merits in Zlatan’s accusations. For long he blamed how Barcelona was controlled by Messi, that the Argentinean wanted to play central and had pushed Zlatan to the wings.In late 2014, the world saw how Leo Messi asked Luis Suarez (still finding feet with the Catalans) to play central and he be at the wings as that would overall benefit Suarez and the team.Similarly all Zlatan accusations against Pep has missed a basic underlying point - that Pep wanted him so badly that he made the club shelve an obscene amount of money and frontman Samuel Eto in exchange for the then Inter Milan hitman. Pep had Zlatan in his dream team. Zlatan just needed to put the team ahead of himself. He was less of the victim and more of the culprit; but Pep kept silent.Pep has a thing or two to learn about defensive organization from Jose, but the latter has a lot to learn from Pep.

Source: DSG