GOAL pays tribute to those in dugouts across the world by counting down the best tacticians of the past 25 years
'Players win matches, not managers', is something you often hear, sometimes from the coaches themselves. Indeed, managers cannot score bicycle kicks, they cannot run from one end of the pitch to the other, they cannot head crosses away or make saves. The economist Stefan Szymanski and writer Simon Kuper concluded in their book 'Soccernomics' that managers barely matter at all, and the main determining factor of success is money spent on wages. Managers, they suggest, "could be replaced by their secretaries, or their chairmen, or by stuffed teddy bears".
But if that were the case, then Manchester United would still be the leading force in English football, Tottenham would have remained the mid-to-lower table team they were in the 1990s, Atletico Madrid would have stood no chance of winning La Liga and Leicester City would never have pulled off the greatest fairy-tale title win in modern football history.
No, managers have a huge impact. They dictate the team's style of play, they pick their staff, they have a very big say on who is bought and sold. They are the club's face to the outside world and they are responsible for the culture within it. Yes, there have been instances when teams with coaches of a questionable quality have still done well (hello Roberto Di Matteo and Raymond Domenech!), but it never lasts long.
A great manager can utterly transform a club, a league and in some instances an entire football culture. That's why they are paid so much and why they are so highly coveted. In the modern era, the manager is the real star, far more important than any individual player.
Here, GOAL celebrates the best managers of the 21st century, figures who have not just won games, but created dynasties, effectively built stadiums and changed the course of history…
Getty 25Claudio Ranieri
Ranieri has had 17 coaching jobs in the 21st century, and at 74 years of age is still in demand, having just returned to Roma. But his achievements at one club tower above all the rest.
Ranieri was an unpopular choice to take over at Leicester City in 2015 and his side were tipped for relegation. But in a story that still feels fantastical almost a decade on, Ranieri guided the Foxes to the Premier League title. Leicester had the fourth-lowest wage bill in the entire league and, at the time, no star names. At the start of the campaign, the odds of them winning the title were 5000/1, as there were no indications they could be title contenders: lead striker Jamie Vardy had spent most of his career in non-league, no one had heard of central midfield signing N'Golo Kante and the two centre-backs, Robert Huth and Wes Morgan, had a combined age of 62.
Ranieri turned this ragtag squad into title winners by going back to basics, always playing 4-4-2 and picking a settled starting line-up. His team averaged just 42.4 percent possession per game and completed the second-lowest percentage of passes in the league, but they pressed aggressively, won the ball back regularly and gave it to Vardy or Riyad Mahrez to provide magic in attack. They were also deadly from set-pieces.
In the heat of a four-way title race with Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham, Ranieri ensured his players stayed calm, saying 'dilly ding, dilly dong' to keep them concentrated and getting them to make their own pizza to build team spirit. He was the right man at the right time, and even though he was sacked nine months later, he will forever be a part of Leicester and Premier League folklore as the manager who made the impossible happen.
AdvertisementGetty 24Marcello Lippi
Lippi was one of the most dominant managers in the 1990s, winning a Champions League and multiple Serie A titles with Juventus. He remained successful with the Old Lady when the new century began, although his finest act of the past 25 years came in 2006, when he led Italy to win the World Cup.
Italian football was in turmoil as news of the 'Calciopoli' scandal broke, and yet Lippi instilled an unbreakable spirit in his team, who knocked out hosts Germany in an unforgettable semi-final before overcoming the disappointment of conceding early in the final with France to go on and win on penalties.
This was Italian football at its finest, as Lippi's team showed incredible defensive discipline throughout the tournament while taking their few chances. There was also some expert gamesmanship, with Mateo Materazzi getting into Zinedine Zidane's head and causing the legendary midfielder to get himself sent off in the final for headbutting the Azzurri defender.
Having conquered Italian and international football, Lippi took a leap into the unknown by heading to China and collected even more honours, winning three league titles in a row as well as the Asian Champions League with Guangzhou Evergrande.
Getty23Jupp Heynckes
Not many managers can claim to have won the Champions League with two clubs, and fewer still have been sacked the day after on both occasions. Heynckes finished the last century by ending Real Madrid's 32-year wait for European glory, but celebrated it far away from the players, knowing he was going to be fired whatever happened.
Heynckes then had a difficult start to the new century, with disappointing and short-lived spells in charge of Benfica, Athletic Club, Schalke and Borussia Monchengladbach, but returned to the heights he had once scaled when he was named manager of Bayern Munich for a third time.
He took the Bavarian giants to the Champions League final in their own stadium in 2012, only to lose on penalties to Chelsea, while he also lost the DFB Pokal final 5-2 to Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund. But the following season, Bayern bounced back emphatically.
Heynckes' side swept to the Bundesliga title in record time, also making history for the most points, most wins, most clean sheets, best goal difference and fewest goals conceded in a season. They also avenged defeat in the finals of the Pokal and the Champions League, completing the treble for the first time. Heynckes pulled this off despite learning months earlier that he was going to be replaced by Pep Guardiola.
Following the Catalan's reign, Heynckes came out of retirement to lead Bayern for a fourth time in 2017, winning yet another Bundesliga title aged 73.
Getty 22Louis van Gaal
Van Gaal had a difficult start to the new century, overseeing the Netherlands' failure to qualify for the 2002 World Cup – the first time since 1986 – and then endured a horrendous second tenure with Barcelona, as he was dismissed in January 2003 with the team three points above the relegation zone.
He rebuilt his career back in the Netherlands by guiding AZ Alkmaar to only the second Eredivisie title in their history and then was named Bayern Munich boss, where he won the Bundesliga title and reached the Champions League final in his first season in Bavaria. Typically, though, he fell out with the Bayern hierarchy and squad during the following campaign, and in a surreal moment, showed his private parts to the squad to prove a point to Franck Ribery.
Van Gaal remained a candidate for top jobs, and after guiding the Netherlands to the 2014 World Cup semi-finals, he was named Manchester United boss in 2014. His time at Old Trafford had some great highs, including winning the FA Cup, although the football was achingly dull at times. He made up for it with more hilarious antics in press conferences and on the sidelines, whether it was talking of sex masochism or diving to the floor against Arsenal.
Van Gaal took a long hiatus from football after leaving United, but made a welcome return as Netherlands boss for a third time, leading them to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2022 despite battling cancer at the same time.
