The best coaches of the previous ten years — a 2020 selection

How do you judge a great coach: by trophies, a playing idea or the people they develop?

A list of coaches always reveals something about its criteria. This selection from September 2020 places different paths to success alongside one another: passion, tactical organisation, calm leadership and the ability to give a team confidence.

The ranking explicitly expresses the authors’ opinion. That makes its reasoning worth discussing. Which achievements come from the system, and which from the way players are treated? What would you weigh differently in your own list?

The best coaches of the last ten years

This list reflects our personal opinion and the criteria we have chosen. We know that many other coaches could be included for their outstanding achievements.

If you disagree, you are welcome to explain your own choices in the comments.

1. Jürgen Klopp

Jürgen Klopp became “The Normal One” after his first Liverpool press conference. The name contrasts with José Mourinho’s self-description as “The Special One”. By now, the “Normal One” has long overtaken the “Special One”. Times change.

Before moving to Dortmund for the 2008/2009 season, Klopp spent several years coaching the less glamorous provincial club Mainz 05. His black-and-yellow chapter proved far more significant. He made the Ruhr club the number two side in modern German football behind Bayern Munich — and, in 2011 and 2012, number one.

In the 2013 Champions League final, his team lost 2–1 to Bayern Munich. His departure from Dortmund in 2015 was understandably emotional. He remains unforgettable there, and many supporters would love to have him back.

In 2015, he joined Liverpool and led the historic English club back to the highest level of success. For many, the outstanding moment of his time at Anfield will be the victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the 2018/2019 Champions League final. Many people were especially pleased for the likeable figure on the touchline because he had already lost two of those great European finals. The Reds also excelled under Klopp in 2019/2020: despite the coronavirus pandemic, he brought the club its first league title in thirty years. That achievement alone would earn him a statue in Liverpool.

The enthusiasm and passion that “Kloppo” can pass on to his players are unique in world football. Few coaches can motivate a team as he does.

2. Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola has profoundly influenced football tactics over the past ten years. Many regard him as the most tactically minded coach in the world. His numerous trophies reinforce the impression that he is one of the greats of his profession. Above all, it is his distinctive style that earns him such admiration.

He did not invent tiki-taka: the Spanish national team had already used this sophisticated short-passing style under Luis Aragonés. Guardiola did, however, develop the approach further at Barcelona. Between the 2008/2009 and 2011/2012 seasons, the Spaniard won an extraordinary fourteen trophies with Barcelona’s first team. They included three consecutive league titles and two Champions Leagues. After a year away from coaching, he joined Germany’s number one club, Bayern Munich, where he again won everything domestically. Since 2016, he has coached Sheikh-owned Manchester City, collecting domestic trophy after domestic trophy. Only a third Champions League success continues to elude him.

When will the next Champions League title finally arrive?

3. Diego Simeone

Think of Atlético Madrid and you automatically think of Diego Simeone. Over the years, club and coach have become inseparable, much as Arsène Wenger and Arsenal were for so long. The Argentine is actually the highest-paid coach in the world, ahead of both Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp. His energy rivals Klopp’s and can set the entire Metropolitano stadium alight during a home match. His football has also shaped recent years with an influence comparable to Guardiola’s. Nobody before him refined counterattacking and transition play to quite the same degree. Simeone is the main reason Atlético are uncomfortable opponents for any club, and why they have been able to defeat bigger teams in the Champions League for years. The outstanding moments of his career include the 2013/2014 Spanish league title, when he finished ahead of the giants from Barcelona and Atlético’s great city rivals, as well as the painful Champions League final defeats to those same Madrid rivals in 2014 and 2016.

4. Zinedine Zidane

As a player, the Frenchman of Algerian descent was already one of the greatest, leading his country to its first World Cup title in 1998 against a Brazil side that had seemed almost unbeatable. As Real Madrid’s coach, Zidane also achieved something extraordinary. After he took charge in 2016, Madrid lifted the European Cup an incredible three times in a row. Nobody had managed that since Bayern Munich in the 1970s. Given the depth of competition in today’s professional game, experts had considered such dominance impossible. After twelve trophies in only two and a half years, Zidane took a break at the end of the 2017/2018 season before returning to the club in 2019.

5. Hansi Flick

For many years, he was Joachim Löw’s number two with the German national team. Flick was underestimated for a long time. In 2019, at the age of 54, he became head coach of the mighty Bayern Munich. The scepticism proved unjustified: he quickly transformed the team into an exceptionally efficient machine and immediately won the treble in 2019/2020. It makes you wonder how much influence Flick had on Germany’s 2014 World Cup victory. Perhaps more than people thought! In any case, Bayern appear to have chosen the right coach. More major trophies are certainly possible.

6. Carlo Ancelotti

The impeccably dressed Italian has already won the Champions League three times as a coach with AC Milan and Real Madrid. Only Zinedine Zidane has enjoyed comparable coaching success in this competition. Ancelotti can lead even the biggest stars with a calm hand without letting them walk all over him. Although he is currently coaching the more modest English club Everton, he is still regarded as one of the great coaches of the past ten years.

7. Massimiliano Allegri

A multiple Italian champion with Juventus, Allegri is known as a tactical strategist who can prepare his team perfectly for its opponents. He places great importance on a strong winning mentality and consistently instils it in his teams. He has yet to win the Champions League, but that may change in the years ahead.

8. Didier Deschamps

The Frenchman has won the World Cup as both a player and a coach, something only Mário Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer have also achieved. In 2018, he led a team of young, technically and tactically accomplished players to the world title. France will also be among the favourites at Euro 2021, thanks in part to Didier Deschamps’ tactical instincts.