Pep Guardiola is a true legend of football, conquering multiple leagues as a manager and revolutionising the game.
However, Pep Guardiola isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Indeed, Guardiola’s style of play isn’t for everyone. Wayne Rooney blamed Guardiola for the England team becoming more boring last summer, while Gary Neville has had criticisms of many teams who try to copy Guardiola’s style.
Speaking to TalkSPORT, John Terry has been discussing Chelsea and their first season under Pep Guardiola protégé, Enzo Maresca.
Terry says that he’s not overly keen on Maresca’s style of play, claiming that Chelsea, much like many other teams, overplay with the ball in dangerous areas.
Terry stated that Manchester City have a lot to answer for as an epidemic of playing out from the back has now spread across the Premier League.
Photo by Molly Darlington/Copa/Getty Images
Photo by Molly Darlington/Copa/Getty Images
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John Terry hits out at Manchester City
Terry spoke about the way Chelsea play, making a point about Manchester City in the process.
The former England captain says he’s not so keen on Chelsea’s current style, pointing the finger at Man City and Guardiola for this system becoming so popular.
“I think at times we’ve overplayed when the pressure is on. You look at our era when we played, we’d go long into Didier (Drogba), it’s not a long ball, it’s a good ball from Petr Cech who had the diagonal, you could kind of break the lines and stuff,” Terry said.
Now I think we invite the press too often. Other teams do it, it’s not just Chelsea. Man City have a lot to answer for I think. Man City are the best at it, every team tries to do it but they can’t. If you can’t do it, I’d always think ‘can we beat the press and play a little higher up.’ I think the fans have been frustrated with that over time.”
Premier League managers with links to Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola has revolutionised football, and while his style of play has become popularised in recent years, he’s also directly affected and mentored many top managers in the game today.
Xabi Alonso, Vincent Kompany and Luis Enrique manage the three biggest teams in Spain, Germany and France, and they all have links to Guardiola.
Meanwhile, even in the Premier League, Guardiola’s biggest rivals are also his students.
Mikel Arteta and Enzo Maresca used to directly work with Guardiola at City, while Arne Slot is a big fan of Guardiola too.
For better or for worse, Guardiola has changed football forever, and, while Terry may not like it, there’s a reason all of the world’s top teams consistently continue to turn towards these Guardiola disciples.