At the top of the game, there are two species of football manager: those who build teams and those who win games. Arsene Wenger is a team builder (Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Marcelo Bielsa join the list). Rafa Benitez is a game winner. Under him, Liverpool seemed more likely to be Champions of Europe than to win the domestic league – even if that meant going head-to-head with Europe’s giant clubs.
José Mourinho and Guus Hiddink belong to both species at once. They are master builders and their teams can punch far above their weight in one-off contests. (Mourinho’s record against Barcelona is the exception, but then Barcelona are the exception.)
What links the two qualities? In a word, psychology. For Mourinho, as for Hiddink, building a team and winning a single match are both, more so than for the others, a psychological achievement.
What do you think? Who do you see as team builders or game winners?
