Liverpool legend Graeme Souness has said that having the right players is the most important thing at any soccer club. He stated that any top English coach would have been just as successful as Arne Slot at Liverpool and Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Guardiola Dominates Premier League With Manchester City; Slot’s Record Run at Liverpool
Spanish tactician Guardiola is widely hailed as one of the finest coaches in the history of the game. So far, he has managed three top clubs, enjoying smashing success in each one. Guardiola won two UEFA Champions Leagues and three La Liga titles at Barcelona, secured three consecutive Bundesliga titles and two DFB Pokals at Bayern Munich, and has so far bagged six Premier League titles and one UEFA Champions League trophy with Manchester City, among other honors. He became the first coach in history to win four consecutive Premier League titles.
Slot, meanwhile, has enjoyed the best-ever start for a new coach at Liverpool. Under his tutelage, Liverpool has played 16 games across competitions, winning 14 (1 D, 1 L). The Merseysiders are at the top of both the Premier League rankings and the UEFA Champions League rankings.
Graeme Souness Insists English Coaches Would Have Been As Successful as Pep Guardiola and Arne Slot
Stats suggest that foreign coaches have been better than their English counterparts in recent years, but Souness believes it is solely down to the players they have had at their disposal.
Launching a defense of homegrown talents, Souness said on William Hill’s Three Up Front podcast (via Liverpool ECHO):
“I would dispute the idea that foreign coaches are better than British coaches. Foreign managers are getting better jobs at the moment, but that doesn’t mean they’re better coaches.
“Pep Guardiola inherited a Manchester City side that had won Premier League titles with their two previous managers. Arne Slot took charge at Liverpool and took over what was more or less the finished article. I’m not buying the idea that foreign coaches do anything different to British coaches.”
He added:
“Players are the most important thing at any football club. You look at Guardiola; he had the best group of players in La Liga when he was at Barcelona, he had the best group of players in Germany at Bayern Munich, and now he has the best group of players in the Premier League at City.
“Give an English coach the Liverpool, City, or Arsenal squad and they’d do just as well. The City team Guardiola inherited was full of top players, and he’s bought in better players as well.”
Howard Wilkinson was the last English coach to win the English top-flight title. He led Leeds United to the championship in the 1991-92 season. Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson, meanwhile, is the last British manager to win the Premier League title (2012-13).