Former Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte has said that Pep Guardiola is the best tactical manager in the world.
The centre-back played in 180 games for City under Guardiola before making a move to Al-Nassr during the previous summer transfer window.
Having only left the Manchester club a few months ago, the 29-year-old has now shared his thoughts on his former manager.
Laporte says Guardiola is the best tactical manager
Speaking in a recent interview with Spanish media publication, AS, Laporte had this to say when asked about Guardiola.
He said: “For me, Guardiola is the best tactical coach in the world, without a doubt. Now I see it even more from the outside, you realise. Tactically it’s the best.”
Having managed at Barcelona and Bayern Munich before being appointed as City’s manager back in 2016, the 53-year-old has won a plethora of trophies including three Champions League titles.
In terms of his tactical nous, one eye-catching move the Spaniard made during his previous season at City that had a big impact on the team was moving John Stones into a midfield position.
This, according to Opta Analyst, “ensures that City have an extra player in midfield in attack and an extra centre-back in the early build-up and in defence.”
Other examples of the former Barcelona manager’s previous tactical tweaks include the use of inverted full-backs and using defenders to play the ball out from the back to start the build-up of attacks.
Guardiola recently strengthened his status as one of Europe’s top managers by winning the Best FIFA Men’s Coach Award for 2023, beating the likes of Simone Inzaghi and Luciano Spalletti.
Bearing in mind how long Laporte played under Guardiola at City, it’s interesting to hear that he has a clearer view of how tactically astute his former manager is now that he is not at the club anymore.
