Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim (right) walks post Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou after the Uefa Europa League final. Alamy Stock Photo
talking point
What do Amorim, Postecoglou, Nancy and Martin have in common?
Has the Premier League entered its post-Guardiola era?
WHAT DO Ruben Amorim, Ange Postecoglou, Russell Martin, and Wilfried Nancy have in common?
Aside from the fact that all have been sacked in recent months by some of the biggest clubs in England and Scotland, there is another parallel.
When it came to tactics, all four were extremely rigid and reluctant to be flexible.
Postecoglou is somewhat of an anomaly, given that he actually managed to win a trophy in the last match before his departure.
But he did so, at the expense of Ruben Amorim’s Man United, in a rare instance of the Australian abandoning his favoured style of play for the sake of securing one of the most momentous results in Tottenham’s history.
Last month, speaking on this subject, Spurs star Micky Van de Ven gave an illuminating interview on The Overlap.
“I liked the offensive play [under Postecoglou], but I like what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more secure at the back. I don’t like getting exposed every game on the counter-attack,” he said.
“At the beginning [under Postecoglou], no team was used to playing against our system. We were playing unbelievable football.
“But managers analyse everything, and people knew what we were doing. Sometimes we didn’t really have a plan B, and we were getting exposed. We didn’t have solutions to get out.
“At one point [me and Romero], walked up to the gaffer and said we need to change some things and play more defensively to make sure we win those games. He was like I agree with you, but I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.”
There are echoes of this situation with Man United and Ruben Amorim.
Just over a year ago, after Amorim’s reign had got off to a difficult start, the Portuguese coach defended his approach.
“I was hired because of that idea, and in these difficult moments, if you change your mind, it is the end for any coach.
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“It is a choice that everyone has to make in football. If I think this is the best thing for the team, I will continue to pass my message.”
Initially, United gave the impression they were willing to back the coach through this rough period.
As recently as March, in an interview with the BBC, owner Jim Ratcliffe described Amorim as an “outstanding young manager” and predicted he would be at the club “for a long time”.
They also backed him in the summer with a reported €250 million investment in the squad, though the results have remained mixed.
The arrivals of Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Senne Lammens have all arguably improved the squad, though not to the dramatic extent Amorim hoped for.
They have been better compared with last season’s disastrous 15th-place finish — the lowest by a United team in the modern era.
And while their current sixth place may be as strong a position as they should have been expecting, it has been a somewhat freakish season, and they are also only four points ahead of Crystal Palace in 14th.
Like Postecoglou, patience for Amorim’s methods wore thin as results remained inconsistent.
Occasional promising moments continually proved to be false dawns. The defeat of Man City last season was followed by three successive Premier League losses. This year, successive victories against Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton were followed by draws with Nottingham Forest and Tottenham, plus a home defeat against an Everton team that played most of the match with 10 men.
As the season progressed, there were reports of Man United’s hierarchy trying to convince Amorim to abandon his customary back three.
Eventually, the Portuguese coach caved to this apparent pressure from above.
On 26 December, United started with a conventional back four for the first time and consequently earned a 1-0 win over Newcastle.
But remember the aforementioned quote: “I was hired because of that idea, and in these difficult moments, if you change your mind, it is the end for any coach.”
Similar to Postecoglou, Amorim belatedly sacrificed his principles, resulting in short-term success but ultimate failure.
10 days later, he was out of a job, following a testy press conference that did little to dispel rumours he was at odds with the other decision makers at the club.
Yet managers with an ultra-specific idea on how football should be played are not always destined to fail.
Manchester City's head coach Pep Guardiola. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The most successful Premier League coach of the last decade, Pep Guardiola, comes into that category.
And that could also describe his greatest rival of the period, Jurgen Klopp.
Although deeply influenced by Johan Cruyff, Guardiola’s style when he emerged as a coach at Barcelona felt fresh and innovative.
Players who did not fit the system — even those with major reputations were swiftly discarded. Ronaldinho and Deco, two of Barca’s biggest stars, were deemed surplus to requirements. Similarly, after taking over at City, Guardiola ruthlessly cast aside club legend Joe Hart. Amorim was comparatively clinical in his treatment of star names at United, with Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo among the fall guys.
The problem is that because he was so successful, Guardiola has created a slew of imitators. Now every second Premier League manager insists on playing out from the back and adhering to an uncompromising vision. What once felt exciting and visionary now seems routine.
That is why even the best coaches in football rarely last more than a decade at the top level — their ideas are studied and replicated so pervasively that they become commonplace and ineffectual.
Now, football is experiencing a backlash against the Guardiola disciples, with Amorim, Postecoglou, Martin and Nancy among the more high-profile victims.
There has been a definite shift towards pragmatism.
Mikel Arteta has built an Arsenal side that features big physical defenders, hard-running midfielders like Declan Rice and an old-fashioned centre forward — Viktor Gyökeres — complemented by speedy wingers such as Bukayo Saka.
For years, scoring from long throw-ins and set pieces was seen as almost beneath the elite sides and associated with clubs managed by journeymen coaches, including Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis. Arteta and others have removed the sense of taboo around this approach. The Gunners have even been labelled “the new Stoke City” and per their official website, are “just the second team to score 20+ set-piece goals (excluding penalties) in consecutive years in the Premier League (21 in 2024, 20 in 2025), after Wimbledon between 1993 and 1996″.
Another one of this season’s great overachievers, Aston Villa, are also coached by a relative pragmatist, Unai Emery, who tends to prioritise defensive solidity and whose sides are often accused of being uneasy on the eye. The remarkable way the Midlands club have defied xG models has even led some critics to question whether their success is sustainable.
You can also see this dramatic change in outlook influencing British football’s powerbrokers.
Tottenham responded to Postecoglou’s exit by hiring a much more defensive coach, Thomas Frank, who also places a significant emphasis on set pieces and long throws. Given the dramatic change in emphasis, it is perhaps no surprise that there have been teething issues.
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Conversely, Nottingham Forest fired the conservative Nuno Espírito Santo for the adventurous Postecoglou, but quickly reverted to the more Nuno-like Sean Dyche after the Australian’s disastrous eight-game spell — the same number of matches Nancy lasted at Celtic, before the reappointment of Martin O’Neill, another manager sometimes perceived as old-fashioned but whose values seem to align with the current moment.
Even Guardiola himself has been forced to adapt and has been subject to somewhat of an identity crisis as a result — physical specimens like Gianluigi Donnarumma and Erling Haaland are the antithesis of the famously diminutive side (starring Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi among others) he enjoyed remarkable success managing at Barcelona.
Crystal Palace's Oliver Glasner has been tipped as a potential successor to Ruben Amorim at Man United. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
According to The Independent, meanwhile, Man United have identified Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner as the preferred candidate to take over the Old Trafford hotseat.
Interestingly, given all the fuss surrounding Amorim’s three-at-the-back system, Glasner plays the same style at Palace, although perhaps he will learn from his predecessor’s downfall and be more willing to adapt to United’s strengths. The Austrian coach has also in the past stated that 4-4-2 is his “favourite system,” so he is ostensibly not as dogmatic as his Portuguese counterpart.
On the other hand, it would be naive for United fans to expect instant success under Glasner. As Jonathan Wilson has pointed out in The Guardian: “[Palace] have the second-lowest possession of any side in the Premier League. It’s not their job to have the ball. And that’s the main reason why a direct comparison with United’s struggles is difficult. United, by history and by expectation, cannot be the side with the second-lowest possession in the Premier League.
“Even if United chose to counterattack against other elite sides, most of their games will be against opponents who sit deep and would be happy enough with a draw. In most games, there is an onus on them to dominate the ball.”
That is the dilemma facing Frank, following his switch to Tottenham and nearly all managers who are rewarded with a lucrative contract from an elite team after punching above their weight elsewhere.
United’s problem is that they invariably tend to be reactive to these trends rather than establishing them.
Amorim’s sacking, therefore, is further confirmation that football has entered its post-Guardiola era.
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What do Amorim, Postecoglou, Nancy and Martin have in common?
WHAT DO Ruben Amorim, Ange Postecoglou, Russell Martin, and Wilfried Nancy have in common?
Aside from the fact that all have been sacked in recent months by some of the biggest clubs in England and Scotland, there is another parallel.
When it came to tactics, all four were extremely rigid and reluctant to be flexible.
Postecoglou is somewhat of an anomaly, given that he actually managed to win a trophy in the last match before his departure.
But he did so, at the expense of Ruben Amorim’s Man United, in a rare instance of the Australian abandoning his favoured style of play for the sake of securing one of the most momentous results in Tottenham’s history.
Last month, speaking on this subject, Spurs star Micky Van de Ven gave an illuminating interview on The Overlap.
“I liked the offensive play [under Postecoglou], but I like what we have now with Thomas Frank. We are more secure at the back. I don’t like getting exposed every game on the counter-attack,” he said.
“At the beginning [under Postecoglou], no team was used to playing against our system. We were playing unbelievable football.
“But managers analyse everything, and people knew what we were doing. Sometimes we didn’t really have a plan B, and we were getting exposed. We didn’t have solutions to get out.
“At one point [me and Romero], walked up to the gaffer and said we need to change some things and play more defensively to make sure we win those games. He was like I agree with you, but I expect you two guys to sort this on the pitch, make sure everybody knows.”
There are echoes of this situation with Man United and Ruben Amorim.
Just over a year ago, after Amorim’s reign had got off to a difficult start, the Portuguese coach defended his approach.
“I was hired because of that idea, and in these difficult moments, if you change your mind, it is the end for any coach.
“It is a choice that everyone has to make in football. If I think this is the best thing for the team, I will continue to pass my message.”
Initially, United gave the impression they were willing to back the coach through this rough period.
As recently as March, in an interview with the BBC, owner Jim Ratcliffe described Amorim as an “outstanding young manager” and predicted he would be at the club “for a long time”.
They also backed him in the summer with a reported €250 million investment in the squad, though the results have remained mixed.
The arrivals of Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Senne Lammens have all arguably improved the squad, though not to the dramatic extent Amorim hoped for.
They have been better compared with last season’s disastrous 15th-place finish — the lowest by a United team in the modern era.
And while their current sixth place may be as strong a position as they should have been expecting, it has been a somewhat freakish season, and they are also only four points ahead of Crystal Palace in 14th.
Like Postecoglou, patience for Amorim’s methods wore thin as results remained inconsistent.
Occasional promising moments continually proved to be false dawns. The defeat of Man City last season was followed by three successive Premier League losses. This year, successive victories against Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton were followed by draws with Nottingham Forest and Tottenham, plus a home defeat against an Everton team that played most of the match with 10 men.
As the season progressed, there were reports of Man United’s hierarchy trying to convince Amorim to abandon his customary back three.
Eventually, the Portuguese coach caved to this apparent pressure from above.
On 26 December, United started with a conventional back four for the first time and consequently earned a 1-0 win over Newcastle.
But remember the aforementioned quote: “I was hired because of that idea, and in these difficult moments, if you change your mind, it is the end for any coach.”
Similar to Postecoglou, Amorim belatedly sacrificed his principles, resulting in short-term success but ultimate failure.
10 days later, he was out of a job, following a testy press conference that did little to dispel rumours he was at odds with the other decision makers at the club.
Yet managers with an ultra-specific idea on how football should be played are not always destined to fail.
The most successful Premier League coach of the last decade, Pep Guardiola, comes into that category.
And that could also describe his greatest rival of the period, Jurgen Klopp.
Although deeply influenced by Johan Cruyff, Guardiola’s style when he emerged as a coach at Barcelona felt fresh and innovative.
Players who did not fit the system — even those with major reputations were swiftly discarded. Ronaldinho and Deco, two of Barca’s biggest stars, were deemed surplus to requirements. Similarly, after taking over at City, Guardiola ruthlessly cast aside club legend Joe Hart. Amorim was comparatively clinical in his treatment of star names at United, with Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo among the fall guys.
The problem is that because he was so successful, Guardiola has created a slew of imitators. Now every second Premier League manager insists on playing out from the back and adhering to an uncompromising vision. What once felt exciting and visionary now seems routine.
That is why even the best coaches in football rarely last more than a decade at the top level — their ideas are studied and replicated so pervasively that they become commonplace and ineffectual.
Now, football is experiencing a backlash against the Guardiola disciples, with Amorim, Postecoglou, Martin and Nancy among the more high-profile victims.
There has been a definite shift towards pragmatism.
Mikel Arteta has built an Arsenal side that features big physical defenders, hard-running midfielders like Declan Rice and an old-fashioned centre forward — Viktor Gyökeres — complemented by speedy wingers such as Bukayo Saka.
For years, scoring from long throw-ins and set pieces was seen as almost beneath the elite sides and associated with clubs managed by journeymen coaches, including Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis. Arteta and others have removed the sense of taboo around this approach. The Gunners have even been labelled “the new Stoke City” and per their official website, are “just the second team to score 20+ set-piece goals (excluding penalties) in consecutive years in the Premier League (21 in 2024, 20 in 2025), after Wimbledon between 1993 and 1996″.
Another one of this season’s great overachievers, Aston Villa, are also coached by a relative pragmatist, Unai Emery, who tends to prioritise defensive solidity and whose sides are often accused of being uneasy on the eye. The remarkable way the Midlands club have defied xG models has even led some critics to question whether their success is sustainable.
You can also see this dramatic change in outlook influencing British football’s powerbrokers.
Tottenham responded to Postecoglou’s exit by hiring a much more defensive coach, Thomas Frank, who also places a significant emphasis on set pieces and long throws. Given the dramatic change in emphasis, it is perhaps no surprise that there have been teething issues.
Conversely, Nottingham Forest fired the conservative Nuno Espírito Santo for the adventurous Postecoglou, but quickly reverted to the more Nuno-like Sean Dyche after the Australian’s disastrous eight-game spell — the same number of matches Nancy lasted at Celtic, before the reappointment of Martin O’Neill, another manager sometimes perceived as old-fashioned but whose values seem to align with the current moment.
Even Guardiola himself has been forced to adapt and has been subject to somewhat of an identity crisis as a result — physical specimens like Gianluigi Donnarumma and Erling Haaland are the antithesis of the famously diminutive side (starring Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi among others) he enjoyed remarkable success managing at Barcelona.
According to The Independent, meanwhile, Man United have identified Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner as the preferred candidate to take over the Old Trafford hotseat.
Interestingly, given all the fuss surrounding Amorim’s three-at-the-back system, Glasner plays the same style at Palace, although perhaps he will learn from his predecessor’s downfall and be more willing to adapt to United’s strengths. The Austrian coach has also in the past stated that 4-4-2 is his “favourite system,” so he is ostensibly not as dogmatic as his Portuguese counterpart.
On the other hand, it would be naive for United fans to expect instant success under Glasner. As Jonathan Wilson has pointed out in The Guardian: “[Palace] have the second-lowest possession of any side in the Premier League. It’s not their job to have the ball. And that’s the main reason why a direct comparison with United’s struggles is difficult. United, by history and by expectation, cannot be the side with the second-lowest possession in the Premier League.
“Even if United chose to counterattack against other elite sides, most of their games will be against opponents who sit deep and would be happy enough with a draw. In most games, there is an onus on them to dominate the ball.”
That is the dilemma facing Frank, following his switch to Tottenham and nearly all managers who are rewarded with a lucrative contract from an elite team after punching above their weight elsewhere.
United’s problem is that they invariably tend to be reactive to these trends rather than establishing them.
Amorim’s sacking, therefore, is further confirmation that football has entered its post-Guardiola era.
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