Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho are probably the two best coaches in the world. But they are not just coaches, there is much more to them than that. There are already dozens of books about their tactics and training methods. Instead, this book explains why they are different from all others from the perspective of their leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, talent and team management. These factors make the difference between winners and losers.

From Cruyff's "Total Football" to the epic rivalry between Guardiola and Mourinho, a gripping chronicle of the rise and fall of Barcelona's dominance in world soccer. Barcelona's style of play -- pressing and possessing -- is the single biggest influence on modern soccer. In The Barcelona Inheritance, Jonathan Wilson reveals how and why this came to pass, offering a deep analysis of the evolution of soccer tactics and style. In the late 1990s, Johan Cruyff's Dream Team was disintegrating and the revolutionary manager had departed, but his style gave birth to a new generation of thinkers, including Pep Guardiola and Joséourinho. Today, their teams are first and second in the Premier League, marking the latest installment in a rivalry that can be traced back twenty-five years. The Barcelona Inheritance is a book about the tactics, the personalities, the friendships, and, in one case, an apocalyptic falling-out that continue to shape the game today.

A soccer player is more than the sum of his parts: endurance, speed, shooting technique, passing technique, and many more. All of these factors need to be turned into one system to create good players. Traditional training theory doesn’t achieve that because each skill is trained individually. This is why the concept of Tactical Periodization has become the preferred training theory for many of the current most successful soccer coaches: Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho, Diego Simeone, André Villas-Boas, and many others train according to these principles. By creating match-like situations in practice, players learn to link their technical, tactical, and athletic abilities to match intelligence. They will learn to transfer their skills to soccer matches and they can improve endurance, technique, and tactics all at the same time while enjoying the practice sessions more. For this book, the author has evaluated and analyzed hundreds of training sessions and has tailored exercises to specific demands. All exercises are performed with a ball so that players learn to apply each skill to the game. Every coach will find numerous exercises in this book to help them create better and more efficient practice sessions so they can improve their players’ and the team’s performance. With Tactical Periodization, your team will become better and be successful on the next match day!

'Does culture create competitive advantage? Case closed in this compelling analysis of sporting success. Read it.' – James Kerr, bestselling author of Legacy. In The Barcelona Way, sports psychologist Prof. Damian Hughes draws on exclusive insight into FCB as well as first-hand research from organizational psychology, to set out a method to create your own high-performance culture. At the heart of FCB’s winning culture are a set of principles, epitomized by Pep Guardiola, Johan Cruyff, Lionel Messi and many other FCB legends, which govern how to nurture talent, prepare for change and provide the best environment to build a culture of sustained success. These principles: Big Picture, Arc of Change, Repetition, Cultural Architects, Authentic Leadership are at the heart of FCB’s unprecedented domination of football, and are the key to developing high-performance cultures in any team-based organisation across every industry. The Barcelona Way is a hugely practical must-read that sets out a clear plan, based on the same principles, for you to create a culture of success and get the best of yourself and your team.

An explosive and shocking biography of Jose Mourinho – revealing the dark side of 'the special one'.

For three extraordinary seasons at Bayern Munich, Martin Perarnau was given total access around the German super club – to its players, its backroom staff, its board members and, above all, to its manager, Pep Guardiola. In the follow-up to his critically acclaimed account of Guardiola's first full season at Bayern, Pep Confidential, Perarnau now lifts the lid on the Catalan's whole tenure in Bavaria. Pep Guardiola: The Evolution takes the reader on a journey through three action packed seasons as Bayern smashed domestic records yet struggled to emulate that dominance in Europe, analysing Guardiola's management style through key moments on and off the field. Perarnau reveals how Guardiola improved as a manager at Bayern despite failing to land the ultimate prize in European football, examines his decision to leave Germany to take up the challenge at Manchester City and how his managerial style will continue to evolve in the Premier League. This is more than the story of three seasons with one of the biggest clubs in the game. It is a portrait and analysis of a manager and the footballing philosophies that have beguiled the world.

Originally developed by Vitor Frade, at the University of Porto, Tactical Periodization is a methodology - popularized by coaches such as Jose Mourinho and Andre Villas Boas - that trains soccer players through a logical process that focuses on four moments of the game. These four moments are: Offensive Organisation, the Transition from Defence to Attack, Defensive Organisation, and the Transition from Attack to Defence. Through Tactical Periodization, the aim is to develop players to rapidly alter their on-field behaviours according to the tactical context of the match, and what actually unfolds in front of them. In turn, every training exercise focuses on at least one of the four moments, and always the coach's tactical game model of how he wants his team to play. In doing so, football players prepare and learn how best to conquer the often unpredictable matches that they encounter competitively. This book is the English language translation of the acclaimed book Periodizacion Tactica by world-renowned coach and sports science specialist Xavier Tamarit. *Important Note: What is Tactical Periodization is the translation of an academic book that examines Tactical Periodization's underlying philosophies, methodologies, and application. It covers areas such as systemic thinking, football as a complex phenomenon, and how the 'sum is greater than its parts'; it does not contain practical how-tos or drills. Candidly, it is not an 'easy' book to read, and requires a certain level of effort and concentration by the reader. However, for those who stick with it, the book provides a rewarding and high value resource for the modern football coach who wishes to understand exactly how Tactical Periodization developed, what it means for the sport, and how it can influence his or her coaching. Summary sections have been added to each original chapter to offer additional insight."