Ricardo Gareca - The Most Underrated Manager in Football?

[Guest]

https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/09/06/peru-world-cup-qualifying-conmebol-south-america-ricardo-gareca

Ricardo Gareca is Peru's manager, and he's beginning to prove that he is perhaps the most underrated manager in world football. If he completed the dream of taking Peru to the world cup, he will no doubt have a load of teams after him. Although I'd say for that to happen he perhaps needs to prove a point at the world cup, which I think he'll do.

A few notes

 

- Beat Brazil for the first time since 1975

- Won in Asuncion for the first time in history - first away win in 12 years

- Won in Quito for the first time - a place where historically Peru get thrashed.

- Is 2 matches away from taking Peru to the World Cup.

- Has only lost 3 games since the beginning of the Copa America Centenario. That's 18 matches.

- Plays beautiful football, making us look like a top team. All about technique and passing unpredictability.

- Got rid of Jefferson Farfan, Claudio Pizarro, Carlos Zambrano, Carlos Ascues and Juan Manuel Vargas due to lack of discipline and age. Started an entirely new team made up of young players in the Peruvian league. The aim was to impress at the Copa America Centenario and get them playing abroad. This was the before and after:

 

As for some of his other achievements, won an apertura with Universitario, and 3 titles with Velez. Also won the Copa CONMEBOL with Talleres de Cordoba, although didn't succeed in Palmeiras. Happens to all managers.

I'd rank him as the second best manager in SA national teams, only behind Tite.

[Smiley Culture]

You're definition of underrated needs some work. 

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

You're definition of underrated needs some work. 

How so?

Thinking about it perhaps there is another word.

[Carnivore Chris]

On 07/09/2017 at 7:53 PM, Smiley Culture said:

You're definition of underrated needs some work. 

He is underrated to be honest. I bet that a large majority of European football fans know little to nothing about him yet he's doing a fantastic job with Peru and will likely get them to the world cup, which is no easy feat in such a difficult qualifying group.

 

I wouldn't go as far as saying he's the most underrated manager in the world(that would be Marcelino for me) but the work he is currently doing is certainly being underrated.

[Guest]

The way I see it, anyone who can take Peru to the World Cup has done a top job and is extremely underrated.

We've had many good managers along the years as well as some exceptional talent (frontline of Pizarro, Farfan, Vargas and Guerrero) but they always found themselves making poor decisions for Peru. Not only were they scared to get rid of the players with ego but also played a few out of position to make room for all 4 (Pizarro was played as a 10 FFS!) also the press were constantly on them. Even Gareca was asked to leave several times. Nevertheless, most of them were successful. Paulo Autori and Sergio Markarian were excellent managers, but neither could do anything special with the Peruvian National Team. 

Ricardo Gareca took over at the end of the generation. He saw this as well as lack of discipline and built a completely new team after the past generation just didn't impress. Peru currently has a future to look forward to, even if they do manage to successfully complete qualification. He's the best manager we've had since Oblitas (1998).

He's got us playing absolutely sensational football, a joy to watch and he gets the results. The on the floor technical game of Peru has always been lovely, but Gareca has been able to revive it and revolutionize it. We've been out of the World Cup since 1982, and if we do qualify he deserves to be in the FIFA shortlist of managers of the year because it has shown over the year that taking Peru to the world cup is one of the hardest challenges in football, yet he's done it from 4 points when Peru seemed eliminated last year in September.

Edison Flores, Andy Polo, Raul Ruidiaz, Pedro Aquino,  Miguel Trauco, Jose Manzaneda, Wilder Cartagena, Pedro Gallese, Miguel Araujo and Christian Cueva were all introduced to the national team by Gareca. 4 of those seemed lost causes and each and every one of them are just as important to us as each other. Christian Cueva is the biggest example, who wasn't rated by Alianza Lima fans. Now he's at Sao Paulo and is one of the best players in the league on form. Edison Flores and Miguel Araujo certainly shut me up as I once didn't rate neither. Andy Polo still doesn't convince me but he's at Monarcas so he can't really complain. Gareca has given all of them confidence for national and club level. Lets also not forget that while Yoshimar Yotun and Andre Carrillo were introduced by Markarian, they've been revolutionized and are both top players since this cycle began. We have a future. If we won't reach this world cup, we'll make the next.

He's also done well with Velez Sarsfield a few years back. Since he's left, they went completely downhill.

[Asura]

On 9/7/2017 at 1:53 PM, Smiley Culture said:

You're definition of underrated needs some work. 

[Harry]

It would be fantastic to see a bit more variety in the WC makeup from the Americas. It feels like it has been pretty stable and predictable since Dwight Yorke got there with Trinidad and Tobago.

CONCACAF and CONMEBOL don't seem to throw up as much variability on average as UEFA, CAF or AFC.