Manuel Pellegrini: the evolution of the technical innovator who dazzled Europe

Serious and prepared. A hermit, according to his relatives. A football innovator, who even inspired a European champion coach. This is how its former administrators recognize it. Manuel Pellegrini’s career has steadily progressed since his debut as a coach in that distant year 1988. Close to the Engineer, they retrace the evolution of the best Chilean coach in history. A former central defender who played for the University of Chile from 1973 to 1986. A precocious coach, who already in his last years as a player began his international studies in Italy, in 1985, to begin the path that led him led to the elite of world football. And that today they have it on different covers after winning the Copa del Rey with Betis. His first trophy in Spain.

“I was his partner and he was directing me. As a coach, he started off on the wrong foot at the U. It wasn’t his one hundred percent responsibility. He went to Europe to perfect himself and spent three or four months without directing us. Manage time well, groups. It is the most representative of the U and of Chile,” says Roberto Reynero.

He also explains that “this trip to Europe was a sign that he would be a different coach. It was instilled by Fernando Riera to follow the courses. Today we praise him for what he got. To lead Real Madrid or Manchester City, you have to be a great coach. He wasn’t a standout player either. As a technician, yes. He said that things were done in quality and not in quantity”.

After this setback in the blue descent, the man from Santiago led Palestino (1990-1991), O’Higgins (1992-1993), Universidad Católica (1994-1996) and the Arabs again, in 1998.

The following year he joined the Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito, Ecuador, team with which he won the first league title of his DT career, in 1999. This is how Fernando Díaz, friend and former assistant of Pellegrini in football, remembers him Guayas.

“First, he arrives at the Católica with Héctor Pinto as his assistant. He calls us and makes the work plan by division in the training area. I adopted the system I had, the English system based on 10×10 squares, with reduced football. Later, he takes me on as a technical assistant at LDU to take care of the inferiors. This is where the plan to win the Libertadores begins, which they carried out much later (2008)”, says the former goalkeeper.

In the same way, he remembers the respect, the discipline and the way of working that he imposed during his two seasons in Quito, the big leap before triumphing in Argentina.

“Manuel (Pellegrini) imposed his working system, based on reduced football and the mechanization of travel. Before the championship, we played a game against Dinamo Moscow and called the team to talk. Nine players were missing at the time, all holders. Manuel made me close the door and with those who were there he made the team. As he was giving his speech, there was a knock on the door. Never again was there any delay from anyone. At that time we won the championship, which was quite significant. In the first Libertadores we had in 1999, we played the Round of 16 against River. On the way back, we won at the last minute. We were eliminated on penalties. There he had the first meeting with Fernando Miele, president of San Lorenzo. Gorosito and Acosta had recommended it. Manuel imposed his ability, the Ecuadorian players saw that he did it without disrespecting them, which was not very common there”, explains the former DT of Unión Española.

Díaz also acknowledges that the Engineer’s goal was clear: “He always wanted to achieve in Europe. Italy or England. He took courses in Italian and to improve his English. He was already getting ready, he was a hermit, getting used to living alone”.

In 2000 they arrived at San Lorenzo de Almagro, a team with which they won the Clausura 2001 tournament. A team that set several records in the history of Argentine football, such as 13 consecutive victories and 15 in a short championship. In addition, he holds the record for points in single-wheel competition: 47 units. With the “Santos”, in addition, the Chilean coach achieved the title of the 2001 Mercosur Cup, the first international star of the Gauchos de Boedo.

In 2002, he signed with River Plate and won the Clausura 2003 title, but left the club in December of the same year, after falling in the South American final against Cienciano of Peru.

In July 2004, he signed with Villarreal of Spain, his first foray into Europe. In five seasons, he managed to place the modest club in the semi-finals of the 2005-2006 Champions League and reach second place in La Liga, the best place in its history. Regardless of the achievements, groguet painting acquires a radiant identity. An innovative football, where the Chilean was a precursor in several facets, as recognized by his former coach Josico.

“I have a pretty big plotline about Pellegrini. He had something different, a lot of concepts that we didn’t know and I don’t know where he got them from. He’s an innovator, who doesn’t has not been recognized as it should be. I see a lot of things in this Villarreal de Emery that we did 15 years ago. He introduced the idea of ​​doing massage baths for the team on Friday, before the day, in order to lower the intensity. He had a way of playing reduced football that I had never seen before. He did it to better occupy the spaces, even to improve the offside line. This concept had never been worked on, reducing the spaces towards the ball and making opponents stay offside, so that the goalkeeper could better manage the spaces. I learned a lot with Pellegrini. When I was later at the Turkish Fenerbahçe with Luis Aragonés, the coach himself told me that he watched our training sessions at Villarreal and released a lot of things for Spain who won the Championship of Europe 2008″, assures the former midfielder from Albacete.

And not only does he stand out from the tactical elements, since “he was one of the great coaches who came to Europe. Perhaps because of his character, of never wanting to attract attention and never raising his voice, he was not given the true prominence he deserved. In recent years there has been a trend in Europe to play five behind, but Pellegrini never gave up on the four defenders, behind two pivots (retention midfielders), that’s very clear to him. And up there, he always manages according to the players he has. It is very effective in automating concepts. Your teams have an identity. I see a lot of similarities in what we did at Villarreal and at this Betis. How to draw the offside line and how the team defends low block. He is a DT who gives importance and freedom to his best players. Now with Nabil Fekir at Betis, and before with Cazorla and Riquelme at Villarreal. If they let him work, he can put his stamp on the teams.” confirms Josico himself.

After five seasons, the current Copa del Rey champion signed for Real Madrid, a club where he spent just one season and where he had constant clashes with president Florentino Pérez, who imposed his personal style to the coach, who He did not even have the freedom to form the team after the departure of players like Arjen Robben or Wesley Sneijder. In October 2010, he returned to manage in La Liga, this time in Malaga, another modest Hispanic regional team which he led to its best performances, such as the quarter-finals of the 2012-2013 Champions League. Always on the same policy, innovative tactical concepts and group management. This is how Pedro Morales, former Chilean midfielder of the Andalusian club, describes him.

“The way of working, the perseverance, the respect he shows towards the players, his way of being, his transparency. These are the keys. Form good groups. It has young people and a leader. Its forms are not exciting. In the talks, he spoke very little. He is a local technician at breakfast, in concentration. He didn’t go into the locker room much, but if he did, he joked around with the older guys and accepted some jokes. Things could be asked of him. He helped me a lot, he asked me to adapt and when I did he told me that I was done, ”says the former Huachipato.

Such a bustle and bustle caused the DT on the Costa del Sol that a roundabout is named after Manuel Pellegrini. In strict football, former Malaga midfielder Ignacio Camacho highlights his forms.

“He has a very particular manner and way of training. He is a ball-focused person. All work is done with the ball and he is a perfectionist, tactically speaking. He puts a lot of emphasis on the defensive block, always with a line of four. Higher up, he likes to play with two dominant midfielders, or one of the two with the right foot. Having the ball and achieving balance has always been key for this Malaga “He doesn’t play a direct game, because he liked his team to be the protagonist with the ball. He never forgot to work on that defense which gave him security and an outlet,” says the youth coach. B from Aleti.

Successes in Spain led him to Manchester City, where he won three titles: a Premier League and two versions of the League Cup, between 2013 and 2016, before the arrival of Josep Guardiola. After Great Britain, he went to Hebei Fortune in China where he spent three seasons, before returning to England, this time on the bench of West Ham United, where he could not repeat the successes of his seasons. previous ones.

In mid-2020, he decided to take the reins of a Betis struggling with numerous financial problems and with a workforce far from being the best in La Liga. However, despite his modesty, Pellegrini was able to impose his stamp and has already won the first Copa del Rey of his long record as a coach. The Cranes are tempting him again, but he’s already committed until 2025 with the Sevillians, who peg his departure at more than $6 million. An idyll that Benito Villamarín never wants to end.