The most influential football managers ever

Some managers make their mark by winning trophies – and each of the legendary coaches you’re about to see did just that.

But this particular group of gaffers go down in football history for more than the silverware they collected; they have influenced the game in far-reaching ways through their tactics, philosophies and all-round attitudes.

These are the most influential managers of all time…

The godfather of Gegenpressing, Ralf Rangnick has made his mark on the modern game as both a manager and director of football.

Also a key figure in popularising zonal marking, the former Schalke and RB Leipzig boss and ex-Manchester United interim coach has influenced a number of his German compatriots – among them Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann.

Espousing attractive football and good sportsmanship, the inimitable Brian Clough was unquestionably one of football management’s greatest characters of the 20th century.

While his outspoken nature almost certainly played a part in him being ‘the greatest manager England never had’, Cloughie left an indelible legacy through his immense success at Derby – who he led to the Second and First Division titles – and Nottingham Forest – who he also guided from the second tier to top-flight glory, as well as, most memorably, back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980.

An Auxerre player for more than a decade, Guy Roux ended up devoting almost his entire career in football to the French club – who he managed for over 40 years between 1961 and 2005.

In taking Auxerre from the lower divisions to Ligue 1 glory and Champions League qualification, Roux placed great emphasis on youth development – resulting in the Burgundy-based outfit producing stars including Eric Cantona and Laurent Blanc.

The most influential manager Liverpool ever had, Bill Shankly well and truly transformed the Reds’ fortunes by taking over a Second Division outfit and rebuilding them into a trophy-winning force domestically and continentally.

An enormously charismatic man who harnessed the full power of the Anfield faithful – famously talking about the Kop having the power to “suck the ball into the net” – the inimitable Scot strongly believed that football was about three parties first and foremost: the players, the manager, and the fans.

The internationally massive Manchester United we know today would not have been so without their first iconic Scottish boss, Sir Matt Busby – who, through his emphasis on attacking football and nurturing young talent, such as Bobby Charlton and George Best, delivered the Red Devil’s first league titles and European Cup triumph, establishing them as top dogs in their city and beyond.

Most remarkably of all, though, he inspirationally guided the club through its darkest hour, successfully rebuilding the team after the tragedy of the 1958 Munich air disaster.

To date, Vittorio Pozzo is still the only manager to win two World Cups – steering his native Italy to successive triumphs in 1934 and 1938.

An important exponent of the Metodo system – which made use of full-backs and a midfield pivot in something akin to today’s 4-3-3 formation – Pozzo was also among the earliest coaches to make use of pre-tournament training camps.

“I think I’m a special one”: those were the words unforgettably uttered by Jose Mourinho on his first press conference as Chelsea manager in 2004.

Already a Champions League winner with Porto, the surly Portuguese tactician set himself apart from his contemporaries by playing reactive, more defensive football in an era heavily geared towards keeping possession – and his approach never worked to more stunning effect than in his first season at Stamford Bridge, when the Blues claimed their maiden Premier League title while conceding a record-low 15 goals in 38 games.

A two-time First Division title-winning coach at both Huddersfield in the 1920s and Arsenal the following decade, Herbert Chapman was ahead of his time, being among the first managers to take full control of team selection (in the game’s early years, this was generally overseen by the board).

But surely his most notable innovation was the WM formation – so named for its resemblance to those two letters when viewed with the forward line at the top of the picture – the foundation of most present-day shapes.

Probably the greatest South American manager of all time, Argentine Helenio Herrera’s name is synonymous with the Grande Inter team who won three Serie A titles and back-to-back European Cups during the 1960s.

Sometimes cited as the first coach to take credit for their side’s displays, Herrera developed the catenaccio defensive tactic by building on Austrian Karl Rappan’s ‘bolt’ strategy (‘catenaccio’ is Italian for ‘door-bolt’) from the 1930s.

Total Football is most strongly associated with the Dutch, but legendary Ukrainian Valeriy Lobanovskyi was another of its foremost progenitors.

The former Dynamo Kyiv and Soviet Union forward – who had multiple spells in charge of both teams, leasing Dynamo to two Cup Winners’ Cups and the 1998/99 Champions League semi-finals – also stood out for his intense focus on sports science, long before it became such a ubiquitous aspect of the game, allowing his sides to sustain an intense high press for 90 minutes.

Another elite exponent of pressing, iconic Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi popularised the kind of high defensive line successfully used by many of today’s top bosses.

Also big on the offside trap – something which was not commonplace at all in the Italian game when he first made his mark at the highest level with Milan in the late 80s – Sacchi transformed the traditional idea of defensive football into something more dynamic, and it yielded successive European Cups for the Rossoneri in 1989 and 1990.

Arsenal’s greatest manager, Arsene Wenger’s 1996 arrival in North London was greeted with more than a little scepticism – but the meticulous Frenchman silenced his doubters by revolutionising the English game

Nicknamed ‘Le Professeur’ (no translation necessary), Wenger played a major role in the Premier League’s growth into the best league in the world – thanks in no small part to his firm belief in attacking, exciting football, and his influentially progressive attitude towards preparational matters such as player nutrition

From the moment he steered Barcelona to the treble in his first campaign in management, it was clear that Pep Guardiola was more than a bit special.

A touchline master with an unmatchable knack for constantly tweaking his tactics to ensure sustained success in a rapidly evolving game, the possession-obsessed Pep – who completed his second treble in 2023, this time as Manchester City boss – has innovated in numerous massively effective ways, from deploying two number 10s in a three-man midfield to effectively playing without full-backs.

He may not have been its sole inventor, but Rinus Michels is more synonymous than anyone else with the concept of Total Football – the enduring Dutch philosophy born in the 1970s which elevated Ajax and the Netherlands to the top of the club and international games respectively.

Deploying Total Football, Michels steered Ajax to European Cup glory, Barcelona to LaLiga success and the Netherlands to their first World Cup final – and the system’s hallmark, essentially the ability of any outfield player to assume the role of another, is visible in the tactics of many managers today, most notably in Guardiola’s Juego de Posicion.

Football may well never see another coach as dominant as Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United’s enviously decorated boss of 27 years and the finest manager in Premier League history.

At the core of the 1998/99 treble-winning, hairdryer-unleashing Scot’s success was an astonishing ability to rebuild his squad time and time again in order to keep United competing at the very top.

The Red Devils never finished lower than third in their 21 Prem campaigns under the perennially adaptable Fergie, many of whose players have gone on to become accomplished gaffers themselves.

Perhaps the single most influential figure in football history, Johan Cruyff took on a managerial mindset while still playing and was at the heart of Rinus Michels’ tactical philosophy.

The Ajax, Barcelona and Netherlands icon took everything he’d learned from Michels and applied it meticulously to his own coaching career, most notably bringing great success to Barca during the late 80s and early 90s.

In the technical area just as he did on the pitch, Cruyff had a profound impact on the game – one which remains clearly visibly to this day, not least in Barcelona’s proudly upheld possession-based style of play.