Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel have established themselves as two of the modern game's elite managers. The former is a reigning Premier League champion with Manchester City, while Tuchel steered the Blues to Champions League glory last season.
One player who boasts considerable success under both gaffers is Dani Alves. The Brazilian won four La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues under Guardiola at Barcelona, before winning two Ligue 1 gongs under Tuchel at Paris St. Germain. Having worked with both closely, the now 38-year-old Barca right-back agrees there are similarities between the two.
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"Well, I can understand it," Alves tells the May edition of FourFourTwo, out in shops this Thursday. "Perhaps the main similarity is their great capacity to identify different roles for their players.
"Both of them have good eyes to see where certain players can be more useful. Pep used to say that the most talented players should have the ball more often, and the other ones should run to fill the correct spaces."
Alves, who re-joined former club Barcelona in January, has claimed a whopping 47 trophies in his glittering career, including three Champions Leagues, two UEFA Cups, eight domestic titles and two Copa Americas with this native Brazil. He is widely regarded to be one of the greatest right-backs in the history of the sport, and has played alongside some of the best players in history during stints at Barcelona, Juventus and PSG.
While playing at the latter club between 2017 and 2019, Alves was switched from his regular right-back berth to central midfield by Tuchel on a number of occasions.
"[I found that very] enjoyable," he tells FFT. "I remember when he said to me, ‘Dani, it’s a waste to have you as a full-back because you’re not going to touch the ball as much as you should’. I thought that was a great compliment. It did work well, too, as I felt comfortable in that position.
"I think that Marcelo and I, among others, have reinvented the full-back position in the past 10 years. We’ve been kind of playmakers, so it wasn’t very difficult to adapt to midfield. I always want to help my team no matter where I’m playing, and that decision comes from the manager."
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