Jamie Carragher says he would be more like Jose Mourinho than Pep Guardiola if he was a manager

Jose Mourinho

Jamie Carragher says his management style would be more akin to Jose Mourinho's than Pep Guardiola's.

The former Liverpool defender currently works as a television pundit and does not envisage ever entering the world of coaching.

But Carragher has revealed that he sees more of himself in Tottenham boss Mourinho than Manchester City manager Guardiola.

“In the last 20 years the best two managers have been Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho," he told Sky Sports.

“It's been a contrast in styles but I'm certain if I was a manager, I'd be more Mourinho than Guardiola because of the upbringing I had and how I saw football.

“I couldn't go on to a training pitch and try to coach Barcelona-type football. I wasn't brought up on that as a kid. Certainly at Liverpool we tried to play good football, but it was about using your brain and not taking chances.

“Football was always more about the result than the performance. I was always about the result above all as a player.

“But the game has evolved, and it's become a lot more expansive. Nowadays, for managers and supporters, you have to get the result and the performance to keep so many people happy.

“People always ask players, ‘are you going to become a manager?' Some people can't be bothered, and they get to the end of their career before they think about what they're going to do next. I was the opposite.

“If you'd asked me in my 20s, whether with England or with Liverpool, I'd have said I'd have been a manager. Former coaches were certain I would.

“But as I got closer to finishing my career, I started looking more at the pitfalls of management, and the other options I had. Now, part of me thinks it was for the best I stayed away.

“Ten or 15 years ago, my first thought when it came to entering management was probably ‘hassle’. I used to look at it and think, 'is it worth everything that you go through?'

“I don't really like people acting to me or being like that myself. I'm very straight with people, but I feel managers must be like that, telling players sometimes what they want to hear rather than the truth. I'm just not sure I'd have been cut out for that.”

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Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).