He maybe rail thin but his stats are phat
Pep Guardiola has made winning his middle name.
“The win against Valladolid last Sunday which confirmed the league title, was Guardiola’s 87th victory in charge out of a total of just 121 games, which represents a 72% winning record, with 19% of the games ending in a draw and just 9% lost. ”
Only Helenio Herrera in his first installment as Barca’s coach from April 1958 to May 1960 enjoys a better winning percentage. 71 won out of 94 matches in two years for an impressive 75.53% and two Liga, a Copa Del Rey, and a UEFA Fairs title.
Guardiola has actually improved upon his winning percentage from his first season. With 42 matches won in his first season to 45 in the next, an increase from 68% to 76%. It has happened because Barca under him is a scoring machine, with 296 goals scored in these 121 matches- an average of 2.5 goals/ match. The defense has done its job too, conceding only 96 for an average of less than a goal. A gaudy + 202 differential.
Leo Messi is the biggest beneficiary of Guardiola’s scoring largesse. In his two seasons under the coach, the maestro increased his goal tally from 38 to 47 goals. In all, 85 goals and he is already Barca’s seventh highest scorer. Even Thierry Henry has scored 30, not shabby and yet in the face of such overwhelming power, he is being written off. Under Guardiola’s golden touch, Pedro and Bojan, the two most improved players have 23 and 22, respectively. No wonder David Villa is champing at the bits. He might be at the 30 goal average at Barca.
Guardiola’s record will be measured against Johan Cruyff, the longest serving Barca coach- 430 matches played over eight seasons, winning 250 of them for a shade under 60%. Cruyff is Barca’s most successful coach when it comes to winning the Liga. Four of them in his eight years. But Guardiola achieved the sextuplet in his first season. No one can top that.
Guardiola is on a pace to becoming the most storied coach in Barcelona history and he is just 39 years old. One can only dream of the mind boggling numbers he will have run up in the next ten years if he stays on and becomes the kingmaker of another generation of players.