Jorge Sampaoli

Jorge Sampaoli
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Jorge Luis Sampaoli Moya





Current Club/Country: Santos FC

Previous Clubs/Countries: Argentina, Sevilla, Chile, Universidad de Chile, CS Emelec, O'Higgins, Sporting Cristal, Coronel Bolognesi, Sport Boys Callao, Juan Aurich.



Honours: Chilean league 2011/12, 2011/12, 2010/11. Copa Sudamericana 2011/12. Copa America 2014/15.





Sampaoli is one of the new wave of coaches that takes their style of play from the legendary Marcelo Bielsa. It is all about high press and high energy, win the ball back as high up the pitch as possible and in dangerous areas with the opposition committed.



It does seem he has been found out, after having success early on, building on Bielsa's work with Chile to take them to a Copa America title. Sampaoli struggles to cope with the modern player's ego and tactically he seems to have no idea how to change things when it is not going his way.



He is one of those managers that seems unable to build any kind of settled side, using an overly large number of players as he is unable to get his ideas across sufficiently well to have a reliable group to pick from. That particularly showed in internationals, where he used more players than he managed games, 71 players in 42 matches in charge of Chile and 49 in 15 matches as Argentina manager. Even at Sevilla he tried 31 players in his season of management there.



That suggests to me that he is not decisive enough, that he is constantly chopping and changing, and that is never a good thing for a team, which needs to build understanding to perform to its best. Sampaoli has jumped from team to team and has yet to achieve any kind of sustained success, which could be because he is known for being difficult to deal with.



One of the biggest issues I saw of the end of his reign at Chile and then repeated with Sevilla and Chile is a lack of tactical understanding and an inability to get players to play for him. Tactically he has no idea how to get the most out of players. When he took over at Chile, it was all set up and all he had to do was carry on the work of Marcelo Bielsa, which he did well. It was when changes were needed, as older players got too old and new players came through, that he was found out.



Sampaoli just did not know how to use the players to their best effect, something which stood out like a sore thumb at Argentina. He had absolutely no idea what to do with Lionel Messi or how use the team around him to get more out of Messi. Added to that, he struggled to motivate the players, as he also did at Sevilla, where he alienated large portions of the squad.



For me, Sampaoli is an example of a manager who got lucky early in his career and then was found out as badly lacking when things went wrong. When it was going well, it was all plain sailing for him and the teams he was with, but once things went off the rails a little, he was lost and had absolutely no idea what to do to turn things around.



What particularly hinders him is his confrontational nature, which put him at odds with other staff and large portions of the squads. You cannot manage a team when you are at war with it, something he has struggled to learn.





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