Welcome back to another interesting episodes of talking sports. Today, we would be looking at the top 10 Premier League managers for the 2023/2024 seasons.
The biggest judgment of how good a manager is results, style of play, and very importantly, the ability to improve individual players and get the best out of them. Whether they’re young academy players, old veterans, superstars, or even fringe players on the bench. So, here is the full list.
Premier League Top 10 Managers
10) Thomas Frank – Brentford
At number 10, is Brentford’s Thomas Frank. He joined Brentford as an assistant coach in 2016. Two years later, he would become the first-team coach, and after three years, he got them promoted to the Premier League.
With one of the lowest budgets in the league, Thomas Frank has consistently outperformed his expectations and made Brentford a mainstay in the Premier League.
Frank gets Brentford to play a counter-attacking football. He’s a pragmatic manager that adjusts to his opponents. They’re great at set pieces, and he always gets the best out of his players, who we’ve never heard of, because of great scouting and great managing.
9) Erik Ten Hag – Manchester United
This might be too low for some people, or it might be too high for some people, but it’s hard to say Ten Hag did a good job at Manchester United. Considering the resources he’s had, he should have done a better job.
His two biggest criticisms for many are that Manchester United do not have a real identity in their footballing style, and also, his signings have not been very good, and he’s wasted a lot of Manchester United’s money.
His debut season at United was actually good because they finished in the top four and they won the League Cup, but this season has been dreadful for Manchester United. They have grinded out results from close matches; they’ve lost so many silly matches, and it’s just not been looking good.
He’s still a decent manager because the pressure is on him, and he’s good at managing Manchester United. It’s a crazy circus, and it does require skill to maneuver and Ten Hag does well to manage the pressure and maneuver around the media circus.
8) Mauricio Pochettino – Chelsea.
Moving on to the next best manager, it is Chelsea’s Mauricio Pochettino. Similar to Ten Hag in the previous entry, this ranking is mainly based on his historical achievements and the legacy of Pochettino from his time at Tottenham.
So, we know he’s a great manager, but his debut season at Chelsea was not good. The players are not responding to him, and this could be due to the circus around Chelsea, the fact that they sold all the experienced players and just brought in a bunch of young players that are having a hard time integrating within the team.
7) Roberto De Zerbi – Brighton
Pep Guardiola loves De Zerbi, and if Pep loves you, then you must be doing something good. De Zerbi came into Brighton with a lot of expectations, and he’s exceeded that with a distinct style of football.
De Zerbi plays attractive, high-position football. They control the midfield, short passing, fast movement, and all the players appear to play with a high degree of intelligence. It’s why De Zerbi is so highly rated. He’s expected to move to a bigger club in the future, possibly succeeding Klopp at Liverpool or even Guardiola at City.
6) Eddie Howe – Newcastle United
At number six, it is Eddie Howe of Newcastle. Now, Newcastle aren’t doing too good this season, but we can’t forget how much they exceeded the expectations last season. Due to Howe’s management, he transformed Newcastle almost instantly. He’s got them playing a very high-intensity attacking football, and they also have a solid rock defense.
Howe is highly placed on this list because of how he’s improved players like Dan Burn, Schar, Longstaff, Wilson, who were all there before Newcastle had the money. And even with Newcastle’s money, players like Bruno Guimaraes, Isak, and Botman, they’ve all done really well.
You can’t also forget Howe’s incredible achievements with Bournemouth. So, the man is clearly a great manager.
5) Unai Emery – Aston Villa
Unai Emery has taken Villa from bottom half to compete for the top four in one season. Yes, he has a great squad, but they were highly underachieving under Steven Gerrard. Emery has turned them around instantly. Emery is known for his extreme attention to detail.
A typical Spanish manager that plays high defensive line, high possession style football. He’s known as a perfectionist. He analyzes opponents extensively.
Emery’s achievements are unmatched before with Villa. He won countless European trophies with Sevilla and Villarreal. Aston Villa are almost the perfect club for Emery because they’re a mid-table club. They’ve got lots of money, and they will back Emery. And Emery likes being an underdog when it comes to facing the big teams. So, there’s no doubt he’s going to keep improving them, and they’ll be even better next season.
4) Ange Postecoglou – Tottenham Hotspur
This man is a great manager. Tottenham were the most defensive team under Antonio Conte last season. Within four months, Postecoglou has turned Tottenham from the most defensive to the most attacking team in the league.
The term “Ange Ball” was coined for his style of play because of how beautiful and attacking his teams play.
They play ultra-attacking. He gets his fullbacks to invert and also build up from defense. They press relentlessly, and he allows his most creative players to be at the center stage to create everything. And they just love scoring many goals.
His debut season, he’s done very well. But next season, they’re expected to be even scarier because he’s going to get more resources, more players to suit his style, and Tottenham are going to be a really scary team because of how great of a manager Postecoglou is.
3) Mikel Arteta – Arsenal
The most underrated manager in the Premier League, Mikel Arteta of Arsenal is number three on the Premier League Top managers.
Now, people cannot underestimate what a job he has done to transform Arsenal into this great team they are now. If you compare to who Arsenal were four or five years ago, they were known as a banter club. And if you think about it, this is Mikel Arteta’s first-ever job as a manager in football.
Arteta just retired playing, then Guardiola hired him instantly as an assistant coach, and Arsenal acted even more instantly in hiring him and giving him the main job.
He’s great at man management of his players. His great tactical intricacies, his beautiful Spanish philosophy all shine for his team. Arteta is a great tactician, but his ability to manage a big club like Arsenal as a rookie manager is an underrated attribute about him and needs to be talked about more.
Arteta is a special manager, and Arsenal are lucky to have him. That’s why they have backed him financially, giving him so much money to sign players like Declan Rice, whereas previous Arsenal managers would have not gotten financial backing. One can say the backing from Arsenal to Arteta is showing on the pitch because Arteta is getting the results.
What’s crazy is there are still fans out there, footballing fans, and even Arsenal fans that still call for Mikel Arteta’s head whenever a result doesn’t go Arsenal’s way. They don’t realize how great of a manager Arteta is, and Arsenal are lucky to have him.
2) Jurgen Klopp – Liverpool FC
What needs to be said about him that hasn’t already been said? His achievements with Liverpool in the last seven years are legendary. Premier League title, Champions League title, many second-place finishes in the league, two more Champions League finals.
Klopp is a revolutionary manager. He was a counter to the Spanish-Dutch positional style that dominated for over the last 10 years, which is what allowed him to take on Manchester City, even though he had fewer resources.
Klopp rebuilt this Liverpool squad, and they’re back to their best, competing for the title again. Even though last season they looked very bad, and he was close to getting fired, and people thought the Liverpool era was done. But no, Klopp has shown that he’s a great manager. He’s got new, great players, and he’s getting the best out of them.
Klopp even won the League Cup with academy players playing an attacking style of football. That’s how much of a great manager he is. Even with the lack of resources, he gets the best out of them. So, Klopp comes in at number two.
1) Pep Guardiola – Manchester City
Finally, at number one, it is Pep Guardiola, arguably the greatest football manager of all time. Yes, Pep has had the most money to spend on players, but it’s the fact that they always, always perform well. They never flop. They hardly ever flop. Guardiola changed European football, and 15 years later, he continues to change the football.
Everyone looks up to him. Everyone copies him. Pep introduced this high possession style football with his Barcelona, the short passes that everyone copied. He then adapted Gegenpressing into his style in his Bayern Munich days, and now at Manchester City, he combines his Spanish possession and German Gegenpressing and he combines them to get this hybrid style of football with his Manchester City team that doesn’t destroy all the Premier League opponents.
Guardiola seems to play his typical tiki-taka football or even now with Haaland, he can play the old-school target man style of football. Pep can do it all, and he continues to innovate tactics.
Two years ago, he brought in his fullbacks to be in the central midfield, and then everyone started copying him. He then decided to play four center-backs in his defense, and now everyone’s doing the same. He’s now bringing in his center-back, John Stones, to come into the midfield attacking midfield position, and no doubt, from next season, everyone will copy him again, because that’s just what Guardiola does.
He continues to innovate. He’s a different breed, the way he thinks about football. We can only imagine, and he’s still the best manager in the Premier League in 2024.
Thank you for reading till the end. That was the list of the top 10 Premier League managers. Who did we place higher or lower? Kindly drop your review below. See you again on the next publication.