a lot of ways to look at this;
for example, would you pick spain 2010 or germany 2014.
iniesta, xavi, busquets, villa or kroos, khedira, ozil, muller

feel free to discuss!!!

Nice try to make Pep look as if he won the world cup...
he had nothing to do with it.

i change opinions because Football gets constantly updated....Liverpool and City late compains in CL will oblige me to reckon them as a force to count into. i wont find excuses why they did well or not. I base my opinions on results not preferences reason why i change mines often and you will never change yours...

Lol, Tiki is right whether you guys want to admit it or not. Guardiola's blueprint is what was used as the foundation for the Spanish team that won three consecutive titles. The German team also benefited from Guardiola's tactics, but we also saw the adverse side of that this year with Germany and in 2014 with Spain.

It might sound like there is a tough debate between the two nations at their peak level, but in actuality there isn't.

When I watched Germany win the World Cup 14, it felt as though all the other nations never stepped up to the plate. Not to discredit Germany, however, I thought they were well deserved winners.

But I can almost guarantee you that those who think Germany 14 were better than Spain 10 most probably have only started watching football not so long ago.

I can bet you that if there was a contest of the past decade of World Cup winners competing in a tournament, all at their peak level, Spain will come out on top.

Their squad from 08 to 12 was simply filthy (in a good way). It was more entertaining to watch them hold possession more than scoring goals: it was the sweet spot mixture between talent and tactics. It was just that good, ffs. Double rainbow all the way man.

Yep and without talking about tactics, Low got the genius idea of playing his brain ( not Kroos not Ozil ) : Philipp Lahm the most underrated player of this german era in midlefield. Everyone thought at Bayern that playing the best RB in midlefield was plain stupid. but he was their Xavi, their Mordric and it helped. when you get a player of this caliber on midlefield, other players win on calm and composure and it changes a squad dynamic, something that has nothing with stats... reason why i think Messi should have sacrified himself in that role and let scoring to others in Argentina. Lo Celso was soft on that position and instead of playing him as false nine, you take one of these aging CDM and put Messi in midlefield with a defensive role... I dont think he would have accepted but he could be convinced if team wins and it would have oppened the door to Dybala filling his original position and getting more spotlight...
That was the ultimate sacrifice and i think Pep would have convinced him as he convinced many players to switch positions for the benefit of the team.

dont get me wrong, Pep hurted Barça in many occasions. he signed many of our targets and hunted many of current Barça players taking Bravo out of there. I do not appreciate the man, kind of hypocrits who never say something bad in front of camera. but players have mixed opinions on him, im more Mourinho style of people, and i love Mou as human being. but in term of tactics, you cant deny Pep influence on modern Football. Pep inspied himself from El Loco ( Bielsa ) and Crujff ( Total Football ) yes, Pep only managed monster teams, YES. but he manages them so well, i dont know if he could manage teams like Monaco or Porto like Jardim did or Mourinho. But getting the players he needs, on a league basis he is unstoppable.

He is not number one for me Marcus, but he cant be a fraud no matter what you can say, doesnt make sense.

Back to topic, Germany won vs Algeria miraculously in 1/8, defeated France ( young squad ) on Hummells set piece ( Varane istake ) didnt touched the ball till the end thanks to Neuer if they advanced. the 1-7 is what it is, Legendary historical game but it doesnt make them dominant of an era or something....

My unpopular opinion is that without Neuer, Germany would be another 1/8 promising team to get knocked out. But they were playing quality possession Football with very experienced Bayern players... I reckon at least 4 or 5 Brazilian teams better in the process. Spain of 2008-2012 is compared to Brazil 1970 and im sure they are better...

Barcelona's best ever generation that turned out to be Spains golden generation is a product of Barcelona as a whole, not Pep.
The first man to promote people like Iniesta,Valdes to the first team and create a system was Antic.
He was sacked after saving Barcelona from a horrible season that was a result of a bad work from Van Gaal, in comes Raikkard that takes all the glory with winning the CL after he did a smart sub where he put in a veteran that came to the club Larsson that assisted to Eto'o and the start of many managers that came through Barcelona and won everything began.
Pep simply inherited a golden generation that would have won a lot with or without him, as other managers have proven that same thing after and before him, but Pep is the only one that continued to be relevant after his time in Barcelona, mainly because he joined a mega team of Bayern and a rich team of Man City.

Saying that he alone influenced World Cup winners Spain is giving him too much credit, even more so when talking about Germany's football system that was great all this time since 2002 but lacked a more stable defense and transition, which they finally got in Hummels that really isn't a product of Pep and the case is the same with Gotze that won the World Cup for Germany after he was subbed in, or transition and leaders like Bastian that also wasn't a product of Pep.

Why is this even a debate? Spain had utter dominance from 2008-2012 in both International and European football. Although they did get a few lucky breaks, historically this level of European success was unprecedented.

Italy in 2012 was really strong with Pirlo-Balo and co. Played them both in the euro 2012. They trashed Germany 2-0 before getting hammered 4-0 in the final fair and square...
they didn’t just win back to back international trophies, they dominated all their opponents in a way they couldn’t touch a ball and ended frustrated...

Germany entered History with the 1-7, but Brazil helped them, great WC overall but in term of consistency nothing could be said.