Ranking Premier League managers: Machweek 15 winners and losers

As Liverpool lose more ground on league leaders Chelsea, Klopp is fast being caught by Conte in my manager ratings. When I started the rating after Gameweek 13, Klopp was the runaway leader with 9.5 rating points above second placed Pochettino and 9.9 rating points above third placed Conte. Last week Conte gained 4.5 points with the victory over Manchester City, while Klopp succumbed to a shock loss against Bournemouth. This week, Conte has further cut down the gap by 0.85 points as Liverpool only managed a draw after our hard-fought victory over West Brom. Meanwhile, Conte managed to open up an even greater gap from third placed Pochettino. There is a scrap from 3^rd place Pochettino to 6^th place Wenger as the four managers in between are separated by 1.2 points which is significantly low considering there is a 4.5 point gap between first place and second.

Winners

Claudio Ranieri

The standard excuse for Leicester’s underperformance in the Premier League has been their Champions League commitments — now that they are done and into the knockout round, they have duly delivered with an magnificent 4-2 humbling of Manchester City. Ranieri managed to bring the magic back and in the process moved from 19^th to 15^th in this week’s ranking, gaining the most points with 5.98.

Jose Mourinho

We welcome another ex-Chelsea manager to the list of winners after The Special O ne orchestrated a narrow 1-0 victory over title chasing (not anymore) Spurs. The victory was long overdue after dropping points in matches they should have put to bed. Spurs failed to capitalize on United’s inability to put the game to bed, handing Jose a much needed victory. Jose Mourinho hasn’t changed his place in the rating system and is still 18^th above only Moyes and Bilic.

Bob Bradley

Rounding off the winners this week is Bob Bradley. This week has been the week for underperforming managers as all the winners were in the bottom four. Bob Bradley has won a crucial relegation six-pointer with a 3-0 victory against an in-form Sunderland. The match was a crucial for both teams who were in the relegation places before this gameweek. Bob Bradley has gained 4 places and is now 13^th above a certain Baldy.

Losers

Pep Guardiola

Again. It just had to be him!! After resisting my temptation last week to put Guardiola in first place for losers, I have no calms about reserving this spot for him this week. Sure, they did not have Fernandinho, Aguero and Otamendi but that is no excuse to lose against a Leicester side who had been hopeless in the Premier League this season. If you think the team’s on-field performance was shambolic you should listen to his post-match reaction when he said he doesn’t train his players tackling. Guardiola has dropped two spots and is now just 14th out of 20 managers. Ouch.

David Moyes

This was one of the least expected results this weekend. Sunderland had everything going for them, the third best team in the league since the start of November, beating champions Leicester the previous gameweek, playing a struggling Swansea team. And yet, Moyes’ Sunderland capitulated miserably as they lost a crucial relegation six-pointer. This result probably undid all the good work Sunderland have been doing in the last few weeks. (And now Chelsea have a chance to undo it even further.) Moyes has dropped four places to 19^th after briefly getting out of the relegation spots last week.

Ronald Koeman

for It was a tough pick between Koeman and Howe but Koeman probably deserves to be here more than Howe, just by virtue of the respective teams’ reputations. Also Koeman’s Everton haven’t been doing well for quite some while with Everton winless in five Premier League matches. Everton has one of the better squads in the league but have failed to deliver results. With Everton playing Arsenal and Manchester United in their next two matches, its high time for Everton to pick up their game before submitting their fans to yet another mediocre season. Koeman has dropped three places to 7^th.