Of course Pep has changed the game, permanently. Was catching up on games earlier and you see that mark in the way so many teams build up in their own third now. Pre Pep, teams like Huddersfield, Fulham, Rodgers's Swansea wouldn't have had the movements, the player positions to consistently build and retain the ball from deep. Post Pep, the coaches of inferior teams have the tactical movements to build the play and assert themselves on opponents, if they are willing to accept the risk of turnover in key areas. As we're seeing a lot, over a season, trying to become Pep-lite usually leaves you in a good place where you otherwise have no chance of reaching through orthodox pre Pep tactics if you are among the weaker sides in a league. He has revolutionized the game.
Thing is, it's the nature of a field to catch up with an advancement and achieve parity. An original idea, process, method, invention only maintains the advantage of its conception for a window of time. Now the whole world has caught up with his ideas, essentially by copying him.
Question is, what comes next? If you put a Pep-lite like Rodgers or Jokanovic in City's dugout, would they have really fared any worse this season? I don't think so. The next step in the game is tuning his possession movements with just the right adjustment for the preventative marking positions to create solid, consistent defensive movements. Pre Pep, coaches like Mourinho and Benitez created impenetrable shapes as the bedrock of their teams. They still do, while attempting to assimilate the possession game into their strengths. Pep has to work it out from the opposite end. The first coach to do it, will - again - have a window of opportunity to achieve, when he will stand above any other in his field and feel like a God for a while. After that there's nowhere left to go anyway, it would be footballing nirvana.
