Blue Mooner
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 25 Jun 2005
- Messages
- 3,139
I've been meaning to post on this for a number of months and Christmas has afforded me some time to finally get round to sharing my thoughts. I'm not sure I will articulate this well enough for fans to understand my perspective but I will give it a go.
Over the years and as I've become older and perhaps wiser, I've become ever more frustrated about the amount of hours fans spend on this forum bemoaning the qualities of various managers we've had over the years, particularly those over Hughes, Mancini and more recently Pellegrini.
To be honest, in my view, this idea that the manager is the ultimate key to success or otherwise of ours or any other club is to over estimate and exaggerate the amount of influence a manager can have. To my mind, of far more importance, and far, far more critical to a teams success is that of the players you have at your disposal and that secret sauce of 'confidence'. Ultimately without the playing personnel and those players playing with confidence then no amount of formations, tactics, rip roaring speeches will overcome this.
Whilst clearly you need a good and well educated football person running your club (I'm not for a minute suggesting that Keith Hill at Rochdale would do as a good a job as a Mourinho, Ancelloti et al), However, there are 'levels' of manager and there comes a point where the differences between the top, top managers is so negligible that to change and expect vast changes in team performance as a result of a different philosophy or approach is futile, ultimately what you end up with broadly are the same results. This is why I applaud Arsenal for sticking with their manager and a 'long term' plan.
So in my opinion the main ingredients to any teams success in this order are: Confidence, Players, Injuries and laterly the Manager (assuming you already have a manager who has proven his success previously) without the first two ingredients you can forget who the manager is. I might also argue that referees can make themselves more important than the manager (note the game changing offside at Spurs and the 3 possible penalties not awarded against Arsenal)
As Lloyd Grossman said on Through the Keyhole, let's look at the evidence:
Chelsea under Mourinho, no one can argue that Mourinho is not a top draw manager, proven cup winner at numerous clubs and yet this season he has presided over a team that has looked more like relegation candidates, that despite the fact that no one can question his tactical credentials due to the numerous successes at other clubs. With that in mind how do you explain the dramatic fall from grace? I would strongly suggest it comes down to confidence and team spirit.
Liverpool under Klopp Celebrated as the second coming of Shankly and after an initial boost, slight change in philosophy and approach results have basically come back to the same level as those under Brendan Rodgers
Leicester this season. Relegation candidates this time last year, however their results at the end of last season under Nigel Pearson towards the end of the season were W7 D1 L1 with the addition of some new players in the summer to supplement their squad notably Okazaki, Kante, Huth, Inler - now they are challenging for the title and this with a manager who was deemed not good enough for Chelsea and had a pretty turgid time as manager of Greece and more recently Monaco and Inter but likewise has had proven success. Why the change in fortunes ? Players and that magic formula of confidence...
Yes of course the manager can help instil belief in the players but his voice may well be drowned out by the plethora of pundits, journalists and keyboard warriers on twitter ready to slag a particular player at a moments notice. As a fan of any club why would you undermine your own wants and desires for your team by slagging your own ?
So my advice if you want your team to be successful, instead of endlessly discussing the merits of your manager, at that level they are all good and proven at one time or another,if you have a proven manager stick with him, and support him, of course it's worth discussing tactics but not in the context of whether your manager should be fired or not. If there is any merit in debate about the teams fortunes more of a focus should be on the players that the club has available (that's probably more likely where the problem is) and if those players have been proven successful at other clubs focus on building up the qualities and confidence of those players we have so that we can be sure we get the best from them. I was always told as a young player and have stood by this, that a good player doesn't go bad overnight. Have faith and belief and support your team that is the key ingredient to success. Tactics, formation and set up only play a part and I would argue a small part.
Following this simple approach will help ensure that when the manager sets up his tactics that he won't be let down by a cr*p stray pass from a player low on confidence.....
Over the years and as I've become older and perhaps wiser, I've become ever more frustrated about the amount of hours fans spend on this forum bemoaning the qualities of various managers we've had over the years, particularly those over Hughes, Mancini and more recently Pellegrini.
To be honest, in my view, this idea that the manager is the ultimate key to success or otherwise of ours or any other club is to over estimate and exaggerate the amount of influence a manager can have. To my mind, of far more importance, and far, far more critical to a teams success is that of the players you have at your disposal and that secret sauce of 'confidence'. Ultimately without the playing personnel and those players playing with confidence then no amount of formations, tactics, rip roaring speeches will overcome this.
Whilst clearly you need a good and well educated football person running your club (I'm not for a minute suggesting that Keith Hill at Rochdale would do as a good a job as a Mourinho, Ancelloti et al), However, there are 'levels' of manager and there comes a point where the differences between the top, top managers is so negligible that to change and expect vast changes in team performance as a result of a different philosophy or approach is futile, ultimately what you end up with broadly are the same results. This is why I applaud Arsenal for sticking with their manager and a 'long term' plan.
So in my opinion the main ingredients to any teams success in this order are: Confidence, Players, Injuries and laterly the Manager (assuming you already have a manager who has proven his success previously) without the first two ingredients you can forget who the manager is. I might also argue that referees can make themselves more important than the manager (note the game changing offside at Spurs and the 3 possible penalties not awarded against Arsenal)
As Lloyd Grossman said on Through the Keyhole, let's look at the evidence:
Chelsea under Mourinho, no one can argue that Mourinho is not a top draw manager, proven cup winner at numerous clubs and yet this season he has presided over a team that has looked more like relegation candidates, that despite the fact that no one can question his tactical credentials due to the numerous successes at other clubs. With that in mind how do you explain the dramatic fall from grace? I would strongly suggest it comes down to confidence and team spirit.
Liverpool under Klopp Celebrated as the second coming of Shankly and after an initial boost, slight change in philosophy and approach results have basically come back to the same level as those under Brendan Rodgers
Leicester this season. Relegation candidates this time last year, however their results at the end of last season under Nigel Pearson towards the end of the season were W7 D1 L1 with the addition of some new players in the summer to supplement their squad notably Okazaki, Kante, Huth, Inler - now they are challenging for the title and this with a manager who was deemed not good enough for Chelsea and had a pretty turgid time as manager of Greece and more recently Monaco and Inter but likewise has had proven success. Why the change in fortunes ? Players and that magic formula of confidence...
Yes of course the manager can help instil belief in the players but his voice may well be drowned out by the plethora of pundits, journalists and keyboard warriers on twitter ready to slag a particular player at a moments notice. As a fan of any club why would you undermine your own wants and desires for your team by slagging your own ?
So my advice if you want your team to be successful, instead of endlessly discussing the merits of your manager, at that level they are all good and proven at one time or another,if you have a proven manager stick with him, and support him, of course it's worth discussing tactics but not in the context of whether your manager should be fired or not. If there is any merit in debate about the teams fortunes more of a focus should be on the players that the club has available (that's probably more likely where the problem is) and if those players have been proven successful at other clubs focus on building up the qualities and confidence of those players we have so that we can be sure we get the best from them. I was always told as a young player and have stood by this, that a good player doesn't go bad overnight. Have faith and belief and support your team that is the key ingredient to success. Tactics, formation and set up only play a part and I would argue a small part.
Following this simple approach will help ensure that when the manager sets up his tactics that he won't be let down by a cr*p stray pass from a player low on confidence.....
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