Wednesday, October 25, 2006

GO ON SON!! GO ON!!


Just a quick thought. Of the managers with teams staring at the Premiership as Essex girls stare at Essex boys (on their knees, staring upwards with a tear in their eye. Sorry.) there is a common theme.

The lack of real tactical nous. Stuart Pearce screams at his team like they've just slapped his gran, Alan Pardew puts David Brent to shame with his motivational interviews, Neil Warnock is only ever a few dodgy penalty decisions away from killing someone, Aidy Boothroyd is aiming to break Mick McCarthy's record of saying 'my boys gave their all', and Glen Roeder is, well, a bit thick.

Point is, being a manager is more than just enthusiasm, passion, belief, motivation, and all those other words that might as well be on an Audi advert. Its a lot to do with tactics. Look at what Arsene Wenger did last season with a bunch of inexperienced youngsters. Look at what Alex Ferguson did in the mid-90s with the same. Didn't scream and shout and say 'we're really up for it' every five seconds.

Kevin Keegan, however, did. And failed. Despite the fact that he'd love it if Newcastle had won the league, just love it, they didn't. Kevin Keegan showed us all that without sound tactics, you won't get very far.

Boothroyd and Warnock are excused, as their teams contain a lot of chaff, but Roeder, Pardew and Pearce aren't. A manager's job isn't just to pick the team and send them out, its to dictate what they do once they are there. I'm afraid it looks as if they have been rumbled.

I'm off to shout at a chair to make it more comfortable.

2 comments:

Benji said...

true. but roeder talks in the third person. nuff said.

Anonymous said...

So does Bob Dole Benj, but that didn't stop him becoming the Vice President of the US. Not sure what that proves at all but I thought I'd share that with you.